This is information posted by Mark Price on another forum's Tomo discussion. I figured people here would be interested also.
"Firewire has partnered with Dan on a number of fronts, including building him a state of the art shaping bay at our San Diego headquarters.
2013: FW/Tomo branded Vanguards and V-4's will be released globally and sold exclusively through existing FW retailers.
2014 and beyond: Ongoing FW/Tomo boards as per 2013 with the addition of another 2-3 Tomo designs (Nano for sure) which will also be sold through Firewire dealers, but they will be in a flex tech unique to Tomo, and will not carry the Firewire logo.
Customs: Tomo is free to continue building custom boards but he will not be shaping stock boards for any retailers. All Tomo stock boards at retail will be either the Firewire/Tomo boards or the Tomo-only models in 2014, all built by Firewire.
I think you’ve got to see it from Dan’s perspective. With his popularity he had a simple choice. Remain focused on pushing the envelop with surfboard design, and enjoying the freedom to travel etc. without the headaches of running an ever-expanding business as his designs take hold. Or start putting the entire infrastructure in place to set up his own company with all of the headaches involved, and thereafter all of the day-to-day responsibilities of running a business. Sure he could have found a partner to help, but he would still have had to carry a load way beyond just board design, never mind raising capital etc.
As a strong believer in Firewire’s tech already and with our own factory capabilities, as well as collaborating with Dan to create unique flex ‘recipes’ for his 2014 Tomo-only branded boards, this approach makes sense for him."
Regarding Vanguard dims:
"in about 2 months time we'll be offering 1 inch increments in the Vanguard (currently only even lengths are offered), and by year-end at the latest it will be up on our CBD module whereby you can customize thickness and width in any given length yourself."
Also, regarding working with other larger shapers:
"We never set out to become the next Surftech, building our business largely on other brand's designs. I'm not knocking that biz model, just saying its not our goal. LOST was an early supporter of our tech so we felt it was a good fit to colab on a few designs, and with the new LOST direction we've dropped the LOST logos and only use the Mayhem logo along with ours. Plus Matt is designing boards that will only appear at retail in the FW range unless you'd like a custom then you can order one of those directly from LOST.
Tomo is taking it to another level as I outlined in an earlier post above. We have no plans to produce CI models in FW tech and honestly I don't know if that is even something they would be interested in. At the end of the day I think the surfboard market thrives on choice so there is no doubt that the average surfer has more choice than ever in terms of shape and construction."
"Firewire has partnered with Dan on a number of fronts, including building him a state of the art shaping bay at our San Diego headquarters.
2013: FW/Tomo branded Vanguards and V-4's will be released globally and sold exclusively through existing FW retailers.
2014 and beyond: Ongoing FW/Tomo boards as per 2013 with the addition of another 2-3 Tomo designs (Nano for sure) which will also be sold through Firewire dealers, but they will be in a flex tech unique to Tomo, and will not carry the Firewire logo.
Customs: Tomo is free to continue building custom boards but he will not be shaping stock boards for any retailers. All Tomo stock boards at retail will be either the Firewire/Tomo boards or the Tomo-only models in 2014, all built by Firewire.
I think you’ve got to see it from Dan’s perspective. With his popularity he had a simple choice. Remain focused on pushing the envelop with surfboard design, and enjoying the freedom to travel etc. without the headaches of running an ever-expanding business as his designs take hold. Or start putting the entire infrastructure in place to set up his own company with all of the headaches involved, and thereafter all of the day-to-day responsibilities of running a business. Sure he could have found a partner to help, but he would still have had to carry a load way beyond just board design, never mind raising capital etc.
As a strong believer in Firewire’s tech already and with our own factory capabilities, as well as collaborating with Dan to create unique flex ‘recipes’ for his 2014 Tomo-only branded boards, this approach makes sense for him."
Regarding Vanguard dims:
"in about 2 months time we'll be offering 1 inch increments in the Vanguard (currently only even lengths are offered), and by year-end at the latest it will be up on our CBD module whereby you can customize thickness and width in any given length yourself."
Also, regarding working with other larger shapers:
"We never set out to become the next Surftech, building our business largely on other brand's designs. I'm not knocking that biz model, just saying its not our goal. LOST was an early supporter of our tech so we felt it was a good fit to colab on a few designs, and with the new LOST direction we've dropped the LOST logos and only use the Mayhem logo along with ours. Plus Matt is designing boards that will only appear at retail in the FW range unless you'd like a custom then you can order one of those directly from LOST.
Tomo is taking it to another level as I outlined in an earlier post above. We have no plans to produce CI models in FW tech and honestly I don't know if that is even something they would be interested in. At the end of the day I think the surfboard market thrives on choice so there is no doubt that the average surfer has more choice than ever in terms of shape and construction."
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