DLX boards now made in China

[REGS]

Debated putting this in the woodshop thread but feel like it deserves its own discussion.

The recent DLX prebook has about 70% of the boards listed as Made in China. They cost roughly the same as a pre-Covid DLX board while the BBS boards are 30-40% more expensive.

From our rep:

In a bold but completely logical move, Deluxe have set up an Asia based board manufacturer to counter the ongoing board price increases from their primary factory. These boards are significantly cheaper and are set up with Deluxe's custom shapes and molds. For the purists, favorites like the AH Classic Eagles are still made in North America.

How long until every company moves the bulk of operations to Asia?

[j....soy.....]

If they ramp up the quality I’m ok with it…..BBS has their shit dialed pretty good though.  Crail’s Dailan stuff and DWS stuff are pretty good. 

[hayduke lives]

this is a bummer. also seems short sighted with the potential shipping issues getting stuff from china (for us n. america folks). sucks spitfire is likely to be next, they already bailed on sf. is dlx doing poorly? i read elsewhere they sold shop on market st. to atlas

[rocklobster]

Are these their pro model / team graphic / PP decks? I know their pre-built complete have been made in China for years.

Habitat / AWS also mentioned they use a combination of BBS and China, shops have the option of ordering directly from China for an additional discount on top of standard distributor / bulk orders.

[burner]

Hmm, that is disappointing to hear. For me, I just want all the boards for that brand (or at very least the pro boards) to be made in one place. Whether that's DSM, PS, or BBS or others, I just don't need to be worried about different woodshops from drop to drop, and worse for me is different wood shops in the same drop (BBS and PS the exception ie Quasi). That said, I don't skate DLX boards so I'm probably part of the problem why they needed to cut costs. I'll just stick to supporting DLX through Spitfire, Venture and Thunder and I hope this works out for them financially. NHS is all China (I think) so it must put cost pressure on DLX to match up for sure. I wonder which are the best sellers for DLX brand boards, Real, Krooked, AH? I wonder how There compares in board sales.

[bombsaway86]

Honestly I don’t care where it’s made as long as it’s a good product. Dwindle/Madness resin7 decks are the best decks I’ve ever ridden, Independent and Ace are two of the best trucks on the market. Yeah it would be cool if they were made here, but USA made doesn’t always equate to the best product. If anything, the high cost of production in the US means cutting corners to compete with overseas competitors, resulting in a lower quality product. Hate to say it, but made in the USA doesn’t carry the clout it did in the 90s. In the end, if I buy an Anti Hero deck, it’s still money going to DLX; and in this case it’s more money than if they were to make their decks in the USA. I’m happy to support DLX over NHS, Dwindle, etc

[S.]

Honestly I don’t care where it’s made as long as it’s a good product. Dwindle/Madness resin7 decks are the best decks I’ve ever ridden, Independent and Ace are two of the best trucks on the market. Yeah it would be cool if they were made here, but USA made doesn’t always equate to the best product. If anything, the high cost of production in the US means cutting corners to compete with overseas competitors, resulting in a lower quality product. Hate to say it, but made in the USA doesn’t carry the clout it did in the 90s. In the end, if I buy an Anti Hero deck, it’s still money going to DLX; and in this case it’s more money than if they were to make their decks in the USA. I’m happy to support DLX over NHS, Dwindle, etc

Weren‘t their decks previously made in Mexico (BBS)? I don‘t like dwindle boards very much. They are extremely stiff, which I don’t mind, but then they tend to break fairly quickly.

I don‘t like this move. It is likely they will not get top quality straight away. It took crail around eight years to achieve just acceptable quality after their China move. For us in Europe this probably means it is going to become nearly impossible to get decks from top manufacturers. Besides deluxe almost all decks at German skateshops are already made in China.

I wondered there will be a way of moving board production back to the US, by cutting costs with automation. Besides the sanding of the edges it seems you barely need any workers in the production process of decks. If you could establish a good just in time production model combined with automation, production might become profitable again in the US. It would also be much easier to react to shifts in demand, which would mean you would have to sell much less products in sales.

[tom]

Don't take this as a personal jab but I'd like to see screenshots of the pre-book, or at the least hear it confirmed from more shop owners/buyers

My preference has been to skate DLX branded boards(and trucks/wheels) for the past 20 years. It's not an exaggeration to say I've skated a few hundred of their boards in my life; I have at least 10 waiting to be skated in my stack right now. I like BBS/Generator boards. They are what a skateboard should feel like to me. I'll sometimes skate boards from other woodshops and I usually don't like them. If they were to come from a China based BBS shop then I'd be more inclined to give them a chance, but if not then I'll just buy more boards from companies that use BBS

[moonordie]

Such an American thing to keep eagles in North America.

[DarkPools]

Such an American thing to keep eagles in North America.

Honestly, the irony in that statement + the logic is hilarious!  It's a top selling shape, so staying BBS made makes sense, but the cherry on top of it being an Eagle graphic, no less!

[Mean salto]

Dlx is just being nice. Those poor red hatted boys still haven't recovered from losing their Indy iron cross gear. The eagle moving to China would just be too much

[j....soy.....]

It’s always surprised me that DLX let BBS manufacture every kid and their mother’s boards…..brands like SC and Crail get their stuff made in China partly because the factories can make their huge orders on time.  Maybe that’s a part of it too. 

[rawbertson.]

