Welcome to New Sponsor Orvis
- This topic has 32 replies, 22 voices, and was last updated Dec 24, 2008 at 9:52 pm by
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Good work, glad to hear it. Orvis might be at somewhat of a crossroads in terms of the retail business. From just reading the retail tea leaves it would appear that the high end brands are in for a rough couple years ahead. It is very astute of them to shore up the hard core angler side of their business.
While the margins on the fluffy clothing and the dog beds are probably awesome, that customer has no REAL reason to pick Orvis over any other North Woods Mail Order Home Outfitter. The market may be heading toward thinning the herd on that type of offering. Like Detroit, we may see LL or Land’s End or Orvis shrink substantially. So by shoring up the Rod and Tackle business and fortifying their fly fishing base, Orivs has padded the fall back plan.
The hard core anglers are a sustainable group of customers. They may not be as numerous as soccers moms with Labs. However they are loyal educated about products they are shopping for and dedicated to the sport for the long haul, something that can’t be said for the typical soccer mom dog bed shopper.
Joel –
First of all, none of these companies is sponsoring *me.* I am not on any of their “pro staffs,” nor would I accept an invitation if it were offered. I have a responsibility to cover everyone in this industry and I take that seriously; whether I like a company’s employees on a personal level or simply don’t know them, I still view it as my job to be objective about their products.
Zach
Zach you sort of contradict yourself with this statement from your original post.
Big day today; first Cloudveil, now Orvis.
Joel –
I understand where you’re coming from, but this is old news. (And when I said that, I meant I accepted their sponsorship of this site, on behalf of the site.) When I started accepting ads on this site, I made it clear to all my advertisers that they weren’t buying interest and that it wouldn’t affect my writing (which is, after all, for magazines which have their own priorities – I am just a freelancer). Over time the companies that advertise here have decided it’s a good investment because this site simply has a lot of fly fishers who view it. The door is open for any advertiser who wants to buy an ad, and it doesn’t get them anything anywhere else – that’s how it’s been for over two years.
I see where you are coming from now Zach and to be honest I didn’t take into consideration the diversity of your advertisers.
I would just hate to see a great site like this compromised by too much advertisement. I feel like in this day and age that the people in the fly fishing magazine industry (or any magazine for that matter) are too afraid to say what they REALLY feel about a companies product because they don’t want to miss out on the all mighty dollar. If you ask me it is just part of the pussification of america where we fear calling a spade a spade.
That said (and I have learned this the hard way) it needs to be done in a constructive manner and not with a bunch of name calling. If a rod sucks simply point out what you feel the flaws are in the rod. If a reel is not up to your standard point out what you don’t like about it. Not every piece of gear out there is great like the magazines and advertisers would like for us to believe. I would just like to see someone who has the guts to say how they really feel about something and not worry if the advertising dollar is going to be there if they do.
Just my two bits. Sorry to everyone if I highjacked this post to express this. It was not my intension.
Joel
Hey Joel –
I appreciate your understanding. You know I value your opinion and I know you are not one to fly off the handle. The deal with this site is, I don’t censor people’s opinions, but I do ask them to think the opinions through. When people have come out and been overly critical about a company in the past, rather than delete their post, I have simply tried to point out why I think their criticism is unfair. Take Lando, for instance (not picking on you Lando–just as an example): his waders leak. Well, everyone’s waders leak eventually. Sometimes it’s due to a manufacturing failure and sometimes it’s due to wear and tear. Generally speaking, cheaper waders are going to leak faster – you don’t push a Ford Taurus to 130mph and then expect it to perform like a Porsche. But, in the case of both Cloudveil and Orvis, I am sure that if Lando sent the waders back and the company looked at them and realized they were designed or manufactured to fail, I feel confident they would man up and make it right.
I don’t ask people to treat my advertisers with kid gloves; I do ask people to treat everyone and every company with a reasonable degree of respect, whether they are my advertiser or not. Not an excessive amount of respect, just some.
Zach
On behalf of my most important sponsor, I thank you for your support, Carter.
Knew I could count on you.
“Zima”
hopefully you’ve got a stockpile.
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/10/20/daily15.html
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