I don't know exactly what is up with Gibbs but I did just get an e-mail from Dan Smalley saying they had new products coming out, a new color ( really an old one but thier take on it) and they will be at the RISSA Show and they are sending me a box o' goodies to try as they have done each and every year.
As for it being saturated, well it's not a bad thing per say. Let them come. The knowledgable fishermen will continue to by the good ones stuff and the others will come and go. I thought about buying Gibbs a few years back but it is a business based on a seasonal ( a short season at that) sport. It's also very regionalized and that kind of business is not the business to get into if you dream of owning your own and making money to boot. You are better off, if you are going to jump into it, being a small part time business. Just selling to a certain number of shops and making maybe a couple thousand each year. You ship in the spring and thats it. Besides there are a lot of shops that don't exactly pay on schedule as you were promised. No money coming in while you have bills to cover ain't good. You don't take outrageous orders you can't fill because you cannot possibly build them all without help and getting help is a problem and with that you risk dropping the standards you and your limited customer base have come to expect. Something like lefty's I guess. You make so many and when they are gone they are gone. A specialized business like that can consume you in a short time and then you get burned out and things begin to slip. Try it if you want but there are other things like fishing and families and making a good living. Ask Johnny HAB'S. I admire him for sticking with it but I am sure it's got to involve a lot of self motivation and sacrifice. I couldn't make that committment, not for a regionalized specialty market such as Striper Plugs. As a side enterprise maybe for the fun of it with little real financial risk on a very limited production basis but not as a full time only income deal, no way.
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