Choosing the Right Dock Bumper
Andrew 00:08
So guys, I know one of the new products that you guys are really excited for that the different dock extrusion, you know, and I remember seeing it and going. That's awesome stuff. It's really, really nice. But I was concerned about shipping right, because I understand these, the sticks can roll up. Yeah. And I remember going, Hey, go look, maybe there's some options that can roll, I see some of these that are out there that do roll. And you guys push back pretty hard on me. What was the story there?
Ashley 00:32
Yeah, I mean, just looking at the product itself, this is the thinner of the profiles. And you're never going to be able to really roll it up and bend it for shipping, just because of the wall thickness and the density of the vinyl itself and construction.
Andrew 00:47
That right there is the thinnest?
Ashley 00:48
Yeah, this is the thinnest one, it's the p-profile. And if you try to bend it or curl it in on itself, it's heat sensitive, right? So it's going to it's going to form with heat as it ships. And if it's rolled up tightly, which you can't even roll it, this lip can get folded on itself or rolled up and it'll never go back to the original shape. So when you're trying to install it, it's never going to fit seamlessly on the top edge of the dock, it's just going to be rolled up in an awkward way, and it's not going to install really nice and cleanly.
Jared 01:18
Yeah, so I think, you know, one of the tradeoffs we looked at is that, you know, something that's going to roll up on itself is not going to be as rigid or as much material versus one that won't, right. And so if you look at that roll,
Andrew 01:30
It’s a roll that has to flatten to a large degree.
Jared 01:32 And so with this, you know, it's a much more rigid profile, more vinyl’s put into the product. And so you know, for us, it's a better way to protect the boat. And that's kind of you know, the big thing for us as we look to source products, we want to make sure that we're following our brand, it's on brand, Teak Isle, Boat Outfitters, we want to sell stuff that people are going to be happy with, you know, high reviewed, highly rated. You know, one of the things that I think you mentioned is you're looking through the reviews of the roll up one.
Andrew 01:57
Yeah, I was like, Okay, I'll show you. I'll find a roll up one. Yeah, I was looking online trying to find roll up ones. And yeah, go ahead.
Jared 02:02
Yeah, I think the review came back with the same thing we're talking about where instances that was rolled up upon itself, the installation doesn't work really well without getting out a heat gun and trying to flatten something out if you can, right.
Andrew 02:14
Yeah. Well, I mean, it comes flattened, right, you know, and how are you ever there's no reason why it would ever open back out. It makes sense…
Jared 02:24
One of the challenges. We looked at though, by buying sticks instead of rolls, a roll could go in a nice little pretty box that can ship FedEx, relatively inexpensive 10 foot sticks, got to ship freight, right. And I see that as a competitive advantage for us. Because we're really good at figuring that out, taking the mass bulk OEM stuff that sold and being able to find a way that you know, somebody down the street can order it to their house.
And we did that with this, you know, you've got 10 foot stick options that can ship freight. Or alternatively, we've cut them down to five foot lengths that keeps the shipping down for somebody that maybe has a smaller 20 foot project, they need four five foot lengths. So, you know, again, it's something that we put a lot of thought into to make sure that we're getting something that really is going to help people protect their boat.
Andrew 03:07
Yeah, and one of the things we did a lot of cutting and testing and these things do seem really good, right? I mean, they've pretty much disappear on themselves. And yeah, so you know, do you need to 10 foot six, you need four or five foot stacks, you just have, you know, a couple extra seems that's an option. You know, but then of course, you're given the a lot of the OEM shipping to the boat builders, we have pretty good freight rates.
So it might not be quite as expensive as you even think if you wanted to go. But yeah, I'm really happy with the decision. That wasn't my first gut response. But yeah, like you say, you know, the whole point of it is to protect your boat. What good is it? If it rolls up and it's flat, and now it's not serving its intended purpose, so I'm really happy with the decision we made.
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