The Thomas & Thomas fly rod company — now back among the living after its near-death experience — is also going to sell direct to consumers via their website, though in an interesting attempt to protect their dealer network, they also plan to credit online sales from within a dealer’s geographic area to that dealer:
Tell us more about the T&T dealer protection plan. How will it work?
Dealers that truly support Thomas & Thomas by placing pre-season orders and educating their staff about the feature benefits of our products will be assigned a geographical territory. If we receive an online order where the billing address falls within that territory, the dealer will be credited for the sale. In effect the margin they make on such a sale will be comparable with what they would make had they of made the sale through their shop.
Obviously, a just-reborn T&T isn’t Simms, so the industry waves will be tiny by comparison. Still, the response to the Simms news wasn’t all that positive; will T&T’s attempt to cut dealers into their piece of the online pie help?
After all, we’re talking about a geographic dealer radius of approximately 50 miles; outside that distance, T&T will be essentially competing with their dealers’ own online sales efforts (along with everyone else).
In truth, this seems like an interesting compromise. Undergrounders?
Cutting the shops in for something is a lot better than nothing. T&T is one of my favorite companies (remember when they had a cool funky catalog ?) I think adding some direct to their sales mix will give them a better shot at survival since they’ve always had fewer dealers than many of the competitors. I don’t fish much plastic but they and Winston always get a spot at the head of the table for understanding faster does not equal better. So far the recent bamboo I’ve seen seems to be holding the high standards for both perfromance and cosmetics…. some of the best in the world. I’m rooting for them.
marty(Quote)
I think T&T is in an ideal position to begin direct sales; they don’t have much of a dealer base to support, and in their favor, they’re being very direct about it instead of couching it in brand doublespeak that Wally the Wonderdog can see through.
I once dubbed this the Orvis Effect; Orvis always sold direct and didn’t exactly win a lot of new dealers in the 90s (their gear wasn’t that great), so they were free to pursue whatever direct sales strategy they wanted.
Turns out they’ve always been good at selling direct (now they’re really good at it), and once they decided to make good gear, they are probably the best positioned company in the industry (plenty of people want to disagree with me, but…).
T&T’s comeback — in an industry already saturated with premium rod brands — probably requires direct sales. Good luck to ‘em.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Sounds like a good compromise to me. Heck T&T doesn’t have to do anything for those fly shops if they really don’t want to. Better selling direct than selling to Amazon to capture market share as far as I’m concerned.
I’m not one that cries foul every time a brand decides to go direct. I come from another area of sporting goods retail that has had very prominent brands (like Easton Baseball & Lifetime Basketball) also go direct in recent years. Did we whine about it a little bit? Yeah, but we moved on and kept purchasing those products because in the end that’s what our customers wanted. And the best way to keep customers is to give them what they want, not worry about what someone else is doing.
As long as the brand doesn’t resort excessive discounting (& marketing of such) on their site, or to extortion in selling to you – “you have to buy our cleats if you want to sell our bats” – and then sells direct on top of that, all’s fair game. Fact of the matter is if the supplier makes a desirable enough product, there’s usually enough of the pie to go around to make everyone happy.
troutrageous1(Quote)
Color me ambivalent I guess. Maybe. I don’t know…
I’ve always like T&T rods, particularly their two handers and I’m glad to see the company revitalized. However, they’re going to need to do some marketing in today’s retail atmosphere if they want to stay viable. Make that aggressive marketing.
I’m on record as an anti-Sage guy, but you gotta give ‘em credit. In terms of the BIG companies, they’re right up there with Orvis when it comes to selling their product, and they stand behind it with great customer service. One area where T&T has been ummm…weak? in the past is the service end of the game.
Echo or TFO might be excellent models to emulate.
trout chaser(Quote)
In recent decades, this has been a problem for them. At least today they can take advantage of more affordable online venues (which they seem to be doing).
I can’t speak to T&T’s service issues (which have been pretty widely reported online), though at least they address the issue in their interview.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
We at Brodin Landing Nets have also decided to sell direct at listed retail price. The internet has blurred the distinction among manufacturers, retailers, distributors and wholesalers and at this point it seems like a free for all. Our idea is to support dealers by using profits from direct sales to offer dealers increased discounts for pre-season orders and exclusivity for a new line of ghost nets. Will it work? We’ll see.
Chris Brodin(Quote)
From meerly a retail standpoint, what they are doing is honorable. Very honorable. Let’s hope they are fully forthcoming with their sales and set a standard for good manufacturers conduct…………………..rj
Roger(Quote)