Agile brand is for sale?

[7stringDemon]

That appears to be what I'm reading here.



I think we all know what needs to happen. A certain someone who fires off ESP Custom orders like hes ordering drinks for his friends needs to step up and Make Agile Great Again

I haven't kept up with current Agile events. Are they suffering low sales? Or maybe Kurt just wants to take his money and run while he can?

What do you all think?

 

[dr_game0ver]

"For sale, Kurt era Agile Intrepid. Plays great. 1299$"

 

[Miek]

Business is rough for a lot of people right now. I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to get ahead of some sort of inevitable end to the brand. I don't know a whole lot of people who can just throw a cool 4-900 down on a guitar right now, let alone a microscopic brand like Agile

 

[Lorcan Ward]

He’s been trying to sell for a long time so either charging too much or not getting many offers.

With the rising costs of everything it would be hard to keep prices low to maintain Agile’s market.

Agile never followed other brands with endorsing lots of artists to do YouTube promo videos and they haven’t used their Facebook page in 7 years. Any potential buyer will need to work hard on promoting the brand but it also gives a blank slate.

 

[Andromalia]

People are gonna sprint to buy it. Daily scrum time, people.

 

[7stringDemon]

Maybe we should start counting our pennies and move this to the group buy section. I got $28 and a Jackson RX10 to contribute

 

[Dayn]

I saw that a while ago. When I read it I didn't think they were selling. I read it as being able to hook people up with their own factories and processes so people could produce their own house brand (basically re-labelled) without having to go through the hassle of setting it all up yourself.

 

[spudmunkey]

He’s been trying to sell for a long time

A brief search here, I found a thread about this with the same ad from 2019 or 2018 (I looked last night, but didn't post about it, and too lazy to look for it again).

 

[bostjan]

Yeah, that screen grab is of a graphic that has been on the Rondo site for years now.

When massive brands like Gibson are struggling to adapt their business model fast enough to stay out of bankruptcy restructuring, and once-great brands like BC Rich, Parker, Jackson, etc., are either sinking or getting bought out and reduced to 5FDP's house brand or whatever, it's surprising to me that businesses with as specific a niche as Rondo can stay afloat. That's not to say that I don't love Agiles and other Rondo products - my main 19-tone guitar is an Agile, my main 19-ton bass is a Brice, and I have a couple other Rondo products that I use regularly. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but flip on youtube, and everyone with a guitar channel that's metal-oriented with a significant number of subscribers is playing a Kiesel. No one with a youtube/tiktok channel with a significant number of views is rocking Rondo brands.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Yeah, that screen grab is of a graphic that has been on the Rondo site for years now.

When massive brands like Gibson are struggling to adapt their business model fast enough to stay out of bankruptcy restructuring, and once-great brands like BC Rich, Parker, Jackson, etc., are either sinking or getting bought out and reduced to 5FDP's house brand or whatever, it's surprising to me that businesses with as specific a niche as Rondo can stay afloat. That's not to say that I don't love Agiles and other Rondo products - my main 19-tone guitar is an Agile, my main 19-ton bass is a Brice, and I have a couple other Rondo products that I use regularly. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but flip on youtube, and everyone with a guitar channel that's metal-oriented with a significant number of subscribers is playing a Kiesel. No one with a youtube/tiktok channel with a significant number of views is rocking Rondo brands.

It's easy to see Rondo through the lens of this place, but their bread and butter has pretty much always been their Les Paul copies.

But Kurt has always been wise enough to not listen to the tire kickers and only make what he's pretty sure will sell. He got in fairly early with his OEMs and his direct business model is lean.

 

[bostjan]

I know a few local guys who have bought the Agile AL's and are blown away by them. If you take a quick peak at the Agile site, though, there are only two AL models in two-to-three finishes each listed at the moment. Maybe it supply chain BS or maybe those are just the finishes everyone wants, but either way it's not as much variety as they had ten years ago, when it seemed like everyone was talking about Agile.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I know a few local guys who have bought the Agile AL's and are blown away by them. If you take a quick peak at the Agile site, though, there are only two AL models in two-to-three finishes each listed at the moment. Maybe it supply chain BS or maybe those are just the finishes everyone wants, but either way it's not as much variety as they had ten years ago, when it seemed like everyone was talking about Agile.

There's definitely an ebb and flow to it. There will be like two dozen variants of the AL for like two weeks and then "poof" nothing for another month or so.

Even before the pandemic it was like that.

They've moved to pre-orders for a lot of stuff too.

 

[ArtDecade]

Rita should buy it and sell crap Dimebag guitars.

 

[Wc707]

I'd rather buy a used prestige

 

[CanserDYI]

Hasn't that been on the site for like a year or two at this point?

 

[spudmunkey]

Hasn't that been on the site for like a year or two at this point?

at least 3.

 

[Xaios]

...or getting bought out and reduced to 5FDP's house brand or whatever

 

[Ordacleaphobia]

I had to triple check the date on this post to make sure this wasn't the old thread getting bumped

It would be cool to see what someone else would do with the brand, though. I've got a lot of respect for Kurt and have gone through (and recommended) many of his guitars (I still keep a Pendulum in my stable!) so I wouldn't exactly want to see someone scoop it. But it'd certainly be interesting.