Bass Pro Shop made their own S-Waver

[MainelyBASS]

Im not sure this could look any more like the original S-Waver. Has anyone tried them yet?

[PatrickKnight]

As a general rule I don't think store brand baits perform as well as the name brand ones do. Prime example is the Keitech Swing Impact Fat and the Bass Pro Speed Shad. While similar, the action of the Keitech is noticeably better when compared side by side.

[TOXIC]

What you have to keep in mind is that for baits, Bass Pro makes -0- of their store brand.  Some other major manufacturer does as part of their product line and they package as a Bass Pro product.  The real fun is figuring out who actually makes the bait and if it is cheaper than the "original".   

[the reel ess]

Their plastics and spinnerbaits have been fine for me. But I usually don't bother with them. I go to Academy and get the name brands or their store brand. I do own a Glide in bass pattern and haven't caught a thing on it. I'll bet the BPS brand can at least match that production.

[Team9nine]

2 hours ago, TOXIC said:

What you have to keep in mind is that for baits, Bass Pro makes -0- of their store brand.  Some other major manufacturer does as part of their product line and they package as a Bass Pro product.

 

That wouldn't seem to make much sense. Why sell anything if you don't make a cent off it? It would also contradict their private presentation to investors back in November in which they touted their 50% profit margins, which they claimed were much better than either Apple or Alibaba (both in the 30s). In that report, they credited their own strong national brand products as being a big reason for those margins. Are you suggesting they use baits as a "loss leader" and try and make those margins elsewhere in the product line?

 

Just really curious...

 

-T9

[kadas]

16 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

That wouldn't seem to make much sense. Why sell anything if you don't make a cent off it? It would also contradict their private presentation to investors back in November in which they touted their 50% profit margins, which they claimed were much better than either Apple or Alibaba (both in the 30s). In that report, they credited their own strong national brand products as being a big reason for those margins. Are you suggesting they use baits as a "loss leader" and try and make those margins elsewhere in the product line?

 

Just really curious...

 

-T9

 I believe  Toxic was saying was that BPS does not manufacture any of their store brand not that they do not make any money on them. you are right -would not make much business sense to sell something and not make anything on the product

[Darren.]

 

3 minutes ago, kadas said:

 I believe  Toxic was saying was that BPS does not manufacture any of their store brand not that they do not make any money on them. you are right -would not make much business sense to sell something and not make anything on the product

 

Agree. I think @TOXIC meant "none of" when he typed in "-0- of", not "off".

[Team9nine]

4 minutes ago, Darren. said:

 

 

Agree. I think @TOXIC meant "none of" when he typed in "-0- of", not "off".

 

Thanks - that would explain it, and makes much more sense. My misread. I would have to believe margins on private brands would be much greater than marking up "name" brands and reselling in most cases.

 

-T9

[Darren.]

Just now, Team9nine said:

 

Thanks - that would explain it, and makes much more sense. My misread. I would have to believe margins on private brands would be much greater than marking up "name" brands and reselling in most cases.

 

-T9

 

Right, your post was spot-on in that sense, though.

[TOXIC]

Yes, that is what I meant.  I had dealings through them with some of my sponsors and the topic came up frequently.  Some items it is pretty easy to tell, others not so much.  To the point that BPS would cut back on buying product (or eliminate it from the inventory completely) if you didn't "play ball" with them.  They are the proverbial 900lb gorilla.  

[Hawkeye21]

2 hours ago, Team9nine said:

 

That wouldn't seem to make much sense. Why sell anything if you don't make a cent off it? It would also contradict their private presentation to investors back in November in which they touted their 50% profit margins, which they claimed were much better than either Apple or Alibaba (both in the 30s). In that report, they credited their own strong national brand products as being a big reason for those margins. Are you suggesting they use baits as a "loss leader" and try and make those margins elsewhere in the product line?

 

Just really curious...

 

-T9

 

It's called a loss leader item and lots of retails stores do it.  You advertise a product that is of little quality that you have little stock of for a price that's at or below cost.  This gets people's attention and brings them into the store.  Once in the store sales people then proceed to up-sell you to the more profitable products or by the time you get that cheap product is already sold old leaving you to purchase something else.  Don't forget the extended warranty too. 

[WRB]

BPS knocks off everything!

Tom

[j bab]

Yeah these are obviously made by the same people that make the S Waver for R2S. I bet they have identical actions.

I wish they had an 8", I might try it. I think this will allow more people to get into the big bait game, which is bad because I don't want fish getting conditioned to these things  

[mixel]

3 hours ago, TOXIC said:

Yes, that is what I meant.  I had dealings through them with some of my sponsors and the topic came up frequently.  Some items it is pretty easy to tell, others not so much.  To the point that BPS would cut back on buying product (or eliminate it from the inventory completely) if you didn't "play ball" with them.  They are the proverbial 900lb gorilla.  

 

This is what Walmart does better than anyone. No doubt BPS takes a similar approach in leveraging their huge buying power to maximize profit potential.