They make way more money off of the clothes than they do for boards anyways. No one can differentiate enough with the shapes to make it a major selling point aside from the actual woodshops themselves.

I have skated 2 AH decks in the last 2 years, but theres also like 10-15 other brands out of BBS that I like just as much / more...

Same cant be said about Spitfire / Thunder

[Frank and Fred]

As long as it is easy enough to differentiate between the BBS and Chinese boards, which I suppose it will be if shops stick to the right pricing, I'll pay more for the Made in Mexico boards. The thought of all the shipping involved- raw materials from the US/ Canada to China and then back to the US for distribution... I don't know.. Hopefully the shaped boards like the Huffer remain BBS only.

[Crap]

Can we just all agree to start the rumor on here that DLX boards are soggy bullshit now, DLX fell off, etc? Doesn't matter if it's true or not - it's true in skateboarding if it gets said on Slap enough. If this goes well for DLX, every board on the wall will be made in China a year from now. We might not have the power to stop that from happening anyway, but it's worth a shot.

[franc]

Besides deluxe almost all decks at German skateshops are already made in China.

Can’t you get Magenta or Pass~Port boards in German shops? What about Polar or Uma?

[j....soy.....]

Can we just all agree to start the rumor on here that DLX boards are soggy bullshit now, DLX fell off, etc? Doesn't matter if it's true or not - it's true in skateboarding if it gets said on Slap enough. If this goes well for DLX, every board on the wall will be made in China a year from now. We might not have the power to stop that from happening anyway, but it's worth a shot.

No, I think their boards are fine….

[TheCrimsonShroud]

All I know is that Dailan makes Crail boards and they’re my favorite, so this could be a potential non-issue as far as quality goes. What really sucks is raising prices for people who still want to skate the BBS wood.

[mvdbosch90]

I’ve made a post about deck thickness and weight a while ago, I seriously have the idea that these China made decks are thicker and heavier than the American made ones. I’m not that good of a skater, but I feel the difference between these thinner/lighter decks and the thicker heavier ones. I like the Anti Hero 8.75 shape that they use on the classic eagle and some other boards… Seems like I’m going to skate the white classic eagle, better safe than sorry.

[j....soy.....]

much like the rest of the world, china has many factories and so you cannot say they are all comparatively bad.....  VX boards are made in china and they are lighter and stronger....you just need to know what woodshop they are from.

[IUTSM]

Oh boy. For all the china wood haters out there, plenty of shops us generator wood.

[intendedreceivers]

They must be losing money on warranty scams, too. My first (I think) made in Mexico set has a crack in the sidewall and bearing seat, and the warranty dept. requested I provide a verified amateur-style photo of the defect next to a note showing today’s date along with the shop name and purchase date.

[Mr. Pickles]

Debated putting this in the woodshop thread but feel like it deserves its own discussion.

The recent DLX prebook has about 70% of the boards listed as Made in China. They cost roughly the same as a pre-Covid DLX board while the BBS boards are 30-40% more expensive.

From our rep:

In a bold but completely logical move, Deluxe have set up an Asia based board manufacturer to counter the ongoing board price increases from their primary factory. These boards are significantly cheaper and are set up with Deluxe's custom shapes and molds. For the purists, favorites like the AH Classic Eagles are still made in North America.

How long until every company moves the bulk of operations to Asia?

Where are you/your shop located? I was just wondering if it’ll be a Europe/Asia thing with the Chinese wood and the Americas get BBS? I don’t know why they’d have 2 different wood shops.

[Frank and Fred]

Sounds like it was already explained. Different price points.

[GardenSkater77]

Could be a way to drive pro board sales. If I was the product manager I would only make pro boards in MX moving forward.

[j....soy.....]

That’s sort of what Toy Machine was doing with PS….in the first post it noted Eagles would be BBS……I guess they are providing more options.  Maybe something else is coming down the chute because there are still tons of other brands making boards through BBS, which would take away from their sales….

[Scottboarding]

I’ve been happy with the Crail and DSM board I’ve rode recently. I think Deluxe is probably more likely to go for the wood shop Crail uses between those two options. It seems every brand that uses DSM has the exact same “mellow concave/steel kicks” shape so I’m not sure they would be capable of or willing to make all of the shapes deluxe currently offers.

I had a few boards over COVID that were made in China with only a little dimple in the middle of the front truck holes. I ended up with 4 of them and all 4 were warped so hopefully they don’t go with that one.

[Cesspool86]

I mostly fuck with deluxe true fit and the dream shape in 8.06 so if they can keep the molds consistent that's the main thing for me. I feel like the array of shapes and sizes deluxe offers is one of their best attributes

[WideFeet]

Debated putting this in the woodshop thread but feel like it deserves its own discussion.

The recent DLX prebook has about 70% of the boards listed as Made in China. They cost roughly the same as a pre-Covid DLX board while the BBS boards are 30-40% more expensive.

From our rep:

In a bold but completely logical move, Deluxe have set up an Asia based board manufacturer to counter the ongoing board price increases from their primary factory. These boards are significantly cheaper and are set up with Deluxe's custom shapes and molds. For the purists, favorites like the AH Classic Eagles are still made in North America.

How long until every company moves the bulk of operations to Asia?

Where are you located? I haven’t gotten any sort of email from my rep.

[JugeL]

How long u would guess it takes for eagles to be made in China too.