For decades, Hobie kayaks led the charge in kayak fishing technology and community. From sponsoring kayak fishing events to creating technology that makes kayak fishing easier, Hobie’s legacy has opened the sport to more people in more parts of the world. Each year, Hobie’s pro staff and product managers released new and improved kayaks and accessories that would eventually ripple through the industry. Then Hobie went quiet. Turns out, a series of unexpected events threw the company for a tailspin. But recently, Hobie has returned to the scene. The first sign of life was hiring James McBeath, long-time product manager at Jackson Kayak, to lead the revival of the legendary brand. Kayak Angler magazine editors sat down with McBeath to ask where has Hobie been and where is the company going?
Where in the World Has Hobie Been?
Q: James, congrats on the new gig. How did you go from marketing director at Jackson Kayak to Hobie?
A: When the world went down a rabbit hole with COVID every company was affected, Hobie included, In 2020 to 2021 we had a bit of a hay day, but the bottom fell out of the market starting in 2021 and especially into 2022. In that time, most manufacturers began layoffs. I was one of the layoffs. I was lucky enough to take on a year-long project with Heliconia, a leading TV production and digital marketing company, to build a web magazine. In that stint, I began chatting with a few folks at Hobie. I was officially hired as Hobie’s Marketing Director within a year of leaving Jackson.
Q: What has been your first impression?
A: First off, wow. I’m not in Kansas anymore! Or Tennessee (Jackson headquarters) I should say. Comparing Hobie to most other kayak manufacturers is difficult. First off, Hobie is a global-scale American success story. The kayak fishing market Hobie serves is across all continents. That is the biggest challenge for me, wrapping my arms around marketing, sales, production, and events on a global scale. It’s daunting! I spend most mornings telling myself “I got this!”
Q: How do you plan to grab the reins on Hobie with its history in surfing, sailing, and kayaking?
I came in pretty green. Looking at Hobie from the other side of the fence, I only saw fishing kayaks. We miss a lot looking through that narrow view. Hobie’s founder, Hobie Alter, was a cool cat. He started all this in the 1950’s when he created a surfboard that everyone can buy and use. He then bootstrapped a community by running events worldwide. He went on to lead a ton of innovation with skateboarding. Hobie manufactured skateboards in fiberglass, and they were the first to mass market trucks and urethane wheels. This encouraged more and more people to skateboard. Hobie created a community of events and grew the skating community. Then he figured he’d simplify sailing. So, Hobie invented a catamaran anyone could sail, started worldwide events and created another industry.
What the kayak fishing world sees is great fishing kayaks and cool Hobie Bass Open Series events. The reality is that it’s just a part of the Hobie DNA. Hobie created a cool pedal drive kayak that gets more people into kayak fishing and builds a global community.
Q: Hobie seemed to drop out of the picture. What can you tell us about the state of Hobie?
A: As I had mentioned, COVID was a wild ride for manufacturers. To set the stage, Hobie’s new owners needed to answer to an increasing global demand. We have factories, offices and distribution in the Netherlands, France, Australia, US, Canada and Mexico. Before the pandemic, our parts predominantly came from overseas. Just before the pandemic, ownership decided to build another factory to respond to higher demand in volume and innovation. This became a massive investment in space, technology and more. Then the zombie apocalypse hit. With parts overseas being basically cut off, Hobie began to hurt. When the sales glut of 2022–2024 hit, Hobie’s response was even harder. Add the fact that we were booting up and investing in a new factory. Hobie is a global company and the hurt was significant.
Q: We saw many warranty and parts questions. How do you fix that?
A new factory meant production and quality challenges as Hobie spun up new technology. That permeated down to our customers and dealers and we are just climbing out of that hole. I wasn’t around through most of this, but I see the impact through the company. Getting out of it is also about grabbing control of all this new technology and relying less on others for our parts program.
Parts, as I mentioned, were scarce, so ownership put their foot down and decided that Hobie needs to be smarter with parts from overseas. Hobie is now investing further in US-based materials sourcing, suppliers, and we will be manufacturing parts here in North America. More investment but more control.
Q: You’re building a factory in Mexico. Why not expand in California?
A: One of the first things I learned is Hobie’s corporate scale is simply not the same as others. We have a core facility in Oceanside, suppliers in the US and folks who work remote across the US and Canada, just like other kayak manufacturers.
Unlike most other manufacturers, we have a massive global market. Kayak fishing is everywhere. Not just in the US and Canada. I don’t know if there are more than a couple North American-produced brands selling to Europe. Most manufacturers lose money when they try to build here and then ship over seas or across borders. Transportation, customs, taxes and distribution leave most companies in the red. Overseas distribution doesn’t work unless you have a physical production ability in the region. With our setup, we are able to get people kayak fishing in Europe, Australasia, Africa, the US, Canada and now Central and South America. It’s all about building communities regionally by making it affordable and logistically possible for everyone on the planet to get into kayaking.
Hobie’s community of kayak anglers is truly global because we can get boats everywhere. That’s a great story and a Hobie legacy worth noting.
Our factory in Oceanside still runs R&D, customer service, marketing and handles special production projects. For mass production, the Oceanside factory was busting at the seams, and driving on old technology. Adding more acreage was not an option. But we didn’t want to stray far from our factory in Oceanside, so we invested in a massive cutting-edge factory 45 minutes away in Tijuana.
California is where it all started but Hobie is now a global entity built on American ingenuity and the sheer will to build toys that get people on the water.
Q: What’s next for Hobie?
A: The production process with new machinery is humming now after quality hiccups we saw in the new factory, our new parts manufacturing department is spinning out accessories and almost caught up to the backlog and our engineer crew is fast at work on our next products. 2025 will see the return to normalcy in what anglers expect from Hobie. We’re quickly getting back to finding new ways to get folks on the water and having fun. We have more roles to fill here now as well so look for new faces soon. After these difficult four years, Hobie is shaking it off and turning the page. For me, it is cool to help a great brand like Hobie get back to what we expect and it is an honor being part of the process. Stay tuned for more!
Q: Should we expect new products for 2025?
A: Yep. But I can’t tell you more.
So when will they release the 2025 line – up or kayak updates?