Just some raw footage from the test runs I did a few months ago. Sorry, I wasn’t able to do any uphills that night. Check the video’s description for timepoints to look at if you skip through it (don’t blame you, they are quite uneventful)
I don’t know what ESC was used, but I can ask. The published an update showing the electronics only a month or so ago. https://m.imgur.com/pRVQjIy
It was a prototype of the new frame design, which has slimmed down in the meantime. The hot swappable battery was cool.
The Mellow guys were on their way to Barcelona to film that 7 Chapters of Awesomeness video.
Tbh boosted is better than melow if I have to look from performance and price point. Id rather build my own eboard pick my own deck and ask some members here for better parts or some custom work on the deck, etc. Then some of the left over money just buy batteries and more batteries. Imagine 600 euro worth of batteries, you can ride forever.
Oh hell the price is ludicrous … But give them much kudos for the super clean look and functionality…i
Thier target market isn’t us…and I doubt many of us would just give up what we do to create a board…
I think something like this will drive interest in DIY… Because in my head…the first thing I said…“I could make something like that”…“and I ain’t paying thousands to do it”
we’re right at the beginning of this niche’s growth, hopefully it will continue to grow. what you see today, won’t be what’s around in 18 months.
the guys here who are making now, will unlikely be the guys making at the end - that’s how markets work. there will be many casualties along the way, probably most of all in China.
the Chinese (generally) don’t know how to market (culture, language, skillset), and then they are not great at being close to customers and innovating from feedback - this is where anyone else can win.
the key to survival for anyone is:
attract enough people who like your UNIQUE product, brand and proposition, to make enough gross margin.
keep your overheads low.
scale with demand at the same gross profit, with maybe a 5% band of change.
most people will fail at the margin part, and then the scale part.
the ones that don’t will survive.
Hopefully marketing ends up falling on it’s head when tons of stuff is sold that breaks. Stuff sold in Germany must last 2 years legally I think and for electric board stuff that’s a longer time than a lot of stuff lasts… stuff out of china or america can legally fall apart in moments. The diy eskate sellers more so get away with selling stuff that falls apart as customers assume or are told it was their fault.
im offering lifetime warranty on the steel hub motors I sell. If you break a magnet or burn the motor out or need a new bearing youre not covered but otherwise I feel comfortable offering that.
steelhubs.com
I guess I’m a bit salty as I sell cheaper than everyone as well yet marketing trumps.
Think marketing + quality trumps.
Eventually poor quality will burn out.
But most of all, it’s hard to make something that appeals to everyone.
Boosted picked a larger segment than everyone else and made it easy. Mellow haven’t done a great job at communicating their proposition, whilst maintaining a price point that will automatically segment them for higher income earners. Which is fine, and in some cases is better than being mass market.
Since I speak german I had a back and forth email argument with the guys from Mellow. I think their pricing is ridiculous to be honest. This industry is taking off and you’ll see new products almost every day. And what was special on one day will become the usual on the next. Western companies always seem to go for the exclusive branding and to some degree that pisses me off. Obviously the Chinese couldn’t care less about exclusiveness, but that doesnt say that they don’t innovate. Even if they just make a good copy for half the price, I call that innovation on my end as a consumer. B/c I personally want the price to go down and E-skateboarding to become a common trend and an affordable consumer product.
So I know you guys claim DIY, but except a couple of guys who actually build their own motors (and eventually sell them) you can’t do nothing by yourself. You buy ready components and put them together. And in terms of Mellow, considering something DIY b/c you still have to screw it on to some deck is pure hypocrisy.
I am looking forward to see a bigger selection of complete boards that are cheaply manufactured by machines and still (or therefor) of good qualiy. Why would I want to spend my time “building” something that a factory does 10 times faster and better? You know that is the idea of a modern industry, you don’t have to do it yourself, like the lonely trapper in the woods. And in some sense you guys are stalling the industry with your backward nostalgia and “feeling good about ourselves, b/c DIY”. You are not better than anyone who just wants to buy a nice E-board and ride it, so don’t pretend to be, it’s vain.