The Author in a Dagger Prophet
There’s a link below to the press release.
This is big – very big. The question is, how big and why, and the answer to that question is: who knows? Whitewater canoeists over the age of forty, all 23 of us, are still coming to terms with the loss of Royalex and the blended family dynamics of Confluence. Dagger and Mad River are still names whispered reverentially around the campfire, but those whispers are usually part of a conversation about what once was. It seems change is ever-increasingly inevitable and rapid (see what I did there?).
The fact is, there are all sorts of conversations we could have (and believe me, we have) about the directions canoe and kayak manufacturing have gone. Here in Arkansas and abroad there are still high quality boats being made by hand. Esquif brought us T-Formex, Royalex’s replacement. The process bankrupted them, but with a little help they were able to turn the machines back on and begin making the sheets that put those aforementioned independent manufacturers (and Esquif’s own top notch boat line) back in business. Then there’s private equity. PE has inserted itself into canoes and kayaks just like it has every other sector, hence the Confluence that we know (or is that knew?) today.
An outfitter friend told me two weeks ago this was coming, but I’m still struggling to wrap my brain around what it means. The press release posits that Pelican and Confluence are synergistic critters. I guess that’s true in the strictest sense of the word now that they’ve become one big happy family, but I can’t help but wonder how far, and especially where, that synergy will carry the brand. Will we see Dagger Nomads at Academy Sports next to Pelican…Argos? Or Mad River Explorers next to Pelican Explorers? Seems unlikely, but as I said, who knows?
