Is the consolidation of brands going to limit Crankbait innovation?

[Cgolf]

Now that it looks like Pradco is in a shopping mood, I had missed that they had aquired Norman lures too, what impact will this have for us?

I have already seen Bandits prices move up a bunch on TW, and to be honest I am expecting to see the same thing happen for Norman. Beyond the potential for price hikes, is this going to limit innovation?

With Pradco and Pure fishing having so many brands under their umbrella, where will the innovation come from? In the past it seemed like the one label guys were the ones pushing the envelope further, now that many are being pulled under one huge umbrella will the innovation slow down? I am sure arguements could be made either way, bigger budgets, more testing, etc. Curious what you guys think, but usually consolidation of companies into one mega company doesn't see us little guys coming out ahead. 

[camman]

I think a lot of the recent crankbait innovations have come from companies based outside of the traditional companies like Pradco, Norman, Rapala, Heddon, etc....I see it from companies like Lucky Craft, Megabass, Duo Realis, Ima, Spro.

I think the consolidation is based on economies of scale to compete...if you can win with innovation, you better win on price

[nascar2428]

Competition is a consumers best friend. 

[Cgolf]

1 hour ago, nascar2428 said:

Competition is a consumers best friend. 

The problem is if pure fishing and Pradco continue to buy up brands, competition is going to be limited. I guess it truly depends on how they are going to handle the brands, are they going to allow them to operate independently and just infuse cash into them, or have all the new designs come out of 1 R&D lab and then figure out which brand the new design would fit under?

[thebillsman]

I don't think anything is going to stop innovation. Crankbaits will forever evolve. That said, I have a few DD22's and Little N's that I rarely use, and I don't have any Bandit lures. It doesn't really bother me that they are now under an umbrella of a larger corp.

Spro and Jackall have been big for me lately when I can find them for cheap.

[roadwarrior]

Well, I think consolidation might lead to less innovation among the brands mentioned and these are the most popular it seems at "big box stores". However, the internet is your friend! Lucky Craft and Megabass are two perfect examples. Although Rage Tail is marketed to some extent under the Strike King umbrella, Big O continues to design unique product features.

 

[corn-on-the-rob]

It seems when these buy outs happen, that most of the time they let the brand roll. They bought it due to its own unique designs/innovation/recognition so not much should change in the broad picture, only whose name gets to be the cherry on top.

I know this isn't the perfect example (mainly due to wiggle warts and other pre-Rapala molds) but Rapala has owned Storm lures for over 20 years now. Storm had been doing their own thing for close to 30 years before they sold. Storm still retained their own identity and continues to create new lures/designs, I doubt most average fisherman know that Rapala owns storm, because they stay relatively hands off and let the brand continue to fill its niche.

That being said, price changes can happen, manufacturing standards can change, causing different than expected value and quality.

Like others said competition is great. No matter how large these parent companies are, they will never have total control of the market and will be challenged constantly to keep up, or lose money.

[thebillsman]

2 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Well, I think consolidation might lead to less innovation among the brands mentioned and these are the most popular it seems at "big box stores". However, the internet is your friend! Lucky Craft and Megabass are two perfect examples. Although Rage Tail is marketed to some extent under the Strike King umbrella, Big O continues to design unique product features.

Going off of Lucky Craft and Megabass.. it seems whatever they create is reflective of their cost of R&D. Then the "lesser" brands just mimic all their hard work.

[Hog Basser]

Pradco has an office here in Arkansas where I am and Norman was based just down the road.  Norman has changed hands a few times over the years, but had remained with people who cared about the sport and were not as much the "corporate" types.  Pradco claims that Norman will still continue to develop their own, but I've already seen a drop in accessibility of some of their lures that aren't as popular (but still very good).  I was trying to order some off the Norman Lures website and there's just a message there that shipping will be shut down while they consolidate with Pradco's warehouse.  They say they should be back up the first week of January.  Well, that message is still there and I can't order one particular lure I want and no one else sells it that I can find.  I guess I will have to turn to e-bay.  The lure is the "quarterback" crankbait, my dad absolutely tears them up on this shallow-diving crankbait and I need some to compete with him!  

