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Saddle saturation?

okccj

okccj

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2016
Messages
629
I hate to be one of those guys that goes on about how long they've been saddle hunting, but well I have been. I got into Saddle hunting way back in 2007 after finding that original thread on AT and then piecing the puzzle together with a lot of help from the original Saddle hunting Youtube star, BoudreauxBoswell.
This was when Trophyline was stopping production and saddles were few and far between and don't get me started on how hard it was to procure a LW Assassin all those years back.
Boy have things changed. I can't keep up with all the different saddles and platform options but I have to think we're getting close to a market saturation and we'll see some players start to drop off.

Which manufacturers do you think will be able to continue to innovate and stay profitable? Have we reached peak saddle?
 
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My guess is that companies will, and I think kind of already are, separate into 2 groups. I guess it's not all that much different than now. There's going to be a couple big dogs, and a handful of ,uh... smaller companies for lack of good words on my part. I bet those handful ( well, I sincerely hope) of smaller companies will still be here after this wave crests.
 
It’s a great time to be a saddle hunter or just getting into saddle hunting for sure. The options have tripled in just the last couple of years. IMO, there’s still plenty of room at the trough for now as evidenced by back orders, prices that seem to constantly go up, and new companies jumping into the fray every year. Frankly, I think we have reached the peak of innovation wrt saddles, platforms and sticks with the introduction of composites. However, someone always manages to surprise you and often it’s something simple….like EWO’s new cam cleat….simple concept and they are going to sell thousands of them. When you see prices start to ease down, or more companies move manufacturing overseas, I think that will be a sign of saturation. Don’t think we are there yet. Who will survive when they get there? Most people generally vote with their wallets so it will be whoever has the best balance of quality and price, and when those are equal it will be the company that keeps their customers happy. Just my .02
 
This will be my 5th season in a saddle, 6th if you count the year before and used my full body treestand harness as a saddle for the second half of the season.

Prior to that, I wanted to give a saddle a try but it seemed like voodoo. It felt like if I wanted to saddle hunt, I'd have to go the sit drag route and that seemed sketchy. In hindsight it was probably less sketchy than saddle hunting out of a treestand harness.

I think the market only feels saturated to the old fuddy duddy's who have been doing this forever and the hard-core guys who follow this stuff. Most hunters still don't know what a saddle is. My guess is its getting close to 50/50. Most of the ones who do know what a saddle is think they're only made by Tethrd.

And how cool is it to have more options than reading confusing tutorials about converting a sit drag and rock climbing harness into a saddle?
 
The market is insanely saturated. And for some reason or another everything is patent pending yet none of it is actually new or innovative in my opinion, just the patent offices inability to do actual due diligence. As word spreads about saddle hunting, I believe there will continue to be more companies popping up but I also believe a lot of them will be bigger companies partnering with the smaller ones so that the products they bring to market will be good (see how RNR worked with CGM, and trophyline’s collaboration both with novix and now TX5). I believe many smaller companies will either drastically change or close down once some of those patents are granted and enforced. I also believe that even more still will change, cost more or close down once there is standardized testing and a requirement to carry liability insurance for hunting saddles. I say that as one of the smaller guys, who both speaks to some of the other smaller guys, and also who is big enough to have went through the hassles and the costs associated with testing, cease and desists, as well as just looking at what the true profit vs time margin actually is. All I can say is, I personally won’t ever get rich from saddles BUT I have made some awesome acquaintances, friends and hunting buddies from this endeavor. That has made it “worth it” to me
 
I think the market is saturated, based on the number of guys posting that they're going back to stands. I believe all the lightweight stands are competing directly with saddles.

...And something I've wanted to post here for a long time: When I was a kid back in the 1960's, tons of products were marked "patent pending". I asked my dad who worked in manufacturing most of his life what "patent pending" meant--he said "that means they'll never get a patent".
 
We need a solid point of reference, say, sales to @enkriss.

He's just ordered everything from HuntArsenal, a sure sign that the new goods market is not saturated.

But looking at Saddlehunter Classifieds, listings by @enkriss indicate possible secondary market saturation.

lol.
 
CZMark said:
I think the market is saturated, based on the number of guys posting that they're going back to stands. I believe all the lightweight stands are competing directly with saddles.

...And something I've wanted to post here for a long time: When I was a kid back in the 1960's, tons of products were marked "patent pending". I asked my dad who worked in manufacturing most of his life what "patent pending" meant--he said "that means they'll never get a patent".
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In this vein, I'm confident we're still in the period that every year overall there are more saddle hunters than there were the year before, however, I wonder what the net gain actually is. Given the number of folks that are switching to mobile treestands and/or ground hunting and the guys that saddle hunt for just a few sits or a season then put their entire setup for sale on facebook.

