alibabafoil

[sloughslut]

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/w ... 0.0.Zzdea6

[Jeb Mud]

futuristic fin placement on their surfboards too!
:)

[RobH]

Is the blue painted board a Vader with holes in it?

[yojimbo]

Alibaba is a biz to biz platform so unless you want 20 units that price is meaningless. Do you know anyone that has ever purchased something off of Alibaba? It must be a place where someone starting a business goes to find a supplier.

Their sister site, AliExpress caters directly to consumers, but it makes eBay look legit. Has anyone had a positive experience ordering a kite product off of AliExpress?

To me, both these sites epitomize the business environment in China. Something is off, tons of counterfeit goods or outright scams, etc. I think this is a result of the Chinese market being semi-closed to the west, and it operates in a vacuum. A lot of the big firms are propped up by loans from government banks, outside competition is throttled back, coupled with a total lack of intellectual property protections and the result is something that kinda looks legit but is really not.

[Aloha]

One thing about Chinese market for something like foil or surfboards is if a brand is having them made there anyway sometimes through Ali or even Ebay you can establish a relationship directly with their supplier and forgo paying the brand mark-up. They really don't care - I don't think their sense of loyalty to their wholesale client is any stronger than that client's loyalty to American labor

Sometimes the Chinese manufacturer will even brand it for you (although logos might look a little off). I like that consumers can do this, and sort of wish more could - to strengthen a negative feedback loop that encourages businesses to keep their focus on producing complex high quality goods in America.

Because on some level - If you're selling some cheap simple "me-too" design made in China product and a counterfeit market arises, isn't that just the market pricing you to what your brand is really worth?

Why would someone pay a 5x mark-up for something a guy is throwing a worthless brand logo that symbolizes the same made in China product that you can actually get at 20 cents on the dollar direct?

If we follow basic brand theory that brand marketing describes your customer: If I were to be caught using HIS product wouldn't that say about me that I'm sort of dumb?

The dynamics change when you start talking about complex products - or new designs. For example I probably wouldn't want to buy a counterfeit Ducati made in China. It just most likely wouldn't work the same as the ones hand built in Italy. And I'm sure the same goes for some kites, and foils that have awesome & unique proprietary design - that hasn't been around forever (like a t-shirt) or just ripped off of someone else's idea

But at the same time as a consumer I encourage people to be vigilant about what they're really buying, and always ask yourself if you're wearing the $94 Logo with a $3 T-Shirt under it.