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Old July 19th, 2001
Sickboy Sickboy is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Hong Kong
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Hey Stephan. Good idea about starting an online shop, but I think there will be a wide ranging consensus on whether people will want to buy freediving stuff online.

Freediving is still quite rare, so for some people (ie me) buying online is our only option, and to have a store run by people who really know about freediving would be a major attraction.

DiveInn.com seems to be like this, as well as being VERY cheap for European brand stuff. Their customer service is very good, and it feels like it's run by divers. They have had to stop taking orders since last week because they are so overloaded with orders already. So I guess the demand is there, although they also sell a lot of Scuba stuff too.

Conversly, because freediving is such a rare sport, the equipment is still very personal to the user. This could mean people would prefer to go to a proper store to touch the product, and even try it out. This would be true for fins (too stiff, foot pocket too hard) and wetsuits; freediving wetsuits usually do not have zips, so getting the right size is Very important. You may consider offereing a trial period, to give the users a bit more confidence.

Anyway, hope this helps; you've probably already thought about that stuff.

Regards,

Terry
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