[nascar2428]

6 hours ago, cgolf said:

competition is going to be limited.

That is my point. Whenever companies merge, they are in effect eliminating competition. Less competition, less innovation, higher profits. None of that benefits the consumer, IMO.

[Cgolf]

Just now, nascar2428 said:

That is my point. Whenever companies merge, they are in effect eliminating competition. Less competition, less innovation, higher profits. None of that benefits the consumer, IMO.

Got it, with that context, makes sense where you were going with it, it just read funny after my post.  I totally agree though and I am worried a bit about it. Maybe this will inspire some more small bait makers start up with some innovative products, one can hope.

[primetime]

This is why you will start seeing more companies start popping up with great lures like 6th sense, Duo, Jackal etc...The market dictates which lures sell for what, so when Pure Fishing purchased Sebile, they quickly ended all of the Sebile lures that were designed and perfected by Patrick Sebile and then started the action series, which are good lures for the price, but apparently not enough people purchased the original Sebile Lures which I really liked.

I have noticed that so many of the new lures are simply knock offs of lures that I would have figured would be trademarked, but if people don't buy expensive lures from small companies who truly put alot of R&D into them, then it will hurt innovation I guess. 

I just don't like the trend I am noticing which is a race to the bottom in many cases...I see *** lures at Dicks for $3, Frogs from Jawbone for $3, Strike King making a banshee series etc...Nothing wrong with that for the average guy or for anyone, but I like to see innovation since buying lures and trying them out is half the fun of fishing....

The free market always corrects itself and will go through trends....It seems that all companies are starting to produce a value series of lures as well....

[JustinU1X]

Have any of the Norman lures changed yet?

[Hog Basser]

8 minutes ago, JustinU1X said:

Have any of the Norman lures changed yet?

Don't think so, they just moved them in at the end of the year and there's still plenty of stock out there from before.  Just not as much availability to some of their lures that aren't typically on the shelf of a big box store.  Here is an article from my hometown paper on the acquisition and Pradco's plans.

http://swtimes.com/business/norman-lures-acquired-pradco-outdoor-brands 

[JustinU1X]

19 minutes ago, Hog Basser said:

Don't think so, they just moved them in at the end of the year and there's still plenty of stock out there from before.  Just not as much availability to some of their lures that aren't typically on the shelf of a big box store.  Here is an article from my hometown paper on the acquisition and Pradco's plans.

http://swtimes.com/business/norman-lures-acquired-pradco-outdoor-brands 

Awesome, thanks. One of my other favorite lures is the Xcalibur xrk50. It’s still similar w/ Booyah but just not quite the same, I’m expecting the same thing to happen to the little N and DD series.

[Cgolf]

56 minutes ago, JustinU1X said:

Awesome, thanks. One of my other favorite lures is the Xcalibur xrk50. It’s still similar w/ Booyah but just not quite the same, I’m expecting the same thing to happen to the little N and DD series.

I was late to the game on the XCal square bills, and now they are gone, not being converted to Booyah. I have the same fear with the Bandits, the 100 is a river staple bait. I also like a lot of Norman baits, especially the deep little N, so hoping they don't screw those up. 

[blckshirt98]

I think the innovation will come from the overseas markets (everything in Japan, Molix in Italy, etc) and small batch custom lure makers here in the US.  The Japanese market is finicky about quality and detail and the designers there will always be pushing the envelope.  Molix just makes some really weird sh** you don't see anywhere else.  Thanks to social media, if you look around there's a lot of small batch or made-to-order lure companies here in the US doing some interesting stuff - mainly swimbaits and topwater baits, but I'm seeing some neat crankbaits being made as well (and I don't mean the folks just doing custom paintwork).