My poppa was overly fond of the Hershey with Almonds, as he cared nothing for money or markets, it was the yardstick by which he measured the US economy.
…in between telling us when he was a kid, it was only a nickel.
We learned the brightly emblazoned text, “33% more, Free” meant the economy was in tailspin and the price was about to rise, and the plain wrapper sans “free food” meant the stock market was a rocket ship headed skyward … (you can find the Hershey Cost Index here)
Most of this year I’ve been working towards a suite of dubbing under the Singlebarbed logo, not so much raw commercialization as awareness that an entire generation of tiers has never seen or used custom products, relying instead on synthetics that are one dimensional, like the unsatisfying part of a Mickey Dee’s burger.
Part of all that market research included buying some from all the major vendors, deconstructing the components, admiring the gilt packaging, noting the superlatives and claims of perfection, weighing, measuring, and studying benefits and shortcomings, as well as estimating their costs.
My premonition was dubbing would be a Hershey bar, only the shop tag obscured the “30% more, free” …
When I think of the expensive items we measure as minor trappings of wealth; a choice steak, a new car, a girlfriend half our age, they’re cheap* (unless a divorce is involved) by comparison.
Dubbing isn’t rare furs and endangered animals anymore. The modern marketplace is comprised of components shat from tubes, boiled in vats, and sold by the ton. So why is a six ounce “steak” of dubbing just over six hundred dollars, and a new car of dubbing making a dent in the national debt?
The math is simple, I took a representative sample comprised of 10 fly shops and the 10 dubbing products common to all, which yielded a product package weight of nearly 4g, comprised of packaging weighing 3g, whose contents contain 1g of fur.
Given the taxation of those states and the average price, the fly tying community is paying on average, $3.75 per gram of dubbing.
Most of the products are entirely synthetic, some contain two ingredients – a hint of synthetic sparkle and a natural or synthetic binder layer. Figure they’re paying about $10 per pound for the base synthetic, which they may dye, then re-fluff for packaging, that $10 investment becomes $1702.00 for the respective jobber and subscribing retail shops.
Not a bad return for the jobber, the retail side only gets to double the price once.
Comparison of the same product a decade ago (for those that existed) shows a decline in content weight of 50%.
… like the candy bar of yore, “fur” has shrankeled while doubling or tripling in price.
There’s no mystery to all this. Jobbers dominate the fly tying section and distribute the packaged dubbing too. With no in-house brand for competition they can do what they will, as they’ve got a monopoly on all that pegboard and what it contains.
… I’ll add that to the “ornery” side of why we need more choices. I just wanted to make something better, and already I feel the pull of Jihad.
Great site. I’ve been reading for a long while but never bothered to respond…probably out of sheer laziness. But this time I thought I would contribute.
I’ve started making my own dubbings this year after reading your posts. One thing I have found commercial dubbings useful for is adding effects to my own blended dubbings. Acrylic yarn and dyed rabbit fur trimmings (those rabbit “value packs” from big box stores are great for this) form the bulk of what I mix, and a pack or two of SLF, Ice Dub, or Antron gives me a nice finished product. For about 10 bucks I can have enough dubbing to last a long long time.
AMEN
I can see it now. Help keep America’s roadsides clean-use Roadkill Dubbing for all your fly tying needs. Using only the finest (and freshest)premium roadkill pelts.
Welcome aboard Rex, you’re now part of the vocal minority.
Your point is well taken, you can construct some great materials using vendor packs to provide individual effects like sparkle, or even color – it’s the rare case where the result may be greater than the sum of the parts.
Marketing 104 says:
It’s OK to make money if it allows you to do what you enjoy/need to do. A target price below $5.00 is no particular burden on society.
But, there are 1 or 2 costs involved that must be paid by each packet of 3rd World Lint Inc. sold.
A modest salary of 27.50 an hour (handling)
the paper stock and printing of the label
the poly bags the Lint goes in
the shipping costs
the phone bill
the pots
the dyes
the drying time
the divorce court expense
the stoves
the mountain of freebees that Rough Fish requires for advertising.
state and federal liscenses and taxes
environmental regulation costs
garbage service
paypal fees
site administration costs
product testing expenses
sports show booths
travel expenses
bank fees
thats a good start on spending $3.75 a gram.
That’s valid.
Considering you’ve stopped by and seen me engaged in all the above (minus the divorce – but soon)… and giggled over the mounds of crap in my living room – while threatening to tell MA, I’m surprised you’ve assumed I’ve not factored that in.
… and if the dubbing pays for all of those, than why is that little dollop of Marabou so expensive?
I’ll take some (lots of it) spectral Bird’s nest dubbing.
I’ll let you know if I need a girl friend half my age after I’ve given that proposition a little more gray-matter time.
Wow, one-stop shopping for all my vices and vises!
Keith, Any idea when we might be able to stock up on Singlebarbed Dubbing?
I’m working on the final blend and color selections now. First out of the gate will be what I’d describe as a “medium nymph” dubbing – comprised of about 10-11 components (both natural and synthetic). Shortly after will be the dry fly dubbing.
I have nearly 20 readers engaged in testing prototypes and revisions. We’re almost done with the nymph dubbing – but I’ll need to incorporate their feedback on how to improve it – what worked, what was a great idea but wasn’t, etc.
Label art is being finalized but hasn’t been printed up yet, so I have at least 30-60 days of work yet.
At the same time I’m building the tools to make larger amounts in a single pass. All of the prototypes are currently made by hand. I think there will be a great deal of hand work in the final product by choice …
That last batch of six prototypes (x 20) took most of a day to build, I need to refine the process with a bit more automation.
Welcome to the wonderful world of quality control, supply and demand, voodoo marketing and guerilla advertising!
This is why I got out of the bicycle industry. All the design is there, waiting for tech to catch up. And, the marketing dudes are just selling why you need the latest stuff. It’s hardly ever about what works.
However, I say good luck and God love ya for giving this the old college try!
Oh Yeah, I’m in there to try the new product on release day.
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