Personally, I have no idea what the PL strategy or bottom line is and so am only making general comments.

@Flyfish - if I'd poured money into a firm to set up manufacturing and those bastards were using my line to sell budget product, they'd be in court so fast their feet wouldn't touch the ground. And as a customer, I won't support those buggers for the same reason.

True, I'd rather not spend $2k on a kite... but look at my cost per session for the S3 21 - it's the 'cheapest' kite I own. I bet most of us get a bloody long time of use out of our gear too - it's an investment for the future, as it were...
There's a lot of people with spare money around and there's a lot of us who benefit from their sell-offs too. The cost is a moot point IMO cos gear is not PROHIBITIVELY expensive... just more expensive than other sports.

How odd, page 4 of this thread looks like page 1.

Edit: Ok, that's better...

Kami, I'm just affirming what Kahoona said. The kites don't cost that much to make!
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FlyFish, that's kind of like saying "I don't know why a tailored suit is so pricey, I can buy tube socks at wal mart for $4."...it's not an analogy that works.

I still fail to see what purchasers of these PL LEIs are getting in consideration of the high price point. Sure, there's a few changes, but nothing that stands out that much apart from the other LEI kites on the market.

Take the HQ Matrixx or Flysurfer Speeds: these kites offer the convenience of a kite that is easy to travel with, doesn't need a pump, will never have a leaking bladder, offers a wide wind range and will have a higher re-sell value. To me, these are features that make them stand apart.

I still don't see anything that revolutionary with the PL LEI. At least they could have attempted to think outside of the box like Dimitri has done with the Epic Infinity. The Infinity is a LEI that I think has brought some good changes to the LEI world.

-joedy

I too want to hear a customer review on these kites. Somewhere along the way the marketing team must have seen something that would justify the prices. A bad move???? Who knows, time will tell. At the end of the day they chose to put it out at those prices so we have no other choice but to buy them at that. I don't see the point in arguing about this as we have no control over it, nor do we have any experience on the kites to say whether they are worth the price tag. Its just like a person arguing that inflatables are better than foils when they have no experience on a foil to base their opinions on. We need to give Peter Lynn a chance to make their mark. Remember there are a lot of people who had no faith in arcs until they tried them.

Not to belabor the issue, part of me questions the price too...but then, there are a couple reasons they might have priced themselves as high as other brands,

1) they are not a brand new kite company, compared to a company like switch for example that has to prove itself starting at zero. People know PL can make good stuff.

2) there is the logic that if you price too low, people might assume the first version is just that, a first version which doesn't deserve full price. Plus, heck, it's possible that the feedback was good enough that it's basically on par with the other kites out there to demand a market price.

3) they are committed to this LEI idea, and don't want to jack up the price for next model once they put a few refinements on it. Keeping prices set is probably much easier than starting low and raising later.

Just some thoughts. I too would love kite prices to go down, but really, I doubt the kite making business is rolling in unreasonable profits.

Part of the pricing strategy must be due to the kite's relative performance when prototypes have been used in competitions. The PL inflatos have faired well and performed strongly. If the kite has measured well against the best and most expensive, word will get out and the kites will be deemed worth the money and sell well.

Quote:

Originally posted by Flyfish Kami, I'm just affirming what Kahoona said. The kites don't cost that much to make!

Making a kite/tent might not be that expensive but setting up the 'infrastructure' is. You're not considering all the bumf needed before you get to actually cutting out the bits of nylon and sewing them together.

Unit cost does not equal production cost

The RRP is another matter...

I don't doubt that the PL LEI is a killer wing based on what people have been saying about the prototypes and how they've been performing in competition.

Yes, it's a pricey wing and everyone want's to complain about the price based on what everthing supposedly costs and the fact that on the surface the wing looks like every other LEI out there.

Yes, ok, on the surface it looks like every other LEI. So does every other LEI. The question is DOES IT FLY LIKE EVERY OTHER LEI? I don't know.

I don't fly LEIs so I'm not even remotely qualified to make assements about what innovations the PL kite has or doesn't have or what puts it apart from other LEIs. Nor do I think there are many of us here that spend so much time either racing, riding or designing LEIs to make much of an assesment based on little more than the price and a photo.

The bottom line is the kite is only going to be worth what you as a rider are going to get out of it. If it is in fact an amazing wing but you are a mediocre rider it's not going to be worth the price tag. The same could be said about most kites I think.

But until someone can chime in about how these things actually handle based on first hand expirience I don't see the point in focusing so much on the price. The nit picking banter that has developed over this has been a complete waste of time and energy and not at all focused on anything productive. I say this as being a contributor to the nit picking.

Anyway none of this matters. If the PL LEI holds it's value like all the other LEIs seem to the price on the current release will plummet when the new models come out next year. So just ride a production season behind no big whup.:bouncy: