There’s a new player in the game

[Glenn]

Well guys, this thread caught the attention of St. Croix, and they took the time to answer some of the questions you posted.

 

Quote

SEVIIN Reels appreciates BassResource forum members’ comments, enthusiasm, and questions about our brand and our reels! Allow us to dive in and address some of your recurring questions. Regarding where SEVIIN Reels are made… we have a few partners manufacturing our reels to our own unique designs and specifications. No one else has these designs. Furthermore, SEVIIN Reels owns the tooling used to make all our reel series. Each partner has been thoroughly vetted and selected based on their specific strengths and capabilities, assuring we have the best possible partner for each of our reel series. They are located in China and South Korea – which is currently where premium reel-manufacturing expertise exists in the world today, utilized by many high-end brands. A related point… we appreciate but do not rely on our manufacturers’ testing. We trust but verify. To this end, SEVIIN Reels has built our own comprehensive testing laboratory inside the St. Croix factory in Park Falls, Wisconsin, where we are continually performing literally dozens of tests 24-7 on every run of reels we receive. We do this because durability and reliability are one of the primary hallmarks of our brand and products. Being a St. Croix brand, we simply cannot have otherwise… which brings us to our answer to another popular question from BassResource members…

 

SEVIIN shares and was born from St. Croix DNA. Both brands develop products designed and crafted to improve the angling experience. Each brand, however, is distinct and supported by dedicated resources. We have reel experts who are solely focused on reels, and rod experts who are only focused on rods. SEVIIN is owned by St. Croix – an American company that has been owned by the same family for the past 46 years – but a conscious decision was made to not include St. Croix in the branding. This has nothing to do with any fears that the brand could fail, as has been suggested by a few in this thread. As mentioned above, we cannot afford to fail, and have been working for nearly three full years prior to this launch to ensure that doesn’t happen. Instead, we chose a separate name for our reel brand that calls attention to our seven decades of experience in putting anglers at the center of everything we do. It is a separate name from St. Croix because we want anglers to fish our reels on any rods they choose… and we also want to make it easy for tackle retailers who may not carry St. Croix rods to offer their anglers SEVIIN Reels. It’s nothing more than that.

 

If you haven’t already done so, please visit seviinreels.com, where you’ll find a lot more information about our brand and products and can sign up for our newsletter… the first place you’ll find new news and info on our upcoming product launches. There’s a good chance the ABOUT US and NEWS sections (News is found under RESOURCES) of the website will answer some of the other remaining questions you may have. Of course, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

 

Thanks again for your enthusiasm about the launch of SEVIIN Reels and for your great questions. Happy fishing!

 

-  The SEVIIN Reels Marketing and Product Teams

 

[MN Fisher]

^ This is what makes a great company - most others would just ignore a forum, no matter how popular that forum was.

[NorthernBasser]

10 hours ago, Glenn said:

Well guys, this thread caught the attention of St. Croix, and they took the time to answer some of the questions you posted.

 

 

Quote

It is a separate name from St. Croix because we want anglers to fish our reels on any rods they choose… 

 

Ok, this is very smart actually because we all know there's anglers who don't like mixing and matching brands when it comes to rods/reels. 

[uno]

You can sell all the rebadged Daewoos you want, as long as you keep making Corvettes. 

[MiceNReets]

17 minutes ago, uno said:

You can sell all the rebadged Daewoos you want, as long as you keep making Corvettes. 

[zell_pop1]

It's nice they noticed the forum and made a statement but I feel they are being disingenuous.  Why not just manufacture them in Mexico with St Croix rods if they own all the designs and tooling? Labor costs should not be any higher than in a  South Korean plant that they have to share profits with.

[JediAmoeba]

22 hours ago, NorthernBasser said:

 

Ok, this is very smart actually because we all know there's anglers who don't like mixing and matching brands when it comes to rods/reels. 

Shimano, Daiwa, Lew's and Abu should never be mixed. It's total sacrilege!

[Glenn]

7 hours ago, zell_pop1 said:

Why not just manufacture them in Mexico

They answered that question in the statement.

[uno]

There is a one word answer for all the questions. Profit. Which is fine. If they don't make money they cease to exist. 

[MiceNReets]

24 minutes ago, uno said:

There is a one word answer for all the questions. Profit. Which is fine. If they don't make money they cease to exist. 

