Jackson Kayak answers consumer demand for customization

Posted: 03/14/2010 In Category: Outdoor Manufacturer

Industry News Release Written By: Lee Hart

Recognizing America’s love of customizing everything from jeans to muscle cars and sneakers, Jackson Kayak is broadcasting a little known manufacturing secret: customers can customize their new kayak.

For the better part of the past year, Jackson Kayak has offered customers two builds on each of its whitewater models, Super, a reference to the super linear plastic the model is made with and Elite, made with tougher crosslink plastic and featuring Jackson Kayak custom comfort seating outfitting consisting of sweet cheeks and happy feet and more.

Now there’s yet another way to customize the boats. For just $75, customers can select their own color scheme to make their kayak truly unique.

Wesley Bradley is a huge Jackson Kayak fan and among the first to test the Jackson Kayak manufacturing team with custom colors.

As a wedding present to his fiancée Jennifer, and actually an integral part of the wedding ceremony, Bradley was the recipient of the very first production model of the Dynamic Duo. For the wedding, the boat was made in formal colors, white in the front for the bride and black in the stern for the groom.

Bradley, a huge fan of the University of Tennessee Volunteers football team, next tested the factory with producing a Mon-Star playboat in his team’s colors – orange and white - and with the Vols’ signature “Power T” permanently etched in the base.

Another Jackson Kayak fan, known in kayaking circles simply and unmistakably as Pat the B-Man, is another example of the lengths Jackson Kayak will go to customize boats for its fans. Sporting a yellow and black paddling jacket and a yellow and black striped helmet with two stylized antennae on top, Pat needed a boat to match and Jackson Kayak delivered with a yellow Mega Rocker with black bumblebee stripes.

“I really go out to paddle just to have fun, and if it makes someone smile to see a big bee on the river, that's great,” said the B-Man.

Jackson Kayak founder, International Whitewater Hall of Famer Eric “EJ” Jackson, clarified that the custom color offering has some limitations. Most people request color fades and stipulate which end of the boat – fore, aft or midships - they’d like which colors. “It’s not precise,” Jackson said, “But so far, everyone has been really pleased with the results.”

With advance notice, those who want to see their boat being made from start to finish and take delivery the same day can do so by traveling to Jackson Kayak’s factory in Sparta, TN, 1-1/2 hours southeast of Nashville.

Stock colors for Jackson Kayak boats in 201O will be red, green or orange for the Elite models; brick, yellow or blue in Super Linear.

Family owned and operated since 2004, to see the complete line of Jackson Kayak best-selling whitewater kayaks and recreational boats and to find Jackson Kayak dealers, visit http://www.jacksonkayak.com

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