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I was in a few shops today and saw all the Primitive boards had the BBS hologram sticker and "Made in Mexico" on them here in AU, but I did notice again the Rip N Dip boards, which looked and felt a lot like those ones you are describing, slightly thicker wood ply layers, similar concave but not exactly the same as BBS, with "Made in USA" on them.
Besides standing on them and looking at them, I was not about to get any of them and haven't seen anyone at a park riding one to be able to get more info, but they seem good. I have enough boards anyway, but they have been on clearance at quite a few places here too.
A Magenta 8.5 Brush graphic that came through my hands recently felt a little different, even though it had the dot and same exact warning sticker as Baker and similar boards, Made in Mexico, brown stain bottom with a teal top, dimensions being 8.5 x 32 with 14.38 wb, which was interesting, but almost felt like flatter faced kicks, not the usual spoon shaped kicks. It was another one on clearance.
Some Black Label were exactly the same as usual BBS, just the coloured top and bottom ply, 8.5 x 32.3 or so with 14.5 wb on them and although too steep in the kicks for my liking, they mellowed out nicely once I had parked on them for a bit.
Element have done a BBS run of the Star Wars graphic, as well as a more widely distributed new range with what seems like all boards being on wood with more generic concave and "Made in China" stickers on them. People who have skated them say they go ok too, which is good for the cheaper boards they are. Both those and the Star Wars BBS boards have been on sale, so getting two decent decks for the price of one pro board from another brand is a good deal for those who don't mind taking the graphic off or skating them as is.
Birdhouse is another one that have BBS wood, then China wood which seemed pretty good, as well as China pricepoint, which seemed a lot softer. The thing that is funny about some of those boards is exact same width and graphic can be on a BBS or a China made board, but the shape, concave and other dimensions are different, from the boards I checked the other day.
There have been so many sales and overstock clearances of lots of brands in many shops of late, which has been a good chance to stock up on some cheaper boards, but I wonder how many more boards are going to end up on clearance if shops are still getting in too much stock and not enough RRP product is being sold, which then has a flow on effect.
Does it seem like similar things are happening in other places too?