"Why Are Board Prices On the Rise?" - Jenkem Article

[Mandatory Reload]

https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2023/06/26/why-are-board-prices-on-the-rise/

Pretty interesting read. The way board prices stayed static for the better part of 2-3 decades is pretty wild to begin with. I personally am totally fine with paying more like $65-70 for a board and want both skate shops and board brands to have some decent profit margins, but I'm also an adult with disposable income. When I was 12 and had to make a board last as long as possible because I didn't know if I was gonna be able to convince my parents to get me another one anytime soon, I might've felt differently.

[MyUserName]

https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2023/06/26/why-are-board-prices-on-the-rise/

Pretty interesting read. The way board prices stayed static for the better part of 2-3 decades is pretty wild to begin with. I personally am totally fine with paying more like $65-70 for a board and want both skate shops and board brands to have some decent profit margins, but I'm also an adult with disposable income. When I was 12 and had to make a board last as long as possible because I didn't know if I was gonna be able to convince my parents to get me another one anytime soon, I might've felt differently.

You’re “totally fine” with the price of a short lifespan good increasing by 40% basically overnight? What an absolutely absurd thing to say. You having disposable income has nothing to do it.

[WideFeet]

Expand Quote

https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2023/06/26/why-are-board-prices-on-the-rise/

Pretty interesting read. The way board prices stayed static for the better part of 2-3 decades is pretty wild to begin with. I personally am totally fine with paying more like $65-70 for a board and want both skate shops and board brands to have some decent profit margins, but I'm also an adult with disposable income. When I was 12 and had to make a board last as long as possible because I didn't know if I was gonna be able to convince my parents to get me another one anytime soon, I might've felt differently.

[close]

You’re “totally fine” with the price of a short lifespan good increasing by 40% basically overnight? What an absolutely absurd thing to say. You having disposable income has nothing to do it.

The price rising so much in such a short amount of time was a real shock. If the prices had just gone up a couple bucks every few years, we wouldn’t have noticed and we would be be where we’re at now. I personally don’t mind the price jump, because I know it has been long overdue.

Also, prepare for more price increases, on at least decks

[burner]

Idk, down here in Oz, seems like boards have never been cheaper, and the retail recession is still seeing huge price reductions due to low sales and overstock. Companies/shops can price whatever they want, but consumers will control the market to pull the price back down to closer to wholesale when they don't sell, and that's what's happened. I'm more concerned about wheel prices now often costing more than decks tbh.

Interesting comment below the article.

Todd C
JUNE 26, 2023 4:59 PM
We just opened a new shop called PROM in Colorado Springs, CO and use PS Stix for our shop boards. We are able to make a healthy margin by pricing the shop decks at $45 each. At that price, it’s one of the best hardgoods margins in our entire shop, too. I can only imagine that larger bulk orders would make this margin grow by a LOT. Of course if you want to do transparencies, embossing, gold foil, etc, you probably have to drive the price up. But it’s a bit confusing for everyone to claim the price HAS to be this high. We are probably blind to a lot of the issues facing larger manufacturers and distributors though.

[mneutron]

One point the article fails to address is the fact that the manufacturing price has risen greatly over the last 3 years.. BBS has bumped their pricing up 4-5 times with another 20% increase happening this month. Kinda forces the brands to raise their wholesale prices..

[pizzafliptofakie]

I too have a reasonably disposable income, and I'm fortunate that buying skate goods isn't as much of a financial burden as it was in my late teens/early twenties.


I can't pretend to be an expert on how inflation and margins work but it always bothered me hearing people in the industry complain about pricing issues without looking inward at all. There's always this air of entitlement projected upon the consumer for not wanting to pay extra, but it seems none of them want to admit that maybe the price of making a skateboard is going up partially because more and more and more and more and more and more and more people are trying to have skateboards made? It's not our fault that every other asshole in the industry wants to run a skateboard company that oversaturates woodshops. But "sUpPorT sKaTeBoArDiNg", right?


There was a really smug Heath Brinkley interview where he was complaining about it. And I'm sorry, but it's really hard for me to sympathize with a board brand with A tier anime licensing and a luxurious private skatepark to tell me I'm entitled for not wanting to spend extra money for their ridiculous overhead.

[manysnakes]

Glad that my board hoarder tendencies have been validated. Last winter, when every retailer and even board companies were blowing out pro decks for $25-40, I figured that would presage a dramatic price increase something along the lines of what we see today.

