The power of unity

A conversation with Till Eberle, CEO of Boards & More, Craig Gertenbach, previously Brand Manager Fanatic, Raoul Joa, Division Manager Windsurf and Klaas Voget, Division Manager Product & Marketing Wing Foiling.

Till the first question goes to you: Will Boards & More discontinue the Fanatic brand?

Till: "With Fanatic and Duotone, we have two powerful brands at Boards & More that occupy very similar positions. Fanatic has a heritage of over 40 years. We grew up with Fanatic and we made Fanatic great. But since we founded the new Duotone brand for our Kiteboarding products in 2018, this brand has achieved incredible strength, competence and acceptance among our customers. Duotone already covers a large part of the water sports world, from Kiteboarding to Windsurfing sails and wings for Wing Foiling. Duotone brings together a huge amount of expertise. That's why we have decided to offer the products from the performance sector, which were previously under Fanatic, under the Duotone brand name going forward in the future, i.e. Windsurf boards, Wing Foiling boards and foils. The logical sequence is that we are phasing out Fanatic in the Windsurf and Wing Foil segment over the next six months. In the commercial SUP (Stand-Up Paddling) sector, the Fanatic brand will remain. We are focusing fully on this segment with Fanatic and will continue to offer appropriate products to a much broader target group here under the Fanatic name."

Synergy is always a nice buzzword. But how do you bring this to life at Boards & More
or Duotone?

Till: "In development, we no longer work in individual sports silos anyway, we cross over. We were only able to establish Wing Foiling so successfully at Boards & More in such a short time because of the competent input that came from all our sports divisions. Ken Winner, the Duotone designer, who incidentally was also instrumental in the development of shortboards in Windsurfing, now develops the wings. Klaas, who tests the Windsurf wave boards, is now head of Wing Foil development. Our D/LAB and SLS series with the innovative materials from the Kite Division flow into wings and windsurf sails. Synergies in the development of different sports actually take the products for our customers a lot further.Together we are simply stronger. That has always counted at Boards & More. Without Windsurfing sales, our origin over 30 years ago, Kiting would never have had such great success. Wing Foiling as a new sport, on the other hand, could never have developed so dynamically without the resources of Kiting. This family of sports brands is so strong because we have a common platform with the Boards & More Group. Developers, importers, dealers as well as employees in Molln and Oberhaching – decades of experience and continuity is the cornerstone for innovation, quality and service."

Craig: "By co-inventing the new sport of Wing Foiling, our sport structure became intermingled. Wing Foiling built a bridge between Kitesurfing and Windsurfing, because part of the development came from each sport, so athletes from both areas discovered Wing Foiling for themselves. Suddenly the whole thing becomes blurred. Everyone is open-minded, which is highly exciting and lowers barriers. Here in our company alone, you see how

many people are now doing all the sports. This is another reason why we use teams cross-matrix. Those who are good in a subject area should do just that. It is much more efficient and consistent to do this under one brand. From now on, everything in Wing Foiling and Windsurfing will also come from one source, as we have already established very successfully with Duotone Kiteboarding."

Raoul: "Something else, too: In Kiteboarding, there is no separation of brands between boards and kites. In Windsurfing, on the other hand, there have traditionally always been board brands and sail brands. But that's an outdated approach. It doesn't result in an advantage for customers. Many of our customers practice Windsurfing and Wing Foiling or Kiteboarding and Wing Foiling. The mindset today is much more open. Narrow-minded thinking like 'I'm only a Windsurfer or only a kiteboarder' no longer exists.”