Does Bear Archery finally get it?

[gregg dudley]

I am optimistic about Bear making a strong return to the traditional scene over the next year or two.  They set up a booth at our Florida state shoot last year and they seemed really interested in the comments and feedback of the participants.  I have my fingers crossed that they will represent Bear well.  I feel like the local guys here in Florida really want to do that.

[LookMomNoSights]

We'll know for sure if they are REALLY REALLY SERIOUS....if we see those timeless green RazorHeads come back!  
Now wouldnt that be somethin'!?  

[Craig Schoneberg]

A year ago I contacted the Bear Customer Care department and asked, since the limbs are interchangable, why the Right Hand Bear Takedown was offered in 45 to 60 pound weights and the Left Hand only in 50 and 55 pounds.  

This is the response I received: "I do apologize.  In the past few years, our company has trimmed the traditional line of a lot of the left handed versions due to lack of demand."  

I just had to shake my head and laugh . . .  I do hope their traditional line does well for them.

[The Great Jashu]

Originally posted by Craig Schoneberg:
A year ago I contacted the Bear Customer Care department and asked, since the limbs are interchangable, why the Right Hand Bear Takedown was offered in 45 to 60 pound weights and the Left Hand only in 50 and 55 pounds.  

This is the response I received: "I do apologize.  In the past few years, our company has trimmed the traditional line of a lot of the left handed versions due to lack of demand."  

I just had to shake my head and laugh . . .  I do hope their traditional line does well for them.

That is real funny! Hopefully they have some people spearheading this return to traditonal that know what that word meens. You would think they would at least have someone lurking here on this site. I know that most bowyers do lurk here, if they are not acitvely involved.

I did hear a rumor of the return of the Razorhead.

[Possum Head]

I've read this thread and found it interesting.I'm 49 years old and have'nt been trad shootin but 3 years.Other than some of the older bow lenghts not being available what ways have these classics changed over the years? Is it design or materials that make todays models differ from those of old?Never had the pleasure of shooting vintage.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Originally posted by The Great Jashu:
 

Originally posted by SEMO_HUNTER:
If I'm not mistaken.......Bear was bought out by Jennings, then Jennings was bought out by PSE??
So your not actually buying a Bear bow anymore.....it's made by PSE, which isn't such a bad thing either. PSE has and still does make some really nice bows, although they never were too big into the traditional end of archery.....except for that Coyote take down recurve and it was a big POS!
I had the Coyote recurve at one time and gave it ample time to impress me and it never did. Not very accurate and noisy.......no matter what I tried I just couldn't get those 2 problems worked out so I sold it.

I would also like to get my hands on one of those 48" Kodiak Super mags. That would be just about perfect for my blind. Whether they are made by PSE now or not, I've always wanted a Super K Mag.

PSE has nothing to do with them. Its parent company is Escalade Sports. There was a Bear / Jennings merger in the early 80's. That was more of Bear taking over an ailing Jennings. Tom Jennings and Fred Bear were still alive when that happened. There is a lot more hisotry in the archery business as to who owns/owned who. In my opinion its just the Bear name now and the Florida factory. What I was hoping was the powers that be at Bear may see that they can be in the trad world, if they only catch up with what trad archers want. Everyone is exactly right with the 59, myself included. I would buy one of those. [/b]

Your right, PSE has nothing to do with Bear archery....I was mistaken on that, but Escalade Sports does own Bear. This link explains why I thought PSE was somehow connected. It only says that Escalade Sports licensed PSE products in 2000. I'm not sure what that means except that maybe they decided to carry the PSE product line? Not sure about that.
Then they aquired Bear Archery in 2003.
They seem to own quite a bit more than I ever thought they did.

Doesn't really matter to me, I'd still like to have a Super K.

 http://www.escaladesports.com/corporate/about-escalade

[The Great Jashu]

Originally posted by Possum Head:
I've read this thread and found it interesting.I'm 49 years old and have'nt been trad shootin but 3 years.Other than some of the older bow lenghts not being available what ways have these classics changed over the years? Is it design or materials that make todays models differ from those of old?Never had the pleasure of shooting vintage.

They became stagnant with the trad world. Cookie cutter bows never changing from year to year. No involvement with trad archery, while focussing more on mainstream archery. They stopped making a lot of the things that were used in the trad world, like the Razorhead, and the spring arm bow quivers. Some say that the trad part of the company died in Grayling. This could be a concerted effort on their part to be a part of it all again. In my opinion, Bear Archery was "The" company in Archery. They let that all slip away, instead of carrying on the great tradition that Fred started here in Michigan.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

It has to kinda make you think that they forgot where they came from? I bet if Fred were around today he would be extremely disturbed by what has happened in the past decade.

Fredhill said it right when he mentioned that the manufacturers still must see and turn a profit off of a certain brand/style of equipment they produce or they will drop it.
The new Bear compound bows that have been out for several years now seem to take precedence over the Traditional lines.......and quite honestly I haven't heard a whole lot of positive feedback about their compound bow line. Other companies are kicking butt and taking names in that department and most of them don't even offer a traditional line of bows, so they concentrate all their efforts into wheelies cause evidently that's where the big bucks are?

It's sad to say the least. Even though I shoot both, I don't ever want to see the traditional lines discontinued. I love my Bear Grizzly, it was passed on to me from my uncle and I'll have it till the day I die.

[LPN]

Those poor fellas down in Florida are danged if they do and danged if they don't.

[CG]

Or, does Bear finally get it and are going to build bows that people might want?  

Jashu, I'm going to pick on something you said, but please don't think I'm picking on you.....

Yeah, I think it's awesome that Bear appears to be getting back to their roots.  There's probably nothing that conjures up images and sentimental feelings of archery more than Bear to me.

While Bear can bring back plenty of bows that people  want , the rubber will meet the road if people actually buy those bows.

Let's face it, longbow and recurve shooters don't represent a sizeable marketing audience.  The very fact that they are making an effort to revitalize their line is very exciting to me, even if they didn't bring back every single model of bow that each person holds dear.

Sometimes I get the feeling that many of us take exception to Bear (among others.....i.e Magnus) focusing on their bottom line more than on our every whim of what we enjoy using.  

Yes, I have fond recollections of the days that the Bear recurves were always fresh and new, and their devotion to "traditional" archery seemed paramount.  On the other hand, I bet Bear also wishes for those days to be back....days when they sold as many recurves in a month as the entire traditional community purchases in a year these days (I'm exaggerating--don't know off hand how many bows are purchased new these days).

It  was  a great company.  What it is today, although not my cup of tea, is a company like many others that is doing it's best to continue in business.   Bottom line is that their best hope of doing so is to focus on the bows that people  buy .  

Let's hope that this returned focus to recurves and longbows will be fruitful for them, because then it will be fruitful for us as well.

[The Great Jashu]

CG, I think you and I are on the same page. I dont expect them to make a living off of single string bows and equipment anymore. But, if they are going to be involved in that type of equipment, they need to be in touch with what trad archers like and will buy. Thanks for all the input.