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The one thing I remember was Mason Silva mentioned that the weird sizes ie. 8.18 is actually an 8.25 or 8.125 or something. ie. they purposely pick a weird number.
The other thing I was thinking was that maybe moving the factory to china would line up better with shipping things world wide as I'm sure the number of skateboard buyers has changed and grown vs. being mostly north America based.
The problem here is that a smaller country, that would usually buy a DLX shipment 3 or 4 times a year and get everything on one pallet, will not get Spifires from the China shipment, which could be half the order.
What I am wondering, after what others have said, is the path the product takes to get to the end destination, eg the skate shop.
For USA, it is most commonly, from manufacturer to DLX (SF) then to skate shop. Some smaller accounts who can't or don't order direct from DLX would get their product through Eastern (ESS) or AWH or something similar - an in between distributor, where small shops can order a multitude of brands from the one place.
For others outside of the USA, it would most likely have been a similar path, eg manufacturer to DLX (SF) then to the local distributor in said country or area, then to the shop.
So then, what I am wondering is if product from China or elsewhere might now not need to pass through the hands of people at DLX (SF) or USA at all but go from Asian manufacturer straight to the local distributor, then to the local shop, which would seem easier if that is the path they are taking.
For other products that come from USA or different sources, it would still end up in the local distributor warehouse and then be shipped to the shop, so I would think that a small shop that orders less frequently / four times a year would still be able to get the same product in the same way.
I know that quite often a warehouse inventory is already sold in pre books, so the best stuff might not even make it up on the distributors B2B or whatever, but if said shop has already put in a pre book for things, then they shouldn't miss out if the different deliveries arrive at different times.
Anyway, that is just my take on it, be it like that or something else entirely, but I think it is going to be more viable moving forward in direct distribution of product.
As people have said, there will still be the core product lines that will not be moved elsewhere, but I don't ever think that DLX or anyone else would ship piecemeal in the way that product would go from manufacturer straight to the skate shop, unless it was a huge order for someone like a mega mall store chain and even then, it would still make more sense for the deliveries to go to the local distributor first, then be broken down and reshipped on to whoever has ordered the product.
Sorry to get almost too deep into distribution info, but I often get too curious about this sort of stuff.
Don't even get me started on board sizes / shapes / dimensions, but at the end of the day, if you like the board shapes or whatever, you can choose to ride them or not, it is up to you.
Topic: DLX boards now made in China (Read 44049 times)