Zpacks Duplex at Massdrop

[Aushiker]

Massdrop have a genuine ultralight shelter on offer in their ultralight community ... the Zpacks Duplex potentially for US$559.99 + $35 shipping.

These two person shelters weigh in at around 600 grams plus stakes and if necessary poles.

[Eljimberino]

If someone made a tent like this in Australia they'd be making a killing at the moment with the way the dollar is.

[icefest]

If someone made a tent like this in Australia they'd be making a killing at the moment with the way the dollar is.

Nah, Cuben is sold in USD and labor here is much more expensive too.

[Eljimberino]

Haven't done the maths, but I imagine someone in Australia could make tent like this for less than $830AUD. Your comment seems to suggest that regardless of the US/AUD ratio there would never be a time where an Australian manufacturer could compete. In your opinion, what would the AUD have to be before the sums would add up?

Let me ask: has the low Aussie dollar and high US dollar put you off purchasing?

[GPSGuided]

To assure success here in Aust, we need to ensure our IP/material is of greater value than the premium wages here. In this case I agree with Icefest, the material here is cuben, one that we don't own nor can change the value proposition. So adding the premium wage and necessary profit margin, and potential cost of postage, the business case just isn't there. Maybe enough margin and acceptable for an individual family business but forget about a small company like ZPack with similar production scale.

[Mark F]

Doing it MYO you are looking at US$400 (AU$550) for materials. Obviously buying bulk materials will reduce this cost but you then have to add in wages (yours or others) plus a profit margin. Say $250 wages ($20 for 10 hours + on costs of 25% workers comp, super guarantee etc) + $100 profit get you to AU$800. Nobody's getting rich this way.

While the up front cost is high, when you work it out over 30 nights it is cheaper than staying at a youth hostel. The cost of good camping gear is quite cheap compared to most other forms of outdoor recreation eg sailing, cycling etc.

[icefest]

As GPSG said,

Cuben is only sold in USD. This means that the price is always the same fraction as that of the US test's price.
You would then need to pay for labor, which is about double the cost as for the same in the USA.

What GPSG and Mark F didn't mention is that you will also need to develop the design (lots of expensive materials), and then have enough spare cash to order a decent bulk about upfront. (I'd estimate that ZPack/MLD have about 20,000 - 50,00 AUD of materials in stock at varying points of time.

In the end you have an Australian product, made by an unknown person, with unknown standards competing with a similarly priced product from a company that's been at the forefront of the R&D of the industry for 10 years and has an incredible warranty and support. There is just no market.

Ask Evan why he didn't add the cuben tent that he made to his website as a regular item.

[Chezza]

Until Australian labour rates come down, you had better have something unique to offer (and the patents to protect your IP from theft) because you'll never compete on price making stuff here.

You could always get stuff manufactured under contact in China. Lighrwave/Crux comes to mind. Given that there are MSR and Lightwave clones on Aliexpress you have to assume you're giving away your IP to a certain extent when you do that. I can't imagine going through Chinese courts to fight IP theft would be particularly productive.

It's a different set of customers you'd be targeting, given that you no longer have the cachet that comes with "Made in the USA".

[GPSGuided]

And then there's that Fx risk. Are you prepared to weather another round of AUD-USD rollercoaster? Do you have enough staying power to hang in there when the chop is 30+%? Quite frankly, the world is against you on this proposition.