Every company is in it for profit.  Have you tried a seviin reel yet?

[JediAmoeba]

I think this is cool but I like my reels and rods brand matched. At this point pretty much everything in my arsenal is Daiwa. 

[uno]

16 minutes ago, MiceNReets said:

Every company is in it for profit.  Have you tried a seviin reel yet?

Are you trying to say that their partnership with Banax has made a "game changing" reel for 120 bucks? No, I haven't fished with one, and I likely won't. And I have't made any comment about it not being a good reel. I'm sure it works fine. As do all the other reels Banax makes and American companies claim to be their own. But I get tired of companies trying so hard to pretend that they "engineered" their reels and made them new and different. I have no issue with St. Croix selling whatever reels they want, but with this reel they are selling what everyone else is selling, and I find the shilling and hype painful.

[MiceNReets]

23 minutes ago, uno said:

Are you trying to say that their partnership with Banax has made a "game changing" reel for 120 bucks? No, I haven't fished with one, and I likely won't. And I have't made any comment about it not being a good reel. I'm sure it works fine. As do all the other reels Banax makes and American companies claim to be their own. But I get tired of companies trying so hard to pretend that they "engineered" their reels and made them new and different. I have no issue with St. Croix selling whatever reels they want, but with this reel they are selling what everyone else is selling, and I find the shilling and hype painful.

Gear down big truck.   I just asked if you tried their reel.    That’s it.  That’s all.  

[Bluebasser86]

I've put a whole lot of miles on this reel the last couple months, mostly throwing some kind of treble hooked topwater. Included in that was the big bass of the second day of my championship tournament this past weekend that won me a new Hobie inflatable lifevest and was a nearly 4" cull in the last hour of the tournament.  

 

[roadwarrior]

 

 

                                                          

[garroyo130]

On 9/13/2023 at 8:39 PM, uno said:

Are you trying to say that their partnership with Banax has made a "game changing" reel for 120 bucks? No, I haven't fished with one, and I likely won't. And I have't made any comment about it not being a good reel. I'm sure it works fine. As do all the other reels Banax makes and American companies claim to be their own. But I get tired of companies trying so hard to pretend that they "engineered" their reels and made them new and different. I have no issue with St. Croix selling whatever reels they want, but with this reel they are selling what everyone else is selling, and I find the shilling and hype painful.

 

This is honestly my issue as well. I think if they came out and said something like developed by Banax for St Croix, I'd probably feel better about it. Mysterious origin is never a good sign ...

[1984isNOW]

On 9/12/2023 at 11:52 AM, zell_pop1 said:

rods if they own all the designs and tooling

Did they say they own the tooling? Seems like a MAJOR investment. Idk man, so many places "design/engineer" their own but have the 2 reel manufacturers make them. They're probably as good as a lews or Abu Garcia

[uno]

They did say they own the tooling. Does that mean they allow Banax to make reels using that tooling? Because Banax has their own reels that are exactly the same shape. And the Banax reels came first. Are the innards different? No idea. All the marketing speak is a big turn off. 

[1984isNOW]

3 minutes ago, uno said:

They did say they own the tooling

Found it, thanks. Yup, behooves us to be doubtful. We know America let's China take our ideas and make their own stuff, this makes Seviin a hard sell. Especially at that price, I think of Tommy Boy and a guaranteed piece of crap. You can put a guarantee on a box, but all you have is a guaranteed piece of crap.

 

 

[redmeansdistortion]

On 9/12/2023 at 11:52 AM, zell_pop1 said:

It's nice they noticed the forum and made a statement but I feel they are being disingenuous.  Why not just manufacture them in Mexico with St Croix rods if they own all the designs and tooling? Labor costs should not be any higher than in a  South Korean plant that they have to share profits with.

Honestly, every manufacturer that relies on an OEM says the same things.  Abu, Lews, Pflueger, you name it.  It's marketing jargon and nothing more.  Companies usually choose their platform then the parts they wish to adorn it with then call it their own design.  What they are saying is only half true, they most likely aren't dedicating an engineering team to design something from scratch.  That's costly since the tooling too needs to be engineered along with the product.  If they truly were doing their own thing, it wouldn't look much like the OEM platforms they were built from.  Many companies like to fluff their product with elaborate marketing because they know their target audience takes pride in ownership of something they think was produced or designed domestically.

