Brand Map / Guide: A family tree, a short bio. Help me out!

[filmguy123]

OK, I'm realizing that all of these main scuba brands seem to either have a certain reputation or trait they are known for, or at the least a certain relation.

Aqualung owns Apex. Scubapro OEMs parts for others. etc. etc.

Also each seems to have a reputation, even if its a bit stereotyped.

And further, I understand most of it's all sourced from the same factories in Taiwain.

So, help me build a map here - a sort of family tree of who owns who, where gear comes from, etc.
AND, a short descriptor of what generally defines each brand IE "APEKs long time industry standard, many designs cloned from, NAVY certified, considered over priced today, paying for the brand or the global ubiquity"

That could be totally off.. but... bombs away!

 

[diversteve]

Aqualung distributes Apeks in the U.S.They or their parent co. also own Deep See.

Huish Outdoors owns Bare, Liquivision, Atomic Aquatics and Zeagle. They are currently distributing Suunto also - until recently that was Aqualung. Atomic regs are made in the U.S.

American Underwater Products owns Hollis and Oceanic. Aeris was just folded into Oceanic last year. They either owned or managed Pelagic Pressure Systems but since last fall Aqualung does.

Halcyon regs are re-branded Scubapros. Subgear is a division of ScubaPro and is being absorbed back into the parent company afaik. Probably on the lower end side. Scubapro also just bought Seabear - the computer maker. I've heard various stories about who/where Scubapro regs are made. (Tusa, in Italy etc...)

Everything below here is a semi-educated guess/recollection:

ODS or another big Chinese/Taiwanese OEM makes branded regs for HOG/Edge, Deep Six, DiveRite and DGX. Possibly the Piranha Dive Mfg. house brand also - they look pretty similar to Hog's.

Edit: made some changes - see post below

 

[runsongas]

tabata makes the regs for halcyon and some scubapros

tusa is tabata USA, same company

 

[David Wilson]

One approach I've adopted when investigating the availability of traditional underwater equipment is to trace an anonymous product from its Original Equipment Manufacturer in the Far East to its branded equivalent distributed in the West. Here's an example.

The original Subgear Stream long-bladed freediving fin was just one of several manifestations of a Taiwanese prototype modestly dubbed "702":

Subgear Stream

Aropec Dash

Long Blade Rubber Diving Fin (F-JS702) - AROPEC SPORTS CORP.

Poseidon Diving Fin

Diving Fin | Poseidon

Problue Rubber Full Foot Diving Fins

Problue

Sopras sub all rubber full-foot fins

https://dixiediver.com/products/280...ASK-AND-SNORKEL-PLUS-A-DIXIE-DIVERS-GEAR-BAG/

F-702 Camo series

In the case of this "702" design, an OEM production facility in the Far East actually made the fins, branding them with the logo of the client in the West commissioning them to produce the fins. There may be slight differences between these "outsourced" branded products, e.g. material, weight, colour, size range, but the fins will presumably have all emerged from the same moulds at the manufacturing plant.

 

[KevinNM]

Aqualung distributes Apeks in the U.S. but I believe Apeks is still a UK corporation with a mfg. factory in the UK.

No, they are a fully owned subsidiary. Look at the bottom of their web page. Aqualung is actually a tiny division of the huge French industrial firm Air Liquide.

Halycon scooters look pretty similar to Dive-X's. I believe DiveX is the OEM.

I don't think Halcyon does scooters any more. Suex is the brand I see at Extreme Exposure and they are supposed to be pretty awesome.

Anyhow, to get back to your original idea, Halcyon does expensive but very good quality design and production gear and incredibly good customer service. They are a tiny little company in High Springs Florida that was created by hard core cave and tech divers to build the equipment they couldn't find on the market.

 

[SCRedWolf]

OK, I'm realizing that all of these main scuba brands seem to either have a certain reputation or trait they are known for, or at the least a certain relation.

Aqualung owns Apex. Scubapro OEMs parts for others. etc. etc.

Also each seems to have a reputation, even if its a bit stereotyped.

And further, I understand most of it's all sourced from the same factories in Taiwain.

So, help me build a map here - a sort of family tree of who owns who, where gear comes from, etc.
AND, a short descriptor of what generally defines each brand IE "APEKs long time industry standard, many designs cloned from, NAVY certified, considered over priced today, paying for the brand or the global ubiquity"

That could be totally off.. but... bombs away!

TUSA aka Tabata USA owns the following brands: TUSA, TUSA Sport (snorkeling gear), VIEW (swim gear), SEA&SEA (cameras & gear), and Waterproof (exposure wear).

Cramer - Decker acquired Sherwood Scuba and therefor it's associated brands: Sherwood SCUBA (regs, computers, BCDs, masks, fins, tanks, gauges, & valves), Akona (wetsuits and dive accessories), & Genesis (computers, masks, fins, snorkels, gauges, tanks, & valves).

Those are the only ones I'm up-to-date on since I own gear by a good number of those brands. It also explains the brand assortment at my LDS (fewer distributors/manufacturers to deal with).

 

[tbone1004]

Halcyon DPV's used to be Suex oem'd, not DiveX.

Dive Rite no longer buys from ODS as of the release of the XT's. Poseidon was also an OEM for Dive Rite, and also for Sherwood with the Jetstream.

 

[BoltSnap]

Beuchat OEM's regulators for several other companies including Dive Rite (not sure if they still do it for DR). Beuchat has a regulator factory in France and I believe that they OEM regulators for other European companies.

 

[tbone1004]

Beauchat does not still OEM for DR, they oem'd the Hurricane which was the VX200 Iceberg I think, but that was it to my knowledge

 

[cool_hardware52]

Deepseasupply manufactures, in house, in Pasadena CA everything we possibly can.

We use domestically produced materials whenever possible.

We source domestic urethane film, custom made to our spec.

We source textiles from domestic mills.

We source our webbing from domestic mills.

We source our braided nylon line from domestic mill.

Thread, molding resins, stainless steel etc. sourced from domestic producers.

There are unfortunately a few items that are no longer produced domestically, but if it is possible we buy US materials first.

We do all metal fab, water jet cutting, forming and finishing in house.

We do all cutting and sewing in house.

We do all RF welding in house.

We injection mold all of the plastic parts we offer with the exception of corrugated hoses and power inflators. We currently have over 40 active molds for scuba related products, wing fittings, instrument mounts, other wing parts, line arrows, cookies, etc.

We also design and manufacture the injection molds, and RF dies, and forming dies, along with all other required tooling.

the DPV batteries we produce involve molding, electronics design and production, Ultrasonic welding and Many CNC machining operations, fixtures, water jet cutting and precision resistance welding. All in house.

All design, with the exception of some of the more esoteric EE, tasks are also done in house.

I'm pretty confident that we are more vertically integrated than any other scuba brand.

Tobin