Hang gliding grows as a sport in areas where there is a strong
instructor/dealer/community. Without this there not enough support to bring in
new pilots. It is difficult to have a successful business as a dealer/instructor
without multiple income streams, including sales of equipment. If manufacturers
sell directly to customers, then this in the long term reduces their sales as
there is insufficient growth. I received the following email message about this
recently:

Factory direct to customer sales have always seemed such a
compelling option. I mean, as a manufacturer, it seems like we give 25% or more
of the glider price away to a middleman who in many cases isn’t as familiar with
the product as the end user while we’re left to much smaller margins. If we gave
10% to the customer and kept the other 15% for ourselves, we’d have our most
profitable year ever.

The problem is that almost everywhere that a hang glider community loses a
dealer (school), the size of the community diminishes and sometimes completes
disappears. Look at San Diego - it used to be this vibrant hang glider scene
until Steve Hawxshurst and later John Ryan left. It’s the same story over and
over. Or look at Missoula—hang gliding almost completely gone until Jeff Shapiro
started teaching and now has a healthy little community. As tempting as it
seems, factory direct sales undermine dealers and kills the sport. In fact,
that’s exactly what happened all over Europe where the manufacturers routinely
sell direct.