Mobile/Saddle hunting I think will always be a minority of deer hunters and probably has a pretty low ceiling due to the upfront costs, learning curve, and ongoing physical effort required. My assumption is the vast majority of new hunters are still box blind/ladderstand over a field or foodplot but I certainly could be wrong about this.
 
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okccj said:
My assumption is the vast majority of new hunters are still box blind/ladderstand over a field or foodplot but I certainly could be wrong about this.
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I think I’d agree. My guess is that the number of people who buy a deer license that have never heard of a tree saddle, met anyone who uses a tree saddle, or has and laughs at them, is much much bigger than anyone using a saddle. And always will be.

It’s a typical counter culture following a typical counter culture pattern. Some cool innovation will come out of it. Some time and money will be wasted. A couple folks will die. A couple folks will be saved. A couple folks will get rich, and quite a few will go broke.

But like canopy stalker said - I have gained quite a few good relationships because of “saddle hunting”.

We are some weird critters that’s for sure.
 
Public land is getting over saturated, I know that much.

All just mobile gear to me, I don't much distinguish between saddles and stand. That's more tribal distinction than anything functional. Don't get me wrong, the tribal aspect is a huge part of sales, but that's not my concern.

As someone that's been a mobile hunter since about 2000 when I started hunting, from my view, it's a careful what you wish for scenario. I have access to better gear than in some cases I ever imagined, but so does everyone else now. That leaves both a bitter and sweet taste in my mouth for sure.

And that's not at all ego based, like the indie fan that sees their favorite band make it big. I just see more people and sign of people, and in places I used to not see people, using gear I never used to see people use, and I really don't like that very much. Mobile gear is partly to blame for that but much more so I blame all the mapping apps.
 
Agree with most of the posts so far, but will add a couple that some won’t like.

It is a simple fact that people are getting bigger in this country on average, and maybe even more so in the hunting community based on what I have observed walking around at hunting shows and stores like Cabelas.

I have always questioned whether anyone over 200-225 should really be climbing trees unless a ladder stand or stick ladders are involved, and at 300, probably should stay on the ground or in a tower type stand. I am generalizing here and recognize there are exceptions to every rule and there are some very athletic guys over 225, but only talking about the norm here.

I have watched reactions at the shows and most of the bigger boys that are not already into mobile simply laugh and move on when they pass a saddle related booth. People size is a huge limitation for how far the saddle market can and will grow and the answer is not an improved weight rating on the products.

Age is another huge limitation on the mobile market. As folks age, gravity gets more real and most older hunters that are not into mobile already are never going to try it or switch. The hunting population is growing older by the second and there are much fewer recruits coming into our ranks. Simple math.

And finally, yes, we are seeing clone of clone of clone in the entire saddle hunting product lines. Said it many times before, unless there is some significant technical advancement in materials to make them, there are only so many ways to do what we do, so everyone comes out with a slight tweak or variation on a common core design that “changes the game” for the 1,000th time each season. We need some artificial spider silk and antigravity composites before anything really new comes out!
 
elk yinzer said:
but much more so I blame all the mapping apps.
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Yup.

People ain’t skeered of the dark anymore. You can just follow the magic pocket brick, or call a friend who could be 30 miles away to get you.

The big risk, or perceived risk, of run and gun public hunting has been removed. Plus there’s a stronger incentive than pre-internet/smartphone to say you did it and have people pat you on the back virtually.

Take away phones, and all of it collapses to people who like the process not the results or rewards.

That’s not a value judgement either - we are all the same monkeys.
 
The market may have reached saturation, but it seems like saddle hunting will be a revolving door for a time: there’s gonna be lots of people that buy in and try it out - and don’t keep doing it. It seems like membership here on the forum continues to grow… I wonder if any of the data minded Moderators have membership numbers? A graph of new members over time sure would be telling.
 
Jammintree said:
The market may have reached saturation, but it seems like saddle hunting will be a revolving door for a time: there’s gonna be lots of people that buy in and try it out - and don’t keep doing it. It seems like membership here on the forum continues to grow… I wonder if any of the data minded Moderators have membership numbers? A graph of new members over time sure would be telling.
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It would be interesting to see how long members are active too. There's over 20k members, what percentage are actively using the site and for how long? I've wondered what the avg lifespan is on this site before
 
Horn said:
It would be interesting to see how long members are active too. There's over 20k members, what percentage are actively using the site and for how long? I've wondered what the avg lifespan is on this site before
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You just made me want to check. I've been here since 2015. Saddle hunting well before that. Don't even remember how I started. Had my first TL stolen. Bought another, modded a sit-drag, the rest is history.
 
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