I noticed lack of Butterfly products

Hi,

haggisv wrote: A few years back many stores could buy direct from Butterfly Japan. Then they changed their policy so that there was only a single distributor for a region... which meant many other stores could no longer buy direct from Butterfly Japan... and in many cases it was simply too expensive to buy from the distributor in the region, as they controlled the price.

Its always more expensive to buy from a distributor than the manufacturer . More hands in the pot.  Selling in retail is a pain . Sometimes you see items being sold online that are cheaper than what you can buy them from your distributor for. Thats why you see MAP pricing now. 

Interestingly, on a tangentially related subject, unless you are one of the top handful of players in the world (say Timo Boll or Jun Mitzutani), a Btfly sponsorship is one of the least generous deals professional players can get.  A good friend of mine here in the US who was sponsored by Btfly got a much better deal with a competing company.  This was a few years ago, but it is consistent with everything we see about how Btfly operates.  No other company has driven price increases more than Btfy.

i remember Butterfly allows 25 to 30 percent profit from the standard retail prices. Reason why many people complain is that Butterfly charges Top retail prices when compared to other Manufacturers. But we the consumer still keep going back for more. Also our sport is not big in the United States and if you compare our sport to other types of Sports then Butterfly prices are very comparable. Our issue is we are always looking to buy a Tenergy Clone for $10 bucks. Joggers change there running shoes every 6 months, Tennis players string there rackets all the time ($20 to $40 two to three time per year) and dont even get into the cost of Basketball, Soccer and Football. Our Sport has too many older minded players who refuse to change with the times. When i came back to play about year and a half ago, i had sticker shock too. But now i know prices are very comparable to other sports and we forum members just like to complain...lol

This also a cause caused by parents wanting there kids to be more well rounded. Our club rents a mini soccer field to a Kids Soccer program on the weekends during winter. Those kids are decked out in full Soccer apparel. Parents will spend quite alot of money to further there kids along in life. NYC after school academic programs average about $800 to $1500 per month for them to get ahead in schools they attend. So in some communities this is just the price they happily pay. Inflation sucks, but we are like crack addicts that support this system.