[Tom Pearl]

i only pay full price for boards im gonna keep


i'll gladly stick to the sale section

[GnarAlarm]

Expand Quote

https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2023/06/26/why-are-board-prices-on-the-rise/

Pretty interesting read. The way board prices stayed static for the better part of 2-3 decades is pretty wild to begin with. I personally am totally fine with paying more like $65-70 for a board and want both skate shops and board brands to have some decent profit margins, but I'm also an adult with disposable income. When I was 12 and had to make a board last as long as possible because I didn't know if I was gonna be able to convince my parents to get me another one anytime soon, I might've felt differently.

[close]

You’re “totally fine” with the price of a short lifespan good increasing by 40% basically overnight? What an absolutely absurd thing to say. You having disposable income has nothing to do it.

Across the board it absolutely wasn't a 40% increase, the average would be a deck that cost $55 in 2000 now costs around $65, which makes about an 18% increase. Sure that's not nothing, but look at price increases from 1990 to 2023 on basically anything else money can buy and you'll find an 18% increase in 30 years is pretty damn modest.
There's no way any brand selling any product could survive charging 90s' prices in 2023.

[mooraga]

the rising prices freed me from my board madness, I liked to buy same company/size for years... but Im not gonna pay 85-90 dollars for a board, fuck off

So now I'll buy any piece of shit thats 8.0 inches with a mellow shape, I dont care in which sweatshop it was made as long isn't over 50 dollars

[Rubbrick]

While we’re on the topic, can we talk about inflation of hoodies. Companies charging $100+ for a hoodie seems pretty normal nowadays is absurd

[formula420]

While we’re on the topic, can we talk about inflation of hoodies. Companies charging $100+ for a hoodie seems pretty normal nowadays is absurd

Clothing prices are whatever. Want clothes? Go to ross. Want to financially support an org you like? Well yea that requires financial support

[Lhotse’s Pit of Death]

Lots of poor fucking people who don’t give a fuck about the cost of living for workers and think skateboards should be the only thing in the history of capitalism that does not adjust accordingly with the current world financial situation. 

[manysnakes]

While we’re on the topic, can we talk about inflation of hoodies. Companies charging $100+ for a hoodie seems pretty normal nowadays is absurd

Polar is selling their t-shirts for $50 each now. I didn’t even see what a hoodie cost but one can imagine significantly more than that. I’d say I don’t know who is buying this stuff, but people here will post about their purchases so I guess that I sort of do know.

[manysnakes]

Lots of poor fucking people who don’t give a fuck about the cost of living for workers and think skateboards should be the only thing in the history of capitalism that does not adjust accordingly with the current world financial situation.

I have seen and engaged with the argument here on this forum that skateboarding isn’t capitalistic. People really think that, because it’s something that they like, that it’s not motivated by market forces and doesn’t produce goods using the global capitalist mode of production.

[swellbowed]

[Painted Baby]

Wow it's weird almost like every type of goods and services had prices increase by a pretty chunky margin over the past 4 years.

The fact that a deck cost the same when I was 46 as it did when I was 13 was fucking nuts and it's pretty lame to complain it. Double lame to complain with the next breath when pros that don't ride for big shoe don't make a living wage or have health insurance.

[Democratic Republic Of Mongo]

No one wants anything to be more expensive, but our overlords have been taking advantage of us more aggressively over the past few years so I see it as an unfortunate inevitability.

[Makaveli]

Heard this directly from someone who runs a prominent distributor on the east coast, but the price hikes are because shops have stopped ordering decks from them and other brands because all the older big companies like NHS brands and Zero are offering insanely ridiculous deals for like $17/board.

They further said it’s a short term problem that will have long term consequences, and that they’re “killing the industry.”

[modern life is war]

Lots of poor fucking people who don’t give a fuck about the cost of living for workers and think skateboards should be the only thing in the history of capitalism that does not adjust accordingly with the current world financial situation.

I would bet a lot of money that the wages of the workers in skateboard factories are still the same as they were 10 years ago.

[Sativa Lung]

Expand Quote

Lots of poor fucking people who don’t give a fuck about the cost of living for workers and think skateboards should be the only thing in the history of capitalism that does not adjust accordingly with the current world financial situation.

[close]

I would bet a lot of money that the wages of the workers in skateboard factories are still the same as they were 10 years ago.

