The Price of a 1D Sail set? One of the most frequently asked questions we get from our sailors, when chatting in boatparks during events or during training sessions, is around the price of the 1D sails.
‘Why are the 1D sails so pricey?’
Well, multiple factors define our pricing method and therefore the pricing of our sails. As we want to stay close to our sailors, keep the cosy family spirit, obviously keep running our business and keep continuing those face-to-face chats with you, we thought we would share some details and insight with you on the topic.
- Production in Europe vs. Production in the far-East
The 1D Loft is located in Hungary, Europe. We are a small family based business, with a very small production team. We started small, we did it for love, the 1D design and brand got more popular but we haven’t changed our methods and roots. And at the moment we are not planning to.
As a consequence we have to work with/against local regulations, local taxes, local salary requirements, which in all honesty are more expensive compared to other brands’ production costs in the far-east.
- Limited Number of Sails vs. Mass Production
While other brands produce multiple thousands of sail sets per year (in the far-east), we produce a ‘limited’ amount. We want to own the end-to-end production process from design to delivery, to keep and continuously raise our standards and technology, and therefore our production team has a limited capacity.
This also means that the sail materials that we work with are more expensive for us due to the amount we use compared to our competitors.
- Quality vs. Quantity
As a small business and people dedicated to recycling and protecting our nature as much as possible, we try to live life with two words in mind. Quality and sustainability. We as a business want to keep ourselves honest to these two values.
Our responsibility as a business is to choose the highest-quality materials (which are obviously more expensive) to provide you with the highest quality sails while minimising waste and scrap. Your responsibility as a sailor is to make the right decision, whether you’d want to buy a cheap sail every single year shipped from the other side of the world or spend a little more, and invest in a product you’ll use for years and support a local business.
- Research and Development In-house vs. Outsourced
The 1D Sails are designed in-house, prototypes are made in our loft, tested with a unique team of expert sailors, then turned into durable, long-lasting designs we can truly recommend to our sailors. The development process, the new parts, the new construction techniques, the softwares we use and develop for ourselves, the running time of our machines are also part of our costs and therefore each bit of sail you buy includes a ‘fund’ for development!
And the development never stops! Materials, shapes, production methods, bits and bobs! We are full of crazy ideas!
Do we need this process? We think YOU do! ‘Cause at the end of the day we want YOU to win that regatta, and max out your time, adrenaline and speed on the water.
It’s not the sail set you buy, you also buy what 1D stands for!
We acknowledge that the racing sport arena requires high-performance, which is sometimes the burden of durability. We also acknowledge that racing sport is responsible for the technical development of a sport, and sailing is not different.
We want to keep continuing this development, locally in the heart of Europe, so we can stay close to you, our sailors. Every sailor who owns a 1D sail set is part of our story, journey and most importantly our huge family!
And believe us! The price you pay for your sails is not spent on fancy holidays or luxurious property, we re-invest it into the business. We travel to be there for you and help you to set up your sail during regattas and we keep continuing the developments. Our CEO, Panka actually swears, if there would be another way for Marton, our de-signer and co-owner, to support his family, he would give the sails for free!
