Envy Surfboards 2024 Preview
Retail Buyers Guide: 2024 Surfboards Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: Envy Surfboards
Interviewee: Nuno Viegas - Surfboard Designer - man behind the brand
To a certain extent, the surfboard market relies on custom-made products and on demand manufacturing. Does this means the business is relatively spared from the poor sell-out and overstocks reported in other boardsport categories?
More and more new suppliers and alternative materials for surfboard manufacture appear giving a lot of production margin in Europe. With some will for testing and open doors to new small suppliers companies and with a open mind for the new brands in the market, the surfboard industry will be always with production timetable regular.
While the board offer has never been so wide nowadays, which were the top trends of 2023?
In eNVy Surfboards we are focus in a range of high performance competitive surfboards, we costumise boards for athletes or surfers who want to develop their skills in a high level of surf. We create the program “ project X “ where we analyze the surfer in action with his best board and try to design something that helps him arrive to those small details that he doesn’t have on the actual board. However we have a small range were we focus also in another models but all in the direction of the performance surf. Performance Twin, Performance Longboard, etc.
There is a noticeable step-back from competitive surfing: did this affect the sales of high-perf models?
No, the competition is a part of the surf industry. More and more kids appear into the completion role and also some developments appear. We can’t imagine surf without national competitions, national teams, world surf league or even now ISA games or Olympics. More and more teams from countries that dont even have solid waves appear in those contest. Competiton surf needs to exist to keep surf alive and on the news. In eNVy we have a program for athletes that really want to improve their competition results. Surfboard is their working tool.
There is no arguing: twins and midlengths still are crowd favorites. But which will be the trends within those two trends in 2024?
I think both will have their space in the surfboard market. However I can see the Twin fins with more variety or technology than the Midlenghts.
After the release of the Channel Islands Mid, the launch of the CI Log is a clear indicator of the appetite for classic longboards, outside the perimeter of niche hype brands. How is your longboard game for 2024?
We will only launch 2 models of longboard performance with a road pin and a squash, based also in our high performance program.
There are two main paths when it comes to sustainable surfboards: the eco blanks & resins, or the low-waste vacuum-made EPS boards. What is your take on the matter?
We try to be the most ecological possible. We work the eps with stringer and stringer less. We have the carbon sling construction and the shade in eps using also eco epoxy resin and the sustainable stamp I our boards. At the same time we are trying some blanks of Agave that we glass with epoxy eco resin. We can have a light surfboard and super easy to work with the ecological foot print the we need to start to leave.
Key Products:
Twin Channel:
Twin Channel
ACE:
ACE
Drummer:
Drummer
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