Ronix wakeboards

[jshap]

Interesting, but it sounds like spin to me. ICBW of course.

Oh, it's total spin. Seems to me like they are trying to justify, both to themselves and to their potential customers why they are farming out some of their manufacturing to Asia and Eastern Europe. I think they've always prided themselves and used the marketing angle on being American made, so when they start shipping some of that business into Asia, they feel the need to spin it. Can't say I blame them.

[WakeGirl]

Interesting, but it sounds like spin to me. ICBW of course.

Oh, it's total spin. Seems to me like they are trying to justify, both to themselves and to their potential customers why they are farming out some of their manufacturing to Asia and Eastern Europe. I think they've always prided themselves and used the marketing angle on being American made, so when they start shipping some of that business into Asia, they feel the need to spin it. Can't say I blame them.

Yeah, I had thought that if they were going to come out of the gate saying Made In the USA & use that as a marketing angle, then what happens when they grow big? They're hedging their bets I think.

[obski]

The other thing HO talked about in the interview was about how decisions on product were not made about what was best for HL or for the consumer, but rather how the decision affected LF, HO, Jobe, etc, in addition to HL since they are all owned by the same conglomerate. That was an eye opener.

[Liquidmx]

Okay so we should support local boardshops, but they cant support local labor?

I am sticking with my Double up till the end!

[Guest J-Ro]

You know DU is made in China right?

[jshap]

You know DU is made in China right?

Hehe..ouch.

It's very hard in this day and age to compete if you don't own the means of production which very few shops do. Obviously, HO/Hyperlite/LF/etc owns their own machines, but being a start-up, Ronix most likely does not own it's own processes....yet. To find manufacturing for a reasonable cost in the US is very difficult and very cost prohibitive for a new business. I don't condone farming out manufacturing overseas, but speaking from experience, sometimes you have to do just that to compete.

My guess is, Ronix will start off doing some of the work in E Europe and Asia, but will eventually be able to afford the machines and possibly capture the manufacturing back to their own shops. It would help them contain costs and guarantee quality, but until they get thru the "start-up" cash poor phase, they won't be able to afford it. We'll see.

[Liquidmx]

No I was not aware of that J-Ro, thanks for the info. When exactly did they start producing overseas, since the beginning with Nelson? How many companies are not produced overseas for that matter? The only company I would suspect to be homegrown would be Krown and/or Gator.

My main point was that Ronix was being a bit hipocritcal in their statement to support local boardshops. I am personally all for supporting the local shops for my own personal reasons, but to ask the end user to spend some more of their cash by staying local yet taking their productions overseas seems a bit strange.

[stewart]

You know DU is made in China right?

Hehe..ouch.

It's very hard in this day and age to compete if you don't own the means of production which very few shops do. Obviously, HO/Hyperlite/LF/etc owns their own machines, but being a start-up, Ronix most likely does not own it's own processes....yet. To find manufacturing for a reasonable cost in the US is very difficult and very cost prohibitive for a new business. I don't condone farming out manufacturing overseas, but speaking from experience, sometimes you have to do just that to compete.

My guess is, Ronix will start off doing some of the work in E Europe and Asia, but will eventually be able to afford the machines and possibly capture the manufacturing back to their own shops. It would help them contain costs and guarantee quality, but until they get thru the "start-up" cash poor phase, they won't be able to afford it. We'll see.

I spoke with a rep from HL a year ago or so. He said that HL/HO, LF , etc. Were all mostly made in Washington up until a couple of years ago. They were manuffacturing in house and the labor was something like $32/hr when you include taxes and benefits. Now, in China, they pay roughly $3/hr......

Yet the cost of the boards didn't come down

[stewart]

BTW, I am real proud of my Obrien Player and Obrien Demented, both were some of the last boards made in the USA.

[WakeGirl]

I spoke with a rep from HL a year ago or so. He said that HL/HO, LF , etc. Were all mostly made in Washington up until a couple of years ago. They were manuffacturing in house and the labor was something like $32/hr when you include taxes and benefits. Now, in China, they pay roughly $3/hr......

Yet the cost of the boards didn't come down

That's the part that blows. I would suspect that all of the manufacturing difficulties & problems that they had as a result was enough to take a huge chunk out of those profits that they planned on.

BTW, I am real proud of my Obrien Player and Obrien Demented, both were some of the last boards made in the USA.

Are they still?

Edited October 3, 2006 by WakeGirl

[stewart]

I spoke with a rep from HL a year ago or so. He said that HL/HO, LF , etc. Were all mostly made in Washington up until a couple of years ago. They were manuffacturing in house and the labor was something like $32/hr when you include taxes and benefits. Now, in China, they pay roughly $3/hr......

