I doubt most other brands will go direct, every industry has some who go direct and some who stick with the full retail option it is what it is.
A few ways to also go direct as well as it’s nots just about making it cheap. You still pay for what you get and if you are dealing with somewhere like China then this is a pretty important part.
You can go direct and cheap or you can go direct and quality, I like to think by going direct you can lift the quality of the products by putting the margin you are saving back into the product which should long term give better word of mouth and give the end customer a far better experience.
I have done both direct and traditional and both have benifits and both can work and both are hard work at times. Just because you free some margin up doesn’t mean you have to discount the product the full amount, use that margin to improve the products and improve the customers experience in the sport. It should free up margin to look outside of China look at different Manufacturing process.
No one wants to be known as the cheapest but everyone wants to be known as the best and to be the best it’s very unlikely you can do it by being the cheapest.
Slightly off topic, but we’ve seen the price of SUP boards go from $1,200 to nearly $3,000 for some. It seems like a hard thing to justify, and even moreso for mass produced boards. I don’t blame the manufacturers for trying to make money in a cottage industry but hopefully we’re seeing the first signs of a market equilibrium.
So after the initial price drop I decided to give Uni a go and ordered a complete setup. I have not yet opened the box and it’s already worth 25% less than when i was ordered…
I have to admit it is a bit frustrating, even though I am still excited to try this setup.
Not sure what is going on but this is really weird, I hope they can get their house in order.
Its strange. Prices have changed 3 times in the past couple weeks. A torque was at $1600, dropped to $1200, then to $824 today for about 12 hours, and now is at $980. You could probably get a retroactive refund, assuming they’re at their intended price point. If they didnt honor that I would be sketched out also. I saw a few $1200 torques get sold out on Greenhat and Im guessing those buyers feel jipped too. Kinda weird stuff going on
Update: okay I figured out the $824 vs $980 thing was due to my shipping location changing. In the US its $980 thanks to tariffs, everywhere else $824.
Tarrifs will never be calculated. Because you never know what they are charging when it enters USA, a you pay that to FedEx or UPS before or after delivery. That would not be charged by Uni.
I just think it’s a small company staff wise, who are doing their best to bring in DTC asap. Their previous price drop was a general sale, now the DTC is in place I guess these are the prices going forwards. Someone probably made a slight error in the USA pricing calculations, which have been quickly adjusted. So far as people buying a few weeks ago or from Greenhat etc - those who read the forum know that unifoil were going DTC but hadn’t done yet, so it was a gamble to purchase at that point. Greenhat said themselves that they didn’t know what was going on, so they adjusted their own prices as best they could. I guess the decision for all 3rd party sellers is whether they can match unifoil online prices without making a loss to sell their remaining stock. Hopefully they can.
US prices include tariffs as they are being shipped from their CA warehouse.
Tariffs, Customs, and Duties
All retail prices shown on www.uni-foil.com for U.S. customers are final and inclusive of all applicable tariffs, import duties, and customs fees. This means you will not be charged any additional customs, import, or brokerage fees upon delivery — the price displayed at checkout is the total amount you pay (plus shipping if applicable). UniFoil absorbs all import-related costs for goods entering our U.S. warehouse and ensures a smooth, duty-free delivery experience for all U.S.-based customers.
Yes they had a sale, extended summer sale, and now they’re advertising their direct to consumer prices. I don’t think they were misleading at all. They had an entire quote about dtc pricing coming soon.
I’m super stoked unifoil is doing this. I’ve been on uni a while and was considering a switch but now will stay uni. Foil pricing is out of control and uni is ringing it in.
Prices should be the around 200 for a front wing non monobloc like axis style. You can see what aliexpress sellers want. They are already making a good profit on that. I don’t get why everyone is excited on seeing a front wing for 800. Still massive profit margins.
Looks like prices are changing again. May be a web site problem. Complete bundle discount gone and discounted bag not carrying over at checkout. The checkout price I’m getting is no longer compelling me to switch from another brand. I might as well stay in the retail channel.
probably not the right thread and place to discuss that, but you can’t compare dodgy aliexpress vendors who reuse/steal/copy the molds from Axis, and produce more of those, maybe with their own choice of cheaper materials, own choice of fiber layup, etc… Zero R&D costs in prototyping, marketing, dealer supports, warranties etc…
While I agree that some gear is overpriced, definitely not an excuse to encourage rip offs. No one forces you to buy the latest stuff at full price. Plenty of great deals on N-1 gear.
Shipping $150 to hawaii. 1/2 that to the continental USA. Def know it’s possible for alot less which sucks cause in the end the price is to your possession not pre shipping.
Australian shipping has gone up again to $255 AUD (~$170 USD). I asked Uni about it and got a slightly shirty response saying that’s the price they pay for postage from China, so there.
Shipping from China has always been weirdly cheap for me, so I think Unifoil really need to look around for a better value provider. It’s great that the gear is still slightly cheaper than it was, but paying 30‰ of the foils cost in postage doesn’t sit right with me. They’ve asked us to come along with this experiment, so I’d love them to support us and work to get the postage down.
I’ve played around with shipping on various items. $100 for 1 tail. $255 for 1 wing. $355 for mast & 2 wings. Unless you can team up with a few mates on an order, going to be hard to get a super cheap front wing. If you buy 1 wing you get it 15% cheaper than the OG retail from a shop.