Brainchild Production: The Future of Kite Materials

The Brazilian Brothers are back at the Brainchild Laboratory with Ralf Groesel. After previously discussing their digital printing process and ProWeld technology, they are now diving into the materials and innovations happening behind the scenes that are pushing the sport of kiteboarding forward.

The Importance of Customized Materials

Ralf explains that if you want to progress, having highly specific, customized materials for your exact needs and purposes is crucial. Every single material currently used at Brainchild has been manufactured specifically to their needs. This includes the canopy coating, the pattern side, the lamination, and the ability for digital printing. Everything is already customized, but the team is trying to push that even further, especially when it comes to laminates, to add functions in kite design that simply aren't available right now.

The Future of Laminates and Kite Pricing

When discussing a recent secret prototype that won a World Title using a new leading edge laminate material, Ralf splits the future of materials into two distinct lanes:

• Respecting the Price Ceiling: It is essential that kites do not go through the roof price-wise. It is not healthy for the sport to only push material combinations that are very expensive to make. Because of this, Brainchild will definitely continue using their ProWeld technology based on the woven polyester Dacron material.
• Pushing the Boundaries: The second lane focuses on finding the best suitable options for laminates. Brainchild looks closely at the price-to-value ratio in order to push the boundaries of the sport.

The Casati brothers' prototype that won the World Title was actually built from a material they already had sitting on the shelf. Ralf brought multiple prototypes to the beach but decided to use the material with the least obvious visual changes because he knew people would be watching. Moving forward, if the focus is on the performance side, Brainchild will provide designers with the options to enhance their designs using these new materials.

Ultimate Freedom and Rapid Prototyping

One of the most impressive aspects of Brainchild is the freedom and speed they give designers. A prototype will never take more than three days to produce, and that includes the testing phase. Technically, the process can even be completed within a single day. If it's a rush job, Ralf can receive the design files in the morning and have an untested kite ready by the evening.

Normally, every kite goes through a two-times 24-hour testing phase on prototypes. Ralf will sometimes skip that step if he isn't handing the kite to an end consumer and just needs to get it to a rider quickly. This rapid turnaround offers the ultimate freedom. Designers have the ability to specify certain parts of the kite exactly as they want them, while other parts can be completely different. This opens up a massive new field of creativity and is an absolute necessity for the sport to progress.

Make-Up Costs and Consumer Value

Despite all these capabilities, Ralf emphasizes that they will not use advanced laminates if it makes something extremely expensive. They look very carefully into the make-up costs because they have reached a certain ceiling in the sport, and kites should not get more expensive than that. The end consumer is going to be happy to recognize this approach.

The price you are paying for a Brainchild product has a direct correlation with the sheer amount of knowledge, effort, and complexity that is behind the product. You aren't just walking into a store and buying a colorful kite; you are making an investment into the future of innovation and kitesurfing.

Moving to Manufacturing

While the innovation happening in the lab is amazing, the production aspect is equally important and special. The level of complexity and the amount of steps required to build these products is staggering. In the next episode, the Brazilian Brothers are stepping out of the laboratory and heading over to the actual manufacturing facility so you can see exactly where these beautiful products are built.

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