Mistral (brand)
Mistral is a Dutch product brand in windsurfing . Surfboards were originally sold under this brand name , but now the product range includes windsurfing, sailing and accessories as well as sportswear, shoes and stand-up paddle boards. As a brand owner, Mistral International BV , based in Wierden ( Netherlands ), is one of the leading companies for surfing and sailing equipment as well as sportswear.
history
The originally Swiss brand Mistral was founded in 1976 and initially focused on the windsurfing sector. With the help of Mistral, windsurfing achieved an international status, also due to the success of the so-called "Mistral World Cup Team", which won numerous titles in international windsurfing competitions in various disciplines with well-known surfers such as Robby Naish , Frank Maass or Pete Cabrinha. Within a short time, Mistral developed into the standard provider of windsurfing equipment. For example, the Mistral Competition surfboard is one of the best-selling surfboards ever with 270,000 copies. Other well-known models that have been developed and produced for many years in a row are the Mistral Screamer , the Explosion , the Kailua or the Syncro .
Mistral was also active in related water sports, such as snowboarding , kite surfing and sailing , but less successfully.
At the end of the 1990s, the spread and popularity of the mistral boards waned. The causes can be assumed on the one hand to be external factors such as a general decline in interest in windsurfing and increasing competitive pressure from new brands, on the other hand also home-made factors: This gave the public the impression that Mistral was not developing any further rest on its market position, because innovations in production technology and shapes often no longer came from Mistral. New unfavorable sales structures made the distribution of Mistral more difficult - for example, the acquisition of exclusive distribution rights for several brands created in-house competition, which in some cases hampered marketing and sales. In Germany, for example, the board brands F2 , Fanatic and Mistral were sometimes offered by the same distributor.
Todays situation
Since July 2009, the license for Mistral Surfboards has been with Anders Bringdal , the Windsurf World Cup winner in the men's slalom in 1987 and in the men's course race from 1988, who is now developing , testing and testing the Mistral boards from Marseille under the company name Sarlu Bringdal International drives out. The Mistral Boards are now manufactured in Vietnam and are currently sold in 34 countries around the world and on five continents (as of October 2011).
In addition, Mistral has expanded the stand up paddling segment in recent years .