The reason why Bonite disappeared from Powell Peralta wasn't because it was a gimmick or a way to stretch out the company's wood budget, it was discontinued after a series of lawsuits from Santa Cruz, Vision, and I believe G&S because the other industry titans claimed Powell was monopolizing on what would/could have been the industry standard (as opposed to 100% Maple decks).
After a few years of legal wrangling, Powell was forced to either sell licenses of the technology or stop using it all together. One of the few things George and Stacy agreed upon business-wise was that it would be better to remove the technology than sell bits of it out, as it would take away from the unique advantage the company had at the time. It wound up being a bad decision, as they could have made a little money from the other companies and create a nice nest egg before the near downfall of the company just a few years later (Bones wheels and bushings wound up saving George from eating free government cheese).
Anyway, Bonite never came back because Powell retained the patent, which he was never sued for, he just shelved it.
The industry learned its lesson after seeing all that shit go down. During the peak of plastic-sheet slicks, only two manus really did those, and even today you can see the P2 decks (an NHS product) licensed out to companies like Black Box and whatever other non-NHS companies use it.
Topic: Best kept secrets (Read 18710 times)