The new 2009 Naish Cults arrived at REAL the other day. Much to my surprise, they were packaged in a rather unique way. Most kites come in their own bags for transportation purposes, and are then packaged with the bar and a pump. Then all of that is stuffed into a corrugated box to be dismantled after shipment. Naish took a different approach this year.
All of the kites come in a simple well labeled box that is covered with tasteful graphics. The kite size and color of the kite are easily identifiable on a label. The labels are on numerous sizes of the box which help when they are stored, in order to quickly find the size/color of choice. The box has a good plastic handle for transportation by hand, that seems to hold its own. The boxes are roughly the size of a briefcase but about twice the width, noticeable small in size.
I have yet to open one of the boxes but they must be vacuum packed in order to be able to fit all the kites in the same size box. Some of the kites seemed to bulge out the box slightly. They should have made it a little wider if possible to ensure that when the kite boxes are stacked for retail that they align flawlessly.
The bars are each boxes with matching graphics and labeling. There is a nice cut out window at the top of the box to show off the end of the bar. This is a good choice since there in not a graphical representation of the bar on the box. There is also an eye hole punched out of the box to easily hang the boxes on the wall for retail.
By innovating the way in which the gear is packaged and displayed, Naish has stepped up their game immensely. But what has really changed? Really only the presentation it seems. Without a more in-depth analysis and material usage, it looks as though a relatively equal about of packaging material is being used, if not more. However, Naish’s new packaging has will increased their brands perceived value by them choosing to distribute their gear in this manner. I beleive they have set the bar for the other Kite manufactures to follow.
