Morey (and maybe Churchill) Going Under?

[adam.s]

In recent times we have seen many changes.
Jase Finlay has left Morey and now resides under the NMD flag with Stealth Fins, Nick Gornall shredding Stealth boards and rocking Stealth fins now, Alex Bunting leaving Morey for Stealth boards (presumably fins too) and finally a rumour circulating that Dave Hubb is riding for The No. 6 I'm starting to think Morey are going down?

And now Hardy is wearing Stealth fins, somebody has talked about Mitch Rawlins wearing different fins and I sort of thought that Churchill were run under the Morey company so could bodyboarding be losing its TWO BIGGEST brands ever?
If they do it's looking like Stealth will start to make a killing...

EDIT:
This just in fromt Le BOOGIE magazine's Facebook:

Has the Churchill fin finally lost its cool factor? First Rawlins, now Hardy. It seems like the Mexican rubber ain't the Flavour for 2012.

[ATV]

Good!
Morey and BZ are owned by a greedy multinational company that does f@k all for the sport!
since 2000 i've watch em become tighter with sponsoring riders and contests and sell bodyboards through chain supermarkets for cheap and these chain stores don't do jack shit for the sport either!

[adam.s]

Well if BZ and Morey are owned by the same company, then I'd say Churchill are too.
That means BZ may be done too?

[cashews]

In recent times we have seen many changes.
Jase Finlay has left Morey and now resides under the NMD flag with Stealth Fins, Nick Gornall shredding Stealth boards and rocking Stealth fins now, Alex Bunting leaving Morey for Stealth boards (presumably fins too) and finally a rumour circulating that Dave Hubb is riding for The No. 6 I'm starting to think Morey are going down?

And now Hardy is wearing Stealth fins, somebody has talked about Mitch Rawlins wearing different fins and I sort of thought that Churchill were run under the Morey company so could bodyboarding be losing its TWO BIGGEST brands ever?
If they do it's looking like Stealth will start to make a killing...

EDIT:
This just in fromt Le BOOGIE magazine's Facebook:

Has the Churchill fin finally lost its cool factor? First Rawlins, now Hardy. It seems like the Mexican rubber ain't the Flavour for 2012.

Matters little for Finlay et. al as Mez will still be shaping thier boards. Good to hear Morey is going down nonetheless.

[Griff]

The Americans are saying that a company called Whamo owns all of Morey, Churchill and BZ. Yamo shaped for BZ but apparently has been got rid of..

[adam.s]

Thats right, I remember reading that in an older Rippies.
Just went here: http://www.wham-o.com/product.html and found this picture:


Take note of the logo's I've circled and made a point of. They are the ones we are interested in. Gunna go spend a bit of time on good ol' Google and get some answers hopefully.

[pete]

They've owned Morey etc for ages. Seemed almost as soon as Morey first sold out in the 90s things turned to crap for them. I'm all in favour of external sponsorship etc, but ownership needs to be a passion thing I think

[savage flame]

I'm not over the moon that Morey/Churchill are going under. I couldn't care less really. Some good points have been made however about Morey/Churchill not putting money back into the sport and being owned by a big corporation. Who knows? It's probably a good thing. It's not like the riders haven't been left in the dark, they are all being put onto good sponsors.

One thing I do know, is that Morey's time has come and gone. The legacy doesn't need to keep running anymore.
Churchill's are and always have been really good fins though, I'm not too happy to see them fully die. Suppose there are so many clones of them they don't really need to be around though.

Adam, that's a solid point, Stealth would be raking in heaps more money now.

[Wonderbread]

Really, any of the retro shapes you would want from Morey, can be had from Turbo.
There are countless churchill clones too.

[danarchist]

Righto, Twas sitting on the loo and I think I figured it out. Keep in mind this is total speculation and I have no evidence to back me up.

All the riders who have jumped ship are contracted through World industries non? Theres some kind of disagreement /dispute between World / Wham-o about distribution contracts here in Oz. So in the case of Stealth boards World creates a new brand to funnel the riders who were riding for Wham-o brand Boards into brands directly owned by them, securing them. Hardy's case is particularly illustrating. While World were distributing Wham-o it was fine he was on VS and Churchill because they were both World brands. If churchie are no longer a World brand, then Hardy would essentially be contracted to two different distributors. So Hardy throws his lot in with his biggest financial backer. He's prob and the same money, and essentially gets the same gear.

None of this holds water if Dave Hubb leaves Morey America, because he'd be contracted to American distributor or maybe directly to the Wham-o itself. Unless his leaving Morey at the same time is purely co-incidental.

[adam.s]

Oh how I love a good conspiracy.

[Griff]

Think Danachrist is onto something re World not distributing Morey/Chruchill/Bz in Australia.
I spoke to someone at Fronton and there is no chat about either Hubb not being on BZ and Churchill anymore or Dubb riding for No6. So it would suggest that its just Australia based..

[Goliath]

Brands like Morey and BZ are pretty much useless these days in Aus, rarely do you se in anyone in a the lineup with one. But churchill you seem fair bit but the numbers are slowly starting to fall as Stealth begins to take over, just look at all the colour ways they have now days, it's beyond rediculous but hey people will stay buy them as there probably thinking "if PlC uses these, they must be good!"
In Hawaii ATM and churchies are going for a mere 30 bucks, weird when back at home there around 80.... That's a bit irrelevant but anyway, these brands are slowly dieting out so, IMHO I doubt the'll really be missed.

At least now gromms won't be so full of swag with their churchies and shoelaces because there won't be any churchies to buy!

[savage flame]

In Hawaii ATM and churchies are going for a mere 30 bucks, weird when back at home there around 80.... That's a bit irrelevant but anyway

Basically anything in the US is around that price difference percentage compared to OZ.

[adam.s]

At least now gromms won't be so full of swag with their churchies and shoelaces because there won't be any churchies to buy!

Hahahahahahahaha