 

St Croix could allocate the resources to engineer and build their own reels domestically, but getting somebody to pay a small fortune for it would be a tough sell to the general public that tends to be more budget oriented.  I'm sure these are fine reels, but they will never hold a candle to the stuff the Japanese are making in their own country and even some that are made in Thailand or Malaysia.  With that said, the OEMs do make really fantastic stuff but they tend to only distribute those in their own or nearby markets.  

[1984isNOW]

22 minutes ago, redmeansdistortion said:

Abu, Lews, Pflueger

You mean Pure Fishing, one company. They are Abu and Pflueger, are they Lews yet?

 

I do like a good 15 year old Abu spinning reel though, first Pflueger Supreme last year. Minimal usage since I gave up finesse for the season, but seems solid.

[redmeansdistortion]

18 minutes ago, Kites R4 Skyfishing said:

You mean Pure Fishing, one company. They are Abu and Pflueger, are they Lews yet?

 

I do like a good 15 year old Abu spinning reel though, first Pflueger Supreme last year. Minimal usage since I gave up finesse for the season, but seems solid.

Pure Fishing uses an OEM to produce every one of their reels not made here or in Sweden.  Most Ambassadeurs are still made in Sweden while the Penn International, Senator and Classic Spinfisher models are still made in Philly.  Van Staal is in Oklahoma IIRC.  Lews is Lews but they still use an OEM, the same ones used by Pure Fishing.  Same thing with BPS Johnny Morris reels.  There are 3 OEMs that design and manufacture the majority of Chinese and Korean made reels out there; Doyo, Banax, and Haibo.

[1984isNOW]

21 minutes ago, redmeansdistortion said:

There are 3 OEMs that design and manufacture the majority of Chinese and Korean made reels out there; Doyo, Banax, and Haibo.

Haibo is new to me, who goes through Haibo? I have one Lews, it's fine. I also have an abu Cardinal 35 that is the best spinning reel I've ever used.

 

Regardless, for baitcasters I've become enthused by Daiwa. Tatula sv103 is bonkers. ZILLION tw sv g is killer too, but the white plastic spool part thing broke. I'm sending in for warranty. But it is a dream to fish with.

 

If Ida known better I woulda jumped on a Tatula Elite deal I found, but was trying to think of the new job and new budget... decided against it. Hopefully I'll see a deal similar again when I can afford it.

[zell_pop1]

1 hour ago, redmeansdistortion said:

Honestly, every manufacturer that relies on an OEM says the same things.  Abu, Lews, Pflueger, you name it.  It's marketing jargon and nothing more.  Companies usually choose their platform then the parts they wish to adorn it with then call it their own design.  What they are saying is only half true, they most likely aren't dedicating an engineering team to design something from scratch.  That's costly since the tooling too needs to be engineered along with the product.  If they truly were doing their own thing, it wouldn't look much like the OEM platforms they were built from.  Many companies like to fluff their product with elaborate marketing because they know their target audience takes pride in ownership of something they think was produced or designed domestically.

 

St Croix could allocate the resources to engineer and build their own reels domestically, but getting somebody to pay a small fortune for it would be a tough sell to the general public that tends to be more budget oriented.  I'm sure these are fine reels, but they will never hold a candle to the stuff the Japanese are making in their own country and even some that are made in Thailand or Malaysia.  With that said, the OEMs do make really fantastic stuff but they tend to only distribute those in their own or nearby markets.  

Sure I know all about the OEM reels, but I do not remember Lews or Pure Fishing claiming to own all the tooling and that no one else has the designs when it was clear otherwise. There was in Abu Garcia's lineup something that was claimed to be exclusive but I do not remember what it was as I never used the Revo line.

[redmeansdistortion]

18 minutes ago, zell_pop1 said:

Sure I know all about the OEM reels, but I do not remember Lews or Pure Fishing claiming to own all the tooling and that no one else has the designs when it was clear otherwise. There was in Abu Garcia's lineup something that was claimed to be exclusive but I do not remember what it was as I never used the Revo line.

They don't mention that they do, but they imply it such as Abu with the Magtrax name for instance.  Magtrax was developed by Abu in the early 1980s and they own the trademark to it, so they apply it to their OEM partner offerings that use a magnetic brake.  If St Croix truly does own the tooling, they can assemble in Mexico since labor costs are similar to Chinese costs and cheaper than Korean labor.