Wilderness FOCUS Series

When does the new Focus series come out for sale? Has anyone seen it or reviewed it yet?

Release…
The kayak will be released 9/1/13

I’d love to know how the name was chosen
How could the supposed, supple, sinuous, sibling of the Tsunami be ignominiously named after an innocuous Ford automobile?

Was this a name designed by committee?

Why the wait?
I understand wanting to build some hype on a new model. The part I don’t get is why wait until 2 weeks after the all the big end of season sales are on. Seems like a way to miss out on a lot of potential customers.

the retail cycle in outdoor industry
the Outdoor Retailer show is for dealers, reps, and distributors to poke, prod and, whenever possible, try out the new gear.



In the ensuing weeks they huddle and haggle over orders, mostly for 2014 Spring. That gives the plants some idea what demand is, get materials quantified and purchased, schedule model runs, etc.



While there will be a roll out of the Focus for the public come Sept 1 of this year, fall is not the optimum time to intro new models,which have to compete pricewise w. end of season sales in 2/3rds of the U.S. and most of Canada too. Spring is a much better time to get consumers salivating,and there will be more product out there.



Focus is a dull,inoffensive name and likely a bunch of MBAs picked it. Maybe entirely suitable for yet another range of the short, tracky, overly stable rec-ish kayaks that keep the kayak industry afloat.



Confluence seems to be lacking in good names.The last ones with any vitality were the Tempest, Tsunami and Zephyr.


Why
pass up a great deal on left overs for a new middle of the road boat which will almost certainly be selling at full price.