It seems as a company owner it's been harder and harder to make ends meet for me. It seems that everyone today in fingerboarding doesn't buy as much stuff as they were a few years ago. I just find I'm having less and less motivation for Airflo, because I hardly get orders any more. I've gotten like 8 since like mid May? It's kind of weird. I remember when I first bought my welder like 2 years ago I had to shut everything down after being open for like 8 or 9 days because like 20-25 orders piled up and I needed time to make everything. I guess people are impatient too? It seems now if you order something, and it's not there within like 3 or 4 days, it's a scam or something. I've gotten several claims put against me from people who never emailed me saying, "it's been a week and a half, and I haven't gotten my rail yet" Blah blah. I clearly specify online that rails are fabricated by one person by hand, and everything is essentially "Custom." In metal fabrication companies, I know the place I work at holds orders for almost months sometimes. I do my best to get everything out in a somewhat timely fashion, but it seems like people want it to their house in 5 minutes after they order. Am I right with these acquisitions? Idk... Personally, I could give 2 fucks about the money. I never was solely in anything for the money. I love running Airflo, but I think It might be time for a brief hiatus from making rails at least for a month or 2. Maybe sort things out in my head, and go from there. Does any other company owners who have been around for 2+ years notice anything to this extent? If so share here.

its seems its all about make your own stuff nowadays

I'm having a harder time selling distributed products on my site (products not made by me).

But my decks still sell pretty well. I don't make a lot of them so that might be why.


I agree on the impatience part, which is the reason i don't offer customs on my site. If i had to listen to people go "wheres my deck" i wouldn't be able to keep a somewhat decent and polite customer service.

Lately I've been having the same problem, but I think that's mainly because I don't advertise as much. Every now and then I like to change things up a bit. Maybe you could try spicing things up and be a bit more aggressive(if that makes sense?) after you come back from the break. That would get people a bit more hyped about rails and stuff. Maybe you could come out with some different things other than rails? Just some food for thought. Lately I've been having long waits for orders, then I get like 4 in a day. Then it repeats again. Maybe that's just me, but yeah.

Hope this contributed to the topic :3

I haven't had any orders but two in the past month. All of that went to veneer and shipping costs. I don't know if i'll be able to stay open much longer if decks don't start selling for me. But I know how you feel. I also was guessing it was cause it's summer and people don't want to order stuff when they're away from home?? or maybe people just don't wanna buy my stuff. I dunno. The fb market is weird. It's inconsistent and has it's major peeks in sales, then a decline. At least in my experience.

Its that and then its well people want everything for free, i always tell myself okay after this im done. but im sticking in the game, and its like i have a job , i do this as a hobby i just would like to cover running cost. im trying to keep this sport alive.not to make a profit.but i mostly dig money up to fund my company , money for molds straight out of pocket ,veneer out of pocket. tools and ect out of pocket. i just like making decks. money isnt the problem its selling the product, it is nice to know im not the only one.

even 2 years ago the sales went down for me in the summer time str8 killed it in the winter months but idk i have noticed a decline. i have noticed a Hardcore trend more so now then 2 years ago in people having to have what everyone wants right now its "I NEED a rad ramps deck anything 32mm BRTS 2.0s 32mm or Ytrucks X4 hardcore trends right now! i would love to see the sales for black river right now on BRTs 32mm vs the 29s. guess what im tryin to say is fingerboarders are just more trendy now imo no one likes to try the NEW guy in town or the little guy anymore! thats just how i feel i guess. i cam back a few months ago from My break of Maze fingerboards it was so nice not having to make orders ship shit blah blah blah. i havnt sold a single deck since i came back just givin a shitload out for free.

@ Kyle- Yeah and that's what fingerboarding is all about. But it's different in some way that I can't describe haha.

@Danny- Yeah I run into that a lot with "Where's my rail OMG u r a turr1ble s@lesman" Bullshit

@Gunner- I think that's a good idea. Except I don't plan on starting anything else lol. I have no more room for basically any tools and stuff to start anything else, and don't really have a desire to start anything else, at least for now.

@Brian- See that's exactly my point. I don't get it. 2 orders? Holy shit, it's not like you're selling decks at $45 a piece or something (nothing against companies that do) like is $16 too much for a deck? 20 for a fucking custom? Like come on people.
I question as to when I'm going to have to stop (hopefully never) because I just built a new bench that is more adequate for the fabrication that I do which cost nearly $100, I ordered about $160 of steel, not to mention my website costs more and more each year (Fuck you godaddy) and I pay probably like $2 every time I go to the post office in Fuel? Not to mention the countless hours, new machine parts (Belts, grinding wheels, drill bits, welding wire, welding tips, Wire wheels, files, blades) While some of those may be minor, after buying so many it all adds up. It sucks that people can't have a little patience for stuff. It'd be different if the rails were already made, or I had people working for me full or even part time, but It's not that way at all. Idk, maybe I'm over analyzing shit, but it's so weird. Even blackriver seems like they're having trouble with some business. They laid a lot of their staff including Thomas Hansen off somewhat recently, which probably means their sales aren't as high as they were in the past.

Also, not to double post, but it seems evident that the "market" is flooded. Everybody who starts fingerboarding seems like they want to start a company because "Oh I think I can make money" and stuff. That's what happened with skatboarding too. Idk just my opinion...

Triple post for the win- Not everyone does that but it's much more evident than it used to be.

bann for the triple post lol

The double post was fair, the triple could have been edited into your second


But yea, the market is definitely flooded.


EDIT: (see what i did here).. It's not always the new company owners fault though.. I see a lot of people almost getting pressured into starting a company just because they made a nice deck or a nice box.

Mikkel S wrote:

The double post was fair, the triple could have been edited into your second


But yea, the market is definitely flooded.


EDIT: (see what i did here).. It's not always the new company owners fault though.. I see a lot of people almost getting pressured into starting a company just because they made a nice deck or a nice box.

I agree on the getting pressured stoof. Some companies here on FBHQ comes to mind.

Also another thing I could could be the reason why is alot of people trade and buy used things rather than new things.

yee i actually kinda hate running a company. i love making decks, but i hate dealing with all the other crap that comes with selling them. ill probably only sell my decks through other distributors when i go to college to avoid all the hassle. and i dont actually sell that many... oh well.. i love making decks, so making some extra cash is just a bonus for me!

times are tough. this time last year I was living comfortably off fingersized, as of february this year I've only just managed to scrape by. people are buying less, I think

that, and more and more china companies are removing potential new customers - if they can get a 32mm blank for 6 dollars on ebay then why should they even look at any non china companies? That's pretty much the direction everything is going, one for price and two for availability compared to hand made decks that get a stock of 4 decks out in the same time you could buy a few hundred china decks and get them delivered to you.

It's mostly down to the fact that China scum are everywhere, and there's just so many companies to choose from!
If I had the money I'd buy so much more stuff, but I have no job lmao. Another thing is that people have bought so much in the past, you can get most items through second hand trades/sales for a lot less than retail price.

You've got to consider the average age of people that fingerboard too, its probably like 14 years old?
Most people that age aren't going to consider the company itself and who's running it when buying stuff, they'll want whatever is like hyped or in trend.
I wonder when a 'famous' fingerboarder does a video on say specific ramp, if its influential on the sales of that ramp too.