Yet the cost of the boards didn't come down

That's the part that blows. I would suspect that all of the manufacturing difficulties & problems that they had as a result was enough to take a huge chunk out of those profits that they planned on.

BTW, I am real proud of my Obrien Player and Obrien Demented, both were some of the last boards made in the USA.

Are they still?

The 05 Demented was, can't speak of the new ones. Mine had a on it

[Guest J-Ro]

Everything but a few CWB boards are made outside the US. The reason that the prices didn't come down was to recoup costs associated with moving operations overseas as well as increased shipping costs.

[hco]

I believe my 2006 obrien vision was made in the US, came with one of the stickers.

[jshap]

So, as I was shopping around for a board for my 5 year old, I noticed that Ronix boards are showing up at a lot of the online wake shops, even discounted already. So much for "support your local board shops".

I guess they can get away with it if they are a local board shop with a web presence (ie buywake etc), but still, doesn't seem to be in the spirit of what they were trying to accomplish.

[WakeGirl]

Hmmmm, well I guess I have mixed feelings about that. One of the down sides that I saw to the whole "support your local shop" idea is that there wouldn't be enough competition & that prices could potentially be fixed. That's not a huge problem as long as their pricing is fair, but there's no guarantee on that. With online sellers coming into the mix with Hyperlite, it forced local shops to at least get close, although I don't think that some of the big chains really cared. In general I tend to think that competition is healthy & ultimately benefits the consumer. But we'll just have to wait & see how it all shakes out.

[hco]

I would love to support my local shop but when they want to charge me 325$ for 2005 LF Team's when they had the 2006 lineup of bindings in (I found the sphynx's comparable to the teams), with the sphynx's at 300$, I just went online. I try to buy everything possible from my local shop, but they didn't get any of the '06 stuff in until about 4th of july ish, maybe even later, and they were just falling behind. I would love to see Ronix come out and have consistent competitive pricing. I just hope that this pricing doesn't start out ludicrously high.

[NorCaliBu]

In general I tend to think that competition is healthy & ultimately benefits the consumer. But we'll just have to wait & see how it all shakes out.

How does a retail location (brick & mortar) that has to pay rent, utilities, employees, workers comp,...compete with some guy selling stuff out of his garage? What irritates me are the people who go to a shop, get recommendations, try a bunch of different bindings (or whatever) on, then walk out with spending any $$ and buy all their stuff online. What will they do when that retailer is out of business because everyone just used them for trying things on.

EDIT: Not trying to jump on your back Tracie...just saying...

Edited October 24, 2006 by NorCaliBu

[WakeGirl]

In general I tend to think that competition is healthy & ultimately benefits the consumer. But we'll just have to wait & see how it all shakes out.

How does a retail location (brick & mortar) that has to pay rent, utilities, employees, workers comp,...compete with some guy selling stuff out of his garage? What irritates me are the people who go to a shop, get recommendations, try a bunch of different bindings (or whatever) on, then walk out with spending any $$ and buy all their stuff online. What will they do when that retailer is out of business because everyone just used them for trying things on.

EDIT: Not trying to jump on your back Tracie...just saying...

I should have been more specific on that. I wasn't talking necesarily about the Ebay types, I was aiming more at the legit online retailers like Buywake & Wakeside. Before they came into existence, some local shops would charge almost whatever they wanted. With the advent of online shopping, it keeps them honest. I don't mind paying a little more & support the local guy, but when it's marked up 50-75% over a legit online retailer (& an authorized retailer to boot), there's something wrong with that. We have a few local shops that keep things close - I appreciate that & give them my business as a thank you.

I agree with you about the guy selling out of his garage. If you buy from those guys, you get what you get - don't figure on getting any kind of CS with the deal.

[relentless]

i was watching some pod casts on them and the boards are supposed to be a lot lighter

also while watching it i saw danny harf pull a 1080 and when he got out of the water he had a Ronix board. Pretty sweet

[relentless]

anyone know what the website is for Ronix

[wienrdog]

Not much on the site right now....

RonixWake

This site has info on Ronix boards & boots...

WakeGiant Ronix

WakeGiant was the first I found using Yahoo!

[scotyR&]

Here is a pretty good site that has all the Ronix specs and what not.

Ronix Specs

[relentless]

some of the boards look to be similar to last years HL boards how much did they do in the first year

[skicrave]

The boards may seem similar at a glance, but they're actually completetly new shapes that were designed and tested by each team member. Keep in mind that the entire team came over from Hyperlite, and most of them had pro models there as well, so it's not surprising that their new boards would be similar to their old ones.

I can tell you that each new board rides very different from that rider's Hyperlite pro model.

[relentless]

arent they also supposed to be a lot lighter?