Thanks

[skankpile]

Sooner or later outsourcing always stings a bit. Unfortunately it required the crazy petroleum speculators to get us to the place we are now. I love the fins, but cannot buy them anymore but the ones I have will last 20 more years. I only hope that as the markets and capital investment respond to the upstream and downstream petroleum market for their supply chain that America forges ahead and that Bob's fins once more go into production.

I think that over time as people forget about forcefins it will be just that much harder for them to get traction again as its already hard to convince people to try them. Maybe it is good the Bob is cleaning house and takes some time to figure out what he wants to do... I just hope that it involves a capital investment and bringing all the molds back to Santa Barbara.

 

[Splitlip]

I am truly saddened to hear this.
Good luck to you Bob.

 

[Hatul]

Another idea is to sell out to one of the giants.

 

[Splitlip]

Another idea is to sell out to one of the giants.

I almost liked your comment, but somehow I suspect the giants would not do the line justice. They would value engineer the products and I imagine they would not be the same. I don't see Bob Evans permitting that. I've got one set of Force Fins and glad I do. I hope I still get to try a pair of hockey fins.

 

[Hatul]

I almost liked your comment, but somehow I suspect the giants would not do the line justice. They would value engineer the products and I imagine they would not be the same. I don't see Bob Evans permitting that. I've got one set of Force Fins and glad I do. I hope I still get to try a pair of hockey fins.

First I want to say I would not offer ideas if I did not like the fins, but there were many great products that disappeared and many that continued after being bought out. Atomic Aquatics makes great products and recently they were bought out, so was Uemis. I think Uwatec was once an independent company, and there are many other examples. The diving market is in fact very small and it's a difficult area to make a profitable business.

 

[danvolker]

If I understood the issue correctly, the Force fins are made out of a material no other fins are made from....and this material suddenly went through the roof in cost . Apparently no replacement material exists that would not destroy the concept of Force fins....and at the moment, no way exists for Bob to get the price per pound of this material down to near previous levels, which would allow retail production.

If we were to be able to help, it would be by finding some way to get this fin material at a much better wholesale rate. Finding a way for Bob to "piggyback" his purchases with someone else in another industry, that needs the same material for other uses, and who buys in great bulk.
Maybe this has gotten down to petroleum industry pricing, and it is just too late, or, maybe the prices will swing back down to reasonable levels. I'm sure Bob does not expect that we can help, or he would have gone over the issues more specifically. It would be pretty cool if one or more of the FF users were actually perched inside of the correct industry to have connections that could fix this for Bob.

 

[TN Traveler]

Dan

The other part of the dilemma is that Bob has changed the firm that does the actual production (for reason's I won't go into) and the new firm is not performing. Since the fins are hand cast and hand finished, it takes workers with some dedication and talent to get it correct. This new firm is not producing - reject rate is much, much higher, so not only is there a loss in yield, from the high $$$raw materials, but there is a problem reaching production goals. What good are orders, if you can't deliver them in a timely manner?

So we have an almost perfect storm - material cost up and production output down.

Hoprfully there is a solution and it arrives quickly.

 

[Ahauser]

I'm not sure I got this correctly... So as of now, no new force fin orders can be placed? Damn, just when I was going to order... :-(
Any light on the horizon??

 

[TN Traveler]

I'm not sure I got this correctly... So as of now, no new force fin orders can be placed? Damn, just when I was going to order... :-(
Any light on the horizon??

I think that Bob still has some stock on hand but I don't think you can get any Tan Delta material fins since these were normally made to order. So depending on what you want, you could contact Bob and see if he has what you want in stock.

Good Luck!

 

[DevonDiver]

Bob,

Very sad to hear your news. I've been in love with my FF's for years - and still wear the cap you sent me every working day (it's well sun & salt-faded now).

I'm sure my Pros will last many, many more years - but will be paranoid about losing one now... diving just wouldn't be the same without them!

Wishing you the best of success with your future endeavors!