Lomo Watersport

With their excellent product and competition slaying (not just beating) prices I find it hard to believe Lomo won’t very soon take over the entire kayaking goods industry in Scotland!
When I first read their price list I thought one of two things:
EITHER
1) They are using the absolute cheapest materials and lowest level of workmanship (believe it or not, not all fabrics are created equal, and some, especially those used by big outdoor brands, are substantially cheaper and less equal than others)
OR
2) They are using reasonable-​to-​good quality materials and workmanship coupled with a streamlined (i.e. super short) supply chain, direct sales and minimal marketing (advertising is VERY expensive).
Against supposition one is that, whilst cheap, they aren’t unbelievably cheap.
The second is that I’ve seen their kit in a fair number of outdoor centres, and outdoors centres don’t make the kind of money that they can afford to replace kit every three weeks, no matter how cheap it is. I’ve also seen quite a few of their dry bags on dive boats in Scapa Flow, not an easy life for any bit of kit.
Companies selling rubbish tend to spend large amounts on advertising to make you overlook the obvious flaws and short comings in their products, as far as I can see Lomo spend (comparatively) little on marketing and rely almost entirely on the quality of their product advertising them through word of mouth.
In favour of the second supposition are that Lomo (and they openly say this on their website) only sell from their website and shop. No middle men, no sales reps trawling the country, no wholesalers or importers taking their cut and upping the price you pay.
In short, Lomo can sell an excellent product so low because of their business model, not because they’ve cut corners!
So far all the kit I’ve bought from them is standing up well and I’m very pleased with it.
All the best to them in the future.
P. S. If you’ve ever wondered where TV production companies get those flesh toned wetsuits from, it these people.