I'll gladly take that bet because you'd be wrong, at least in Mexico. China is a laborers hellscape since their main economic advantage is literally cheap labor, so it might be "more true" there but I doubt it. Wages on the whole are definitely higher across the board there over the past decade over there. Now that doesn't mean that they've kept pace with inflation, but that's a whole different topic.

In Mexico, It's actually a pretty decent paying, competitive, and desirable job and they take good care of their people. Literally the only time I've heard complaints are when BBS had issues with employees walking out/being scared to come to work because during COVID but again, that has nothing to do with their pay.

But yeah, I'm more surprised by the fact that people seem surprised by this. The margins on boards have been shrinking for the last 25+ years and thats a big part what kept prices the same. Shops barely make money on them as is and for small companies you basically have to be an apparel company that does a 500 board order every now and then. There was literally no room for them to maneuver anymore, so this has been more or less inevitable for quite a while.

[Ghost Face]

My biggest problem is freight and the charges. I either have to airfreight or seafreight.

Sea just takes too long and as I have to pay before dispatch, I end up paying and then waiting 3+ months before I can even receive it and start making my money back.

The airfreight is slightly higher but faster but I have to ship less, which means the freight charges have to been allocated over less stock, pushing the pricing up again.

Getting a deck on special for like $2 off w/s doesn't really help when I have to put airfreight on that.

It sucks and it's a constant juggle to try keep things down but still stay in business.

[somethingmustbreaknow]

Bloards

[OwlGreen]

https://archive.org/details/ccs-1993-summer/mode/1up

Looking through this CCS catalog from '93, it's interesting to compare the amount of inflation between product categories over the last 30 years. Most things have roughly doubled in price. Bones Swiss have tripled. Pro, non-slick boards have gone from $42 USD to a range of $62 at the low end to $79 at the high end. That's for a pro, non-slick, non-shaped, non-retro, non-gimmick board. It appears $70, $72, and $74 are the most common prices for boards in this category today. A basic inflation calculator translates $42 USD in 1993 into $88.40 today. My general sense is that most things at the skateshop have kept pace with inflation, but boards have not. It won't surprise me if board prices continue to rise, and sales of blank, team and shop boards to continue to capture an ever increasing share of the market as people seek cheaper alternatives.

[Hyliannightmare]

i only pay full price for boards im gonna keep


i'll gladly stick to the sale section

Same issue it's for collection, sure. Anything I'm gonna skate is a blank nowadays

[carbonite]

[Boog]

Honestly it doesn't bother me considering I skate 3 times on a good week so boards last me quite a while. That being said I'll still buy sales boards and local shop and local brand decks to save a few bucks when needed. And tbh there are still companies that sell boards for 50 bucks so it's not like you HAVE to spend 70 on a bigger brand.

[TwisT]

The industry was complaining about the price of boards all the way up until the pandemic. That’s shit would creep into 9 club and other media. It was a slow creep, then they used the pandemic as an excuse to jack up prices and keep them there.

Should the prices have increase? Yeah, but slowly over time. Boards were already creeping up on up to 55$ to 65$

But a 77$ for an enjoi team deck Straight from the warehouse?
https://thankyousupply.com/collections/decks/products/enjoi-happy-tree-super-sap-r7-8-25-8-5-skateboard-deck

Nah bruh, you can’t convince me that’s not price gouging.

Also, all this inventory isn’t moving any more. Hence every other month there’s some insane board sale.

[fernando the skater]

In the UK Sci Fi Fantasy decks are £90 ($114). Not sure how many they're selling. FA were £80 at Slam City, now they're all on sale for £60.

A Palace deck is £54. Shockingly, I see a lot of them around.

[Skatebrain]

There was never a price adjustment when companies decided to move manufacturing outside of the us.   I think the woodshops did really well for quite a few years.    I think ultimately they are in control of the market,  but they are doing things to hurt major brands.     If they lower minimums like they have they have been they  are further saturating the market.    Additionally they are selling blanks, further hurting margins.       

There are probably too many companies now, with more on the horizon.   I’m not sure how this will help keeping board prices up.   

Ultimately if prices get to like 75$$ a board, I think people will just skate their boards longer.   If closer to 50,   I think you’re more likely to skate a board for a few weeks and retire it early.   

Makes you wonder if it would be better for the industry if it somehow became like the 80s again, where  you had just 4 major brands, but the pro riders were making a nice living just off their boards.   Not totally related, but I think it’s a shame that you can have your name on a board and still have to Uber.