Against the trend of the financial crisis, Yongkang became the country's largest skateboard industry base

Xinhuanet, Zhejiang Channel, June 11. Since last year, there has been a skateboarding boom all over the country. It is companies in Yongkang, Dongyang, Wuyi and other places that set off this boom. In just over a year, Yongkang has Become the country's largest skateboard production base. At the same time, with the intervention of hundreds of companies, product quality is uneven, and price competition is fierce. Whether this emerging industry will follow the old path of steppers and other products, it was quickly eliminated by the market after it was all the rage. The skateboard industry seems to have reached a crossroads.

    Surging

    Under the financial crisis, many companies are facing survival dilemmas. But in Jinhua, the skateboard industry has shown a strong momentum of development.

    Beginning in 2008, skateboard advertisements have occupied the main position on roadside billboards in Yongkang, Dongyang, Wuyi and other places. In the shops of Yongkang China Science and Technology Hardware City and Yiwu International Trade City, colorful and various shapes of skateboards are particularly attractive. People are eye-catching, and more people see skateboarding from the children's playing on the streets of the city and have great interest in it.

    "After the Spring Festival this year, I went to Hunan on a business trip and saw more than 200 children skateboarding at the same time in a square in a prefecture-level city." A business owner in Yongkang said. In April of this year, when a local reporter from Jinhua returned to the disaster-stricken area in Sichuan for an interview, he also saw many skateboarding children, all of whom were from Yongkang and Dongyang. On the Internet, enter the word "skateboard" to search, and more than 310,000 online shops popped up, most of which are from Jinhua.

    "It should be said that the real rise of skateboarding was in the first half of last year, and it is now a year." said Li Tunyi, deputy director of the Yongkang Economic and Trade Bureau. After the improvement and promotion of enterprises in Yongkang and other places, it quickly became popular and became a newcomer. Leisure activities. At present, the annual output value of Yongkang skateboard industry is 2.8 billion yuan, and the annual output value of Yongkang Senbaodi alone is nearly 40 million yuan.

    Judging from the current situation, the popularity of the skateboard industry in Jinhua City is increasing, and more companies are joining in. Zhejiang Lia Vehicle Industry Co., Ltd., located in Quanxi Town, Wuyi County, was originally a manufacturer of recreational sports vehicles such as ATVs. Since this year, affected by the financial crisis and US trade barriers, the export of ATVs has been severely blocked. "This year we have also seen the market prospects of the skateboard product, and invested part of our energy in the production of this product, which soon opened up sales in the domestic market.

    Although the current output is not large, with the company's original research and development capabilities, it will definitely grow at a relatively fast rate in the future. "The person in charge of the company Yang Meizi said.

    It is reported that many enterprises in Jinhua City only got involved in the skateboard industry this year. "If you include accessories companies, there may be hundreds of related companies in Jinhua City. Among them, there are more than 100 large-scale production companies, mainly in Yongkang, Dongyang, and Wuyi. The products are mainly domestic sales." Ying Gangyi, secretary general of the Zhejiang Recreational Sports Vehicle Association, said that there is no doubt that in the current global economic downturn, skateboarding has become a new economic growth point for Jinhua City.

    Broad prospects

    "Now the skateboards we produced were originally called'Vitality Boards," also called Dragon Boards, Dragon Boards, Snake Boards, and Land Surfboards. They were first developed by the United States. After that, South Korea mastered the production technology and applied for it all over the world. Trademarks and seizing the market. Entered the Chinese market around 2004.” Ying Gangyi said that at that time, Korean distributors used the method of giving products to clubs in order to open the market in China, and asked professional players to teach everyone how to play for free, but did not move forward. Popularization.

    In the second half of 2004, Ying Gangyi went to Guangzhou to participate in the Canton Fair. He saw the "Vitality Board" for the first time in front of the booth of a joint venture with South Korea. "Although we have seen skateboards in the past, this product similar to traditional skateboards immediately attracted us. We felt that this product was very similar to the previous scooters and was very suitable for making in Yongkang." Ying Gangyi said, so he tried every means. I bought one for more than 20 dollars through a dealer and brought it back to Yongkang. This is also the first new skateboard to enter Yongkang.

    After research and improvement, Ying Gang Yili Automobile Industry began to produce this kind of skateboard and put it on the Yiwu market. "At that time, the domestic market was not recognized, mainly for export, and sales were very small." Ying Gangyi said that a few rare orders were also sold to South Korea. After the outbreak of the international financial crisis last year, the export volume was also less. .

