Dear Edge Family (and future family!)
This note is motivated by a recent visit by a private equity firm - we were told that the fishing tackle industry is currently in a cycle of consolidation, and we can't beat them, so we should join them.
“Do not go gentle into that good night.
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
At the core, our business model is simple and intentionally different. We manufacture fishing rods in the United States and sell them direct-to-consumer without traditional retail markups. We charge what it costs for us to stay in business, not what the market will tolerate, not what private equity demands, & not what offshore manufacturing makes easy.
Because of that, we’ve been fortunate to build something rare in modern manufacturing: customers who genuinely love the products. We hear it every day. People appreciate the performance, the craftsmanship, the materials, and the fact that we’ve held pricing steady while costs around us continue to rise.
At the same time, our customers are also telling us — very clearly — what they want next:
- Faster delivery times
- Better order tracking tools
- The ability to speak to a real human when ordering or asking questions
Those requests are completely reasonable. They’re also expensive and difficult to implement when you manufacture rods domestically and refuse to cut corners. Let's be honest, the prices for Edge Rods are incredible, we hear it daily, and they don't leave any room for a doubling of capacity.
The reality is that U.S. rod manufacturing is brutally hard. We compete directly with imported products where labor, materials, and overhead are a fraction of the cost. In recent years, many well-known brands and manufacturers, especially in the fishing space have been consolidated by private equity. Manufacturing is moved offshore (if it wasn’t already), or manufacturers just cease to exist. We also compete with instant gratification, (and we are guilty of this too) where Amazon Prime delivers next day.
Despite all of that, Edge Rods / North Fork Composites are arguably among the most talked-about, discussed, and sought-after rod companies of the modern era. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because we’ve stayed focused on product, performance, and craftsmanship first. It's why you love us.
Today, we’re in a stage where demand exceeds our current capacity:
We could significantly raise prices. But doing so would be disingenuous to the model we set out to build — a model based on fairness, and price transparency. Its a unique one, there is not another company/factory like ours. We also don’t want customers who believe in us waiting excessively long or feeling frustrated by support limitations.
We are hesitant to take on debt. Debt ties manufacturing businesses to business cycles, and in a downturn it often forces companies to give up control to private equity. When that happens, the focus shifts from product and craftsmanship to margins and exit timelines. That’s not who we are.
We believe there’s a better way to accomplish our growth goals:
Recently, we ran a small pilot program with a subset of our customers — people deeply passionate about our brands and mission. We offered them the opportunity to purchase a “Golden Ticket.” It was a huge success.
Here’s how it works:
- A Golden Ticket is $200
- It can be applied to any rod we make
- It never expires
- It can be used online or in-store
More importantly, this program allows us to front-load hiring, expand customer support, improve order tracking, and grow factory and retail capacity — without significantly raising prices, taking on debt, or giving up control.
It aligns incentives the right way. Our most passionate customers are rewarded, and the company gains the ability to invest directly into speed, service, and scale — while staying true to our values.
We are passionate about American Manufacturing, obsessive about product quality and performance and are determined to combine that with industry leading service and support.
So no—we won’t go gentle.
We’ll burn, and we’ll build, and we’ll keep pushing forward.
Because some lights are worth protecting.
—Gary Loomis, Aleks and Team,
A SPECIAL OFFER JUST FOR YOU.
A $200 "GOLDEN TICKET" THAT IS GOOD FOR ANY EDGE ROD
NO LIMITATIONS - ANY ROD WE MAKE
Yes! This email can be shared!
We will verify all purchases, and will email you the ticket above (with a code to redeem) within about 48hrs of purchase.
A NUMBER OF YOU REACHED OUT WITH TWO QUESTIONS:
1) CAN YOU USE A GIFT CARD TO PURCHASE THE TICKET? The ticket is a gift card, instead of reducing a $ amount, it reduces the price of one rod by 100%. The gift card system that we use does not allow gift cards to be applied to gift cards.
2) IS THERE A LIMIT ON THE GODLEN TICKETS? No. Not for the folks receiving this email
3) Do Golden Tickets Expire? No, they do not.
4) How does this work?
a. You buy a ticket (or tickets) for $200.
b. We send you a golden ticket with a code in about 48hrs (we create one, its a manual process, please be patient)
c. You can redeem your Golden Ticket for any rod in our online store, which includes Silver Widows, Epitome, Black Widow, EFX Pro, etc.) For the Limited Edition signed rods that were already purchased and are out of stock - we are not adding any more, sorry, they sold out in the first day (we did put 16 back that were "purchased" by folks that got this email as a forward.
5) Can you get a refund on the Golden Ticket? Yes. Please email accounting@edgerods.com with your order number and it will be refunded.
