[www.northforkcomposites.com]

After many years of having most rod and blank manufacturers treat custom rod builders like red headed step children, its nice to see a manufacturer putting the custom builders first. Thanks. Sounds like a great program.

Great idea.

Clarification question: Reading your program description, sounds like you keep the completed rod, and the builder gets a coupon for the price paid for the blank minus $50? Did I read that right?

Thanks,
Mo

Thanks for the kind words Peter.

Mo, thanks for the reply. You are correct. We want to keep the rod as part of our showcase. We'll be taking them (at least some of them) to display at the ICRBE and any other trade show we go to.

Jon

This sounds like a 100% win win proposition for both the legitimate small business custom rod builder and
the mfgr who supplies the most important part of his or her product, the blank!

To be publicly recognized and promoted by leaders in any industry can be akin to carte blanch for the craftsman
in many circles. In doing the recognition, the industry leader not only sells more product initially but also builds
a following of proven dedicated craftsmen who should by all common sense provide the end user with a better
experience with the mfgr's AND craftsman's products and services.

That said, if either the mfgr or the craftsman fail to live up to expectations I see black eyes on both faces not just one.
Both have a stake in each others success and yet....
I like the sound of this A LOT! However, I do have hairs standing up on the back of my neck that say "be careful!"
I can clearly see the upside and maybe there is no downside except maybe the cost of one high-end rod which
considering the upside is a minor investment IMHO but...

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2009 02:41AM by Raymond Adams.

Wish I had $4-500.00 to give away. Blank, seat, guides, labor, shipping

Bill - willierods.com

bill boettcher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wish I had $4-500.00 to give away. Blank, seat,
> guides, labor, shipping

You and me both Bill! But I don't look at it like I would be "giving away" anything. It's an investment
and like any other investment I would expect a return from it. I'm on a shoe-string budget as it is but
investments such as this with such a high possible return don't come often.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

I have played with a lot of things and like the stock market, there is no guarantee. Since people now a days want a custom at store prices, I can't. Life's a beach.

Bill - willierods.com

I dont know how "....for the price of a high-end, off-the-shelf stick, an angler can get a customized rod...." at those blank prices...?

You aren't giving away anything - you're getting something, something that would cost you far more than if you had to purchase it outright. Keep in mind the cost of doing business - things like advertising. This kind of international advertising exposure would cost you thousands of dollars on most venues but North Fork is offering to give it to you for nothing more than the cost of one rod. And, they're going to help offset your cost by returning $100 to you. Astute business people will easily see the tremendous value being offered here.

If I were still in the business of selling rods to the fishing public, I would certainly want my name in that registry. And if the cost to get it there was nothing more than the cost of building one nice rod and the time required to do the job right, I'd start today.


..........................

i am interested in this.what points will the stick be judged on?will it be for fancy wraps,the kind and cost of the guides,the color combination,the quality of cork or will it be judged on the things that really matter in building an excellent piece of fishing equipment?just to mention a few:(1) quality of blank(2)quality of guides(3)spacing of guides(4)seat placement for task specific rods(5)straightness of guides and so on.this is a good deal no matter what.you submit a rod and have it gone over by the experts and find where your weaknesses are.translates into a better rod.thanks,jim.

This is a great idea and I'm all in as soon it's up and running

Does it mater who's blank

Bill - willierods.com

It must be a NFC blank.

I have a few questions about the whole thing.

1. This "certified" NFC builder sounds pretty familiar to the "certified custom Builder" certificate that you can get at another web site.?

2. Just how much value is there in a G Loomis certificate?. His name is already tied to so many companys its pretty watered down by now as Shimmano, Kistler, TFO, and now NFC all count on it.

3. I have not seen any reports of the product nor have I seen anyone post their feelings about the blanks.

4. Even your own wholesalers admit that sales of these blanks are slow so why do we think this is going to change much in the near future?

5. Did not Joe Douglas try this and failed? How well does Tackleworks work in bringing in customers? Why would this be any different?

