The Questions:
In our world, everyone wants to be different. It seems, not long ago, that everyone just wanted to fit in… but now we’re all trying to be different. After our “Roots” video hit the social world, the comments and questions started flowing in, as expected. It’s one thing to claim you’re different in a bass fishing video, but it’s another to explain how that difference really matters.
For those of you who ask, “How are you any different than brand X?” here’s the Alpha spiel.
The forced hand:
About a year ago, Alpha as a company started growing. Despite our best efforts to keep the demand manageable, our core customers wanted more. Anglers were winning events, cashing checks and catching fish on our products, which many of them helped shape. We had a different approach to building rods and it was working.
This growth forced our hand, and we needed to decide where to take Alpha. Because our rods were never intended for the mass retail market, we priced them without retail markup. Some would say that $250 is a high price to pay for a fishing rod, to which I agree… unless the rod is manufactured domestically with the components and design of a much higher priced product.
Because we never intended on selling in the retail market, we left our designers the freedom to utilize any blank and component in ways that are unconventional in the existing rod market. This created rods that flat out performed, but had higher costs. If we wanted to sell Alpha into retails stores, we would have to do one of two things: raise prices, or reduce component quality.
You can image how simple that decision was. We went the online direct route.
Buzz Words:
Probably the first difference you’ll notice about Alpha Angler, is that we’re avoiding the standard “buzz words.” Unless we can completely explain how terms like “billion modulus” or “power wall” or “Titanium Coated Adamantium” is honestly going to help you catch more fish, then we won’t utilize them. The truth is, after seven years of research into building rods, none of those buzz words really define anything but higher prices.
Instead, we set out to totally understand what makes a rod “sensitive,” and trust me; it has less to do with the graphite modulus as it does with balance and design.
That goes for split-grips, split reel seats, guide frames, power tapers and even cheese burgers. The end result is always the sum of its design.
The Point:
To provide an example of different, I’ll use the Alpha Angler Rebound. Our crankbait machine is built on S2 grade fiberglass. The “S” stands for “Structural Grade” fiberglass, which is different from the standard E-Glass, which is “Electrical Grade.”
S-Glass is lighter and more sensitive than E-Glass, but it’s also 4x the price and hard to manufacture (which makes it fairly rare.) When prototypes of the S-Glass Rebound were tested by our team, all other options were removed, despite their lower cost… That’s what we mean by different.
We made Alpha Angler a direct-to-consumer company so we can build the best rods at affordable prices, even if it mean using the more expensive and complex materials.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for our next couple blogs. We’ll try to cover more about Alpha and our crazy fish catching theories and stories.
