runforlove2024I gots sum questions-
Is this sustainable long term and how long do you plan to offer this discount? Will skis purchased now be grandfathered in? This might be top secret info but curious what percent of ski returns would make this not profitable?
Is it possible to recycle old skis for use in new ski topsheets?
As a consumer I dig these policies, but I've never seen one last forever. Take skullcandy for example: their warranty period fizzled all the way from lifetime to 1yr. They used to offer a (25%?) discount for items outside of the warranty, similar to what you're doing here. That also ended.
All good questions.
This is the first step in a bigger change around our products and it will make more sense as these changes take place, so it's a concrete commitment for the future to accept all our skis back at the end of life.
Whether you were the first to buy from us, you buy today, tomorrow, or next year and beyond, we will incentivise you to send them back to us when you buy a new pair.
Putting aside ensuring the responsible handling of the product at the end of its life, the goal is to create Fauna customers for life, this is just a form of loyalty discount for sticking with us, and investing in the brand's future after the skis reach the end of their limited life,
With regard to the policy changing, any changes won't act retroactively. so if for a reason the amount changes unfavourably, it won't apply to your past purchase. Negatively changing the terms which people buy a product under retroactively is a shady move in my opinion. We're small and new enough that these policies don't have a large impact, its not like if a legacy brand started this and every pair of skis from the past 60 years started getting returned.
I don't know the specifics of the Skullcandy story and buyouts etc. but a lifetime warranty is a big commitment, especially on an electronics product and I'm not sure they expected the growth they had and the implications of that growth. We're taking steps with the future changes to the product to manage the implications of growth. Shareholders demanding growth year on year is to blame for a lot of this type of good stuff coming and going if the growth can't be created in other ways.
To the question about recycling old skis for use in new ski topsheets. Could you grind off a past topsheet and laminate on a new one? You could, but its a lot of work just to 'fix' the aesthetics of a ski, you'd be better off just cleaning up the existing topsheet if that bothers you, and riding them till they've got nothing left performance-wise. Ways to use bits of old skis in new ones is something you're just starting to see more of and it's more incorporating limited bits of production waste into future skis right now.
Very little in this world is truly new, an example of a big company doing this in another industry is ikea offering store credit for some of their old furniture:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56981636