6. By NFC keeping the 50 bucks they have just made their profit on the blank.

7 What if there are 6 builders from a certain area all certified How does that work? Or will there be one builder for so many people or do you get rights to the entire State? What about the Canadian market? I do not see you coming up to here so where does the advertising/ marketing come into play?

Just some of questions. If someone from NFC can answer them I may feel better about the whole idea.

Rolly Beenen
Rovic Custom Rods

Rolly,

Tackleworks has been very successful for many of those listed there. For others not as much. But it's not the same type program that North Fork is offering.

Joe Douglas never offered anything like this.

Being a "certified rod builder" means nothing unless fishermen recognize and respect the person or persons offering the certification. Gary Loomis is pretty well known and I think many fishermen will respect his registry of custom rod builders. There is some weight behind this thing.

Sales of North Fork blanks may indeed be slow, but the company has only been shipping product for a month. It's very early in the game. I remember buying my first G.Loomis, Inc. blank back in 1982 and other builders told me that nobody would ever want a custom rod made on a these upstart "gloomis" rod blanks. It took several years for Gary to really get that going but you see where it led. He's much better known now than he was in 1982.

A little foresight might be in order.



.............

Guys,

Some of these comments are just silly. If you see the value of the program, go for it. If you don't feel good about it, no one is forcing you to take part. It's that simple. It won't be for everyone but many, perhaps your competitors, will participate and hopefully they'll reap some benefits.

Obviously North Fork is hoping this program will benefit them too - they're in business to sell product. But they've just offered something that no other blank manufacturer ever has. I have no doubt many will participate.

...............

Tom

I would much perfer if the answers came from the company that is offering the "DEAL" since it will be them that we will have to deal with later on.

I respect your opinions on this but there were questions that I asked that should be answered by NFC. such as question 7. How many certified builders in an area??? Do you get rights to a state? to a million people or what?

Are we going to get OEM pricing or wholesale?. As we are really going to be OEM for NFC then we should get OEM pricing fromr them? Is everyone going to be on the same playing field with the same discounts? What about the other items that are required for the rods such as guides etec. what is the pricing on that or does that not get covered.

Rolly Beenen
Rovic Custom Rods

You asked about Tackleworks, Joe Douglas' program and "certified rod builders." I have direct knowledge of all 3 because I was consulted on 2 of them and own the other, so I answered.

I was also around when Gary started G. Loomis, Inc and listened to all the stuff about how the "gloomis" stuff would never take off. I have direct knowledge of how that turned out so I offered an answer there as well.

I left the questions about North Fork's particular business practices for them to answer. Some of your questions have very obvious answers (at least to me) but I'm sure they'll elaborate as soon as they get in this morning.

...................

The program seems simple enough to me, but I'm a simple person. Maybe I've overlooked something, but I think this is just a registry of rod builders who North Forth consideres competent enought to personally yrecommend. That seems the long and the short of it to me.

You will not be building rods for North Fork Composites on an OEM basis. You will be building rods for your own rod building business. Over time when Nork Fork becomes better known and fishermen go to their site to look at the offerings, North Fork will make it easy for them to find a local builder who uses their product . This sort of registry can be found on all sorts of products. When I bought my last home HVAC unit I had gone to the manufacturers website and they had a list of companies that sold and serviced their product. I called one of those and did business with them.

Come to think of it, all the reel manufacturers used to list "authorized" service centers for their reels. Same thing with North Fork I assume. It's just a registry of builders who use and build on their products and who have been considered competent enough to list in the registry.

Personally I hope other builders in my area will not spend the money or time to get listed. I hope I will be the only one. But if it turns out that there are a dozen of us within a few miles of each other, then the customer will have to choose which one of us to do busienss with. All North Fork is doing is providing a listing of builders for the public to choose from.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2009 11:43AM by Ken Finch.

I have a suspicion that as soon as this program was announced a small handful of savvy rod builders withdrew to their shops, shut the door, and began working on a rod to submit..............