 

The original company may not have a patent on the design and if so, it's free game for anyone to produce it, or make something similar.

 

Some of the River2Sea S-Wavers color patterns have two rivets in the tail, and some only have one. For comparison of lures, I've linked directly to the images below. You can see several differences in the mold pattern around the gill area, including the height from bottom of the horizontal midline, and where this line along the body meets up with the gill. Some other minor differences too.

 

BPS XPS Boss Glide Swimbait (comes in 4.75" and 6.25" models) 

 

River2Sea S-Waver Swimbait (comes in 6.75" and 8" models)

 

 

 

 

 

[MassYak85]

I'm willing to bet it comes form the exact same mold as the S-Waver and they just painted it differently and added cheap hardware. One thing to consider with brand name swimbaits (by brand name I mean the popular ones not the knock offs) is resale value. People will buy used S-Wavers for a decent percentage of what you paid for it....this no one is going to want once the first glimpse of hook rash starts. 

[mixel]

Can't be exact same mold as they are not offered in the same lengths. Also, if you look at the pics above, you can see some differences in the design. Look at the mouth. On the BPS, the mouth is filled in with plastic, while on the R2S version, you can see through the mouth. Some other key mold lines are slightly different as well. The eyelets for the hooks and nose also appear to be different sizes.

[RyneB]

14 hours ago, TOXIC said:

What you have to keep in mind is that for baits, Bass Pro makes -0- of their store brand.  Some other major manufacturer does as part of their product line and they package as a Bass Pro product.  The real fun is figuring out who actually makes the bait and if it is cheaper than the "original".   

True statement, anyone with a little knowledge of bass pro knows their speed shad is made by keitech, fluorocarbon made by seaguar and their swim jigs made by strike king. The Johnny morris reels are made by Lews.

[Bluebasser86]

I know a guy who tried one. He said there was a buck of extra plastic in the joint so it wouldn't work right. He had to clean the joint up a bunch with a Exacto knife to get it to do anything.

[Airman4754]

On 2/17/2017 at 6:14 AM, MainelyBASS said:

Im not sure this could look any more like the original S-Waver. Has anyone tried them yet?

 

I would do all the same mods to that as I would with an S-Waver. If it's a cheaper starting platform then it's a good deal.

11 hours ago, RyneB said:

True statement, anyone with a little knowledge of bass pro knows their speed shad is made by keitech, fluorocarbon made by seaguar and their swim jigs made by strike king. The Johnny morris reels are made by Lews.

 

Yep. Whenever I read Fat Impact is better than Speed Shad I laugh. 

 

A red Corvette is faster than a green Corvette, because it's red!

[Fisher-O-men]

3 hours ago, Mosster47 said:

I would do all the same mods to that as I would with an S-Waver.

Funny, there is a mod on YouTube that shaves off some material to make it swing wider and there is one that adds material to make it run straighter.  Both claim to improve the action. I'll just leave mine alone!

[ghost]

I've bought 2 of the BPS Boss glide baits. I guess I didn't pay real close attention to the detail of the S-Waver and the BPS Boss. 

 

I can tell you though, one of them the Boss XXX Shad, I had to check the joints on 5 of them the store had. Either the joint felt tight or one side did not flip as easily as it did the other side. The other Boss in Hitch color flipped with no hiccups.  

 

I tried the S-Waver 168 and the Boss 4 3/4" side by side comparison last Sunday. On casting, the S-Waver tended to helicopter more than the Boss. The Boss is slightly heavier than the S-waver, so it casted a bit better and did not helicopter as much. Sink rate, the S-Waver sank a bit faster than the Boss. Which makes me want to add a suspend strip to get a slightly faster sink rate.

 

The S-waver 168 I have glides smoothly on a slow and slow/medium retrieve. The 2 Boss not quite as refined glide as the S-Waver, but much smoother and not as herky jerky as the Savage glide of similar size.

 

In conclusion, the Boss glide bait is good. Hardware, I switched out the treble hook's as I think BPS trebles are thin and weak. For a few dollars less than an S-Waver 168, it's a good deal, unless you can get the 168 on sale. You just have to check the joint on the Boss of the color(s) you want to be sure it moves side by side easily.

[Airman4754]

3 hours ago, Fisher-O-men said:

Funny, there is a mod on YouTube that shaves off some material to make it swing wider and there is one that adds material to make it run straighter.  Both claim to improve the action. I'll just leave mine alone!

 

With the 200's shaving it down and throwing a split ring on the front of it we could get 6" of extra glide each way consistently. With the 168's it was much less, but I do like the action much better when you kill it or twitch it.

[NYBEN]

On February 17, 2017 at 10:23 PM, RyneB said:

True statement, anyone with a little knowledge of bass pro knows their speed shad is made by keitech, fluorocarbon made by seaguar and their swim jigs made by strike king. The Johnny morris reels are made by Lews.

 

I can't speak to the other brands, but I can say that Keitech does not make the Speed Shad for BPS.  Though I do agree that BPS almost certainly doesn't make them either, they're probably buying them from someone and branding them BPS.