Nitro Moves Production To Taiwan
I’d heard rumours about Nitro moving its snowboard production from Elan, Austria to Playmaker, Taiwan a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t want to jump the gun before everything was made official.
Yesterday an article appeared on one of my regular reads Transworld Business (article here) interviewing Nitro founder Tommy Delago who recently bought back the company from the Technica Group with a handful of investors. The long and the short of the article is that Nitro is moving all of its snowboard production to Playmaker, in the words of Tommy “We opted to complete the move to Taiwan, as it allows us to benefit from acceptable labour costs and so continue to build boards the way we feel they should be built: with attention to detail and the ability to explore using new and exciting materials and techniques.”
I like to think I’m not too much of a hypocrite, the majority of clothes I wear, the computer I’m using to type this article on, the bindings I strap into every time I go for a ride are made in Asia, that’s part and parcel of being a consumer in the 21st century. Asian products are on the whole manufactured to a high quality and are affordably, that’s why we lap them up. What bothers me is that Nitro were really onto something good with their products being produced at Elan. I rode the 155 Team Gullwing this spring at our annual board test and for me it was my favourite of the test. It was light as a feather, particularly at the tips which meant it span like a dream, it popped nicely and the base was insanely fast even though it’s extruded (it was noticeably faster than any other board I tested). On top of all those pluses, the board was manufactured to an incredible standard, everything from the tapered tips to the split sidewalls were impeccable. So if they can deliver this great product at such an affordable price, why is Nitro moving production to Taiwan?
Snowboarding is such a rose tinted business that shrewd business decisions can be easily glammed up to put a positive spin on a decision made purely on figures. My personal opinion is that having bought back Nitro from the Technica Group, Tommy and the gang need to make a good return on their investor’s investment. With consumers (yep you and I) unwilling to pay more for snowboards and snowboarding’s growth stagnating it’s unsurprising that Nitro has had to move production to Asia to retain its margin and still repay new investors.
I really hope that Nitro’s move from Elan doesn’t adversely affect the brand, I’m a big advocate of Nitro after my recent riding experience, but please stop feeding us with BS. Everybody knows when you build products in Asia it’s because you want to reduce production costs, not because you want to “explore using new and exciting materials and techniques”, we can handle the truth. Will next season’s Nitro board be as good as this season’s? Only time and testing will tell.
On that point, I’m interested to know if in your opinion, manufacturing snowboards in Asia is a postive or negative? Do you think products created in Asia are of inferior quality to those manufactured in the US or Europe?
Posted by Rich Ewbank in Blog & News.
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on November 16, 2011 at 01:18 AM
I know I personally am starting to buy more products that are made/designed in Canada and the US. For example I am looking at a new vehicle and will be actively searching for a North American made product. In this day with economic uncertainty I want to be more selective with my hard earned money and put it towards companies that support jobs and economic growth around me.
on November 16, 2011 at 09:49 AM
Nicely put Steve. Although if you buy an American made car you’ll be pumping a lot more money into the local economy than you would have hoped for with all those extra garage bills ;)
on November 16, 2011 at 10:47 PM
My first experience with Nitro was on a Nitro Shogun at a demo. It was the greatest board that I had ever ridden up that point, I absolutely loved it. I ended up buying the Shogun board the following year. Since then every board I have purchased has been a Nitro. I’m interested to see how this all plays out. I hope the quality is not affected. What keeps me coming back to these boards is that they deliver time and time again, I’ve never been disappointed. So long as they continue to deliver the same great experience and quality I will be a loyal and happy customer of Nitro.
on November 16, 2011 at 11:12 PM
Completely agree with you Carl. As long as they can keep building boards as good as they have been for the last few years then there’s no reason to not continue to buy Nitro boards. Lets wait ‘til next season… I know what my first test board will be in May!
on November 19, 2011 at 10:58 AM
I’m not going to try to understand this decision because I can’t possibly know what drove them to move their productionto Taiwan. That being said I can now say that I think it sucks! They’ve produced so many high quality boards over the last couple of years and now, I am totally in line with you there Rich, because they want to make more profit out of the business, they are moving to Taiwan. Of course that’s what everyone’s doing because it’s hard to survive on the market (especially these days) but still: I think there is a trend towards buying regional (european in my case) products more and more often.
But yeah, again: I am not in the position to critizise their decision because I don’t know what exactly drove them.. maybe it is really the pressure of the investors. Who knows..
on November 19, 2011 at 11:11 AM
THing is Nitro is refocusing their marketing on North America, and in the eyes of American’s there little difference between buying products in Europe and China and to be fair why should there be? Neither are in the US or Canada.
I think Erope is going to (and is currently) find it’s niche delivering the best quality products on the planet that other countries can’t match. THink BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Ferrari… the US and Asia can’t match the heritage and quality and snowboard and ski production are going to have to follow suite.
on March 12, 2017 at 11:04 PM
Do I think products created in Asia are of inferior quality to those manufactured in the US or Europe?
Absolutley! If I’m buying anything, I will look at the place of manufacture and it can be a deal breaker for me. There are certain products manufactured in Asia that I’m okay with but snowboards aren’t one of them. If Nitro boards will be made in Asia, this consumer won’t be buying any of them.
on May 14, 2024 at 08:17 PM
As long as the quality is there I absolutely support buying from Taiwan.
Taiwan is home some very specific domestic expertise in the production of laminate and fibreglass products so I see no reason to be concerned with this move.