    However, what Ying Gangyi didn't expect was that the domestic skateboard market opened up rapidly as more and more companies intervened in this industry, and it quickly became popular throughout the country.

    Ying Gangyi said that perhaps after the consumption level of the Chinese people has increased, the concept has changed, and this extreme sport has been pursued; in addition, the current skateboard has broken the traditional manufacturing process of the previous skateboard, and the appearance is very fashionable, and the price is not expensive. The lowest price of traditional skateboards is 200 to 300 yuan, while the current skateboards generally only cost more than 100 yuan last year, which can be accepted by domestic consumers.

    "The Beijing Olympics has further promoted domestic mass sports and laid the foundation for the hot sales of skateboards." Ye Xianglang, general manager of Yongkang Heshun Machinery Co., Ltd., who has just started skateboarding this year, believes that the domestic market is a huge market. If it is good, the skateboard market has a bright future and is far from saturated.

    "Skateboarding has its own unique fun and excitement. It should not be like a hula hoop. At the same time, we will join hands with the sports department to organize some events to make it a sport, and it will compete with basketball, Volleyball is as prosperous as ever." said Hu Miaoli, owner of Zhejiang Xinning Industry and Trade Co., Ltd.

    How to extend the life cycle

    However, while everyone is optimistic about the broad market prospects of skateboarding, some people in the industry have also raised their concerns about the future development of skateboarding. Inspur economy is often associated with counterfeiting and price wars. Since this year, these drawbacks have also been exposed in the skateboard industry.

    "Last year, the price of skateboards was more than 100 yuan. At the beginning of this year, it was 70 to 80 yuan. Now skateboards of more than 30 yuan have appeared. With that, corporate profits have shrunk seriously and product quality has dropped sharply." Zhejiang Recreational Vehicle Sports Ye Hongbang, an expert from the association and an engineer from Zhejiang Aikeshi Vehicle Industry Co., Ltd., said, “At present, there is no standard to follow in this industry. Some small companies, regardless of quality and safety, are cutting corners and shoddy. One ton of aluminum materials worth 13,000 yuan should be used, and some companies use inferior goods worth 11,000 yuan; they originally used two aluminum strips, but they only used one; and the thickness became very thin. Above 1.5 kilograms, some companies only have 1.3 kilograms or even smaller. The tread plates with plastic materials originally used new materials, but they used recycled materials, and the thickness was also thinner. The following components such as wheels, steel pipes, and steel belts were all squandered. Cut corners. Originally, ordinary skateboard wheels cost more than 5 yuan each, and good ones cost 7 or 8 yuan, but they only cost 2.5 yuan."

    Someone has done a cost analysis. According to the current material prices, the cost of a pair of ordinary skateboards should be more than 65 yuan, good ones cost 70 to 80 yuan, but some companies produce inferior products as long as 50 yuan or even lower. However, such an inferior product deformed as soon as it stepped on it, and fell apart after a few games. At the same time, it also brings security risks.

    Because there are few skateboard parts, the production process is relatively simple, and the counterfeiting is relatively easy. Therefore, the Zhejiang Recreational Vehicle Sports Association starts with the protection of innovative products, and announces the company's innovative products in the local media as protected products. Once counterfeiting is found For infringements, the relevant departments have been sternly cracked down, all counterfeit products are confiscated, and all counterfeit products are handed over to the Association for processing, and enterprises are required to delete the sales pictures and text of infringing products, destroy the advertising color pages, and publicly apologize in the media.

    At present, the Zhejiang Recreational Sports Vehicle Association has convened various skateboard manufacturers to discuss and formulate the "Skateboard Product Supervision Certificate Mark Management Rules" which will soon be implemented. The rules are about the torsion, fatigue resistance, wear resistance, bounce, wheel frame, Bearings, shafts and other indicators have put forward specific requirements, and commissioned the Zhejiang Provincial Quality and Technical Supervision and Inspection Institute to conduct inspections, and skateboards that meet the standards are allowed to be certified by the Association.

    "Skateboard is a new product, and there is no standard yet." Ying Gangyi said, "Skateboard Product Supervision Certificate Mark Management Rules" is just a transitional measure. Next, the association will step up the development of skateboard industry standards.