Why would Kastle spend money on developing a boot? Not clear. On the other hand, Head has a successful experiment with Raptors.
The simple answer is to make money, but you're right a lot of folks are scratching their heads.
There was flak when Liensberger had to signed a Kastle skis contract but was not able to find a boot company in the Austrian equipment pool willing to supply her only with boots, she eventually went to Lange boots, but that would probably
annoy a zillionaire ski company owner.
The owner seems to be
very serious about making Kastle a player but ...previous attempts at ski co's getting into boots have involved suppliers with large, established dealer networks - you can then barge your way in with a
you want the skis, take some boots. Kastle is not that far up the food sales chain yet. You might have a chance if you do something amazing, but there is only so much shelf space - I buy Kastle, who gets dumped ? Does that have an effect on a relationship with the company if I also buy other hardgoods from them?
Generally market entry has also relied on a partner:
- Head bought San Marco and took some time to hit raptor heights when they worked alone
- Rossi had Caber and Trappeur but only really clicked with their top end was Lange-ified
- Atomic - Koflach
- Salomon - sure you can debate quality of early Salomon rear entry boots [and it was a long time ago]. I suspect big top end sales then a decline and rise again, I'd have to drill down to check that tho. They also bought San Giorgio and used their designs.
- K2 - let's park full tilt [though again someone else's design], K2 has had mixed reviews on the boots [not lighting a fire there I hope]
So on the one hand you have a very well funded company on a mission but there's a lot of history that tells us that without something exceptional
and a lot of dealers already doing business with you it's a hard climb.
