Kiteboarding Trends and Random Predictions for 2022

It’s a question we get quite often: what’s new for this model year? Well, color, obviously. Maybe some new canopy material, and there’s probably a bridle tweak somewhere in there. What else? Well, you see… errr…

We look forward to 2022 to the trends we expect to see in the kiteboarding industry.

1) Lighter Canopy Materials for Kites and Wings

The biggest innovations in recent years have come in lighter materials – first with the Ocean Rodeo Aluula and then the Duotone SLS. We expect this to continue, with brands coming to market with their own proprietary materials (like Airush) or the adoption of Aluula (which Duotone has already done). What does this mean? Lighter, more rigid kites that cost $500-1000 more. The performance differences are without a doubt noticeable, especially in the larger sizes, but with some 17 meters coming in around $4000 the verdict is out on how many you’ll see at your local beach.

2) Price Increases and Availability Issues

The worst of this hopefully behind us, but supply chain and shipping issues continue to persist into 2022. Combine this with an exploding wing and foil market makes us expect that brands with hot products will have difficulty satisfying the demand. Prices have already increased 5-10% in the last year, largely driven by massive increases in shipping cost. Material shortages or continued shipping bottlenecks could see additional increases.

3) Carry-Over Products and Minor Tweaks

With many kite brands focusing their time and energy into the foil and wing markets, we expect kites and twintips to get minor tweaks and color updates, but otherwise not undergo any major changes. Big air and freestyle kites will likely see the biggest changes, if any, due to the increasing popularity of that discipline.

4) “Goblincore” Say, What??

The Pantone color of the year is Very Peri, and the brand aesthetic is goblincore. Goblincore is an aesthetic and subculture inspired by the folklore of goblins, centered on the celebration of natural ecosystems usually considered less beautiful by conventional norms, such as soil animals and second-hand objects. We expect this to be reflected in brand apparel, such as green ponchos with goblin ears, and in the occasional kite graphic. We’ve given an example below as to what we expect