Why Taimen?

🧭 Taimen – technical fly-fishing apparel without wholesale margins, without middlemen. No bullshit.

Taimen technical fishing apparel is sold in a DTC (direct-to-consumer) model – the brand owner sells directly to the angler, without wholesalers, distributors or retail chains. In plain words: direct sales from the people who design the gear to the people who fish in it.

Thanks to this model we can offer you high-quality gear at an honest price, without cutting corners on materials or construction.

✨ In short – what’s in it for you?

• No wholesale and retail margins – you pay for the product, not for a chain of middlemen.
• More budget for fabrics, membranes and technical details, less for photo shoots and “brand campaigns”.
• We design fishing apparel for real use on the water, not just to look good in a catalog.
• Direct contact with the brand – from the first sketch to the parcel at your door.

❗️Everybody says “we sell direct” now. Does it actually mean anything?

Many fishing brands proudly claim they offer products “straight from the manufacturer”. At first glance it seems fine: you buy on the brand’s website, delivery is fast, the box looks premium. But… the price doesn’t really change.

Why?

Because in reality it’s often just a new sales channel bolted onto the same old model. The brand still sells through wholesalers and shops, and has to keep prices high to avoid competing with its own retail partners.

“Direct” sales look better on the surface – but don’t automatically translate into more value for you. Very often it simply means more margin for the brand, without a meaningful jump in product quality. If you look at traditional brands, you’ll notice a pattern: prices go up, but the quality doesn’t always follow.

💸 About price – does more expensive really mean better?

It’s natural to assume: if something costs more, it must be better. That logic works… up to a point.

The price you pay is not just fabric, membrane and sewing. It also includes:

• transport,
• warehousing and stock risk,
• advertising campaigns and lifestyle photo shoots,
• wholesaler margins,
• retail margins,
• agency fees, trade shows and promotions.

🔗 The classic supply chain – where do your 170 € go?

In the traditional model, a product passes through several stages – a supply chain made of multiple intermediaries.

In fishing, it’s usually the brand owner who sets the final retail price. That price is calculated to “carry” all the margins in the chain. Then the brand carefully guards it – because many customers still believe that if something is more expensive, it must be better.

The result?
A product that costs 30 € to manufacture ends up at 200 € on the shelf. Sometimes more.

How the price grows in a classic chain:

[Factory (for example in Asia) – 30 €] ➝ [Brand owner – 50 €] ➝ [Distributor – 80 €] ➝ [Retail shop – 120 €] ➝ [Customer – 200 €]

• The factory produces according to the brand’s spec – often for several brands at the same time.
• The brand creates the concept and design, but sets a “base price” that already includes all the future margins.
• The distributor/wholesaler buys from the brand, adds their costs and sells to shops.
• The shop adds its own margin and sells to you.
• You – pay for everyone in between.

Everything in the middle adds cost that doesn’t make the product any more waterproof, breathable or durable – it just pushes the price up.

In theory, the internet was supposed to simplify this. In practice, many shops just expanded their offer without investing in stock, logistics or service. They sometimes sell items they don’t physically have – a nice image and a catchy description are enough. And you end up paying a big chunk of the price for that image.

You’re not paying for better fabric. You’re not paying for a smarter cut. You’re not paying for stronger seams. You’re often paying for the photo.

Traditional brands know this. That’s why they invest heavily in locations, stylists and big campaigns. Because today, it’s very often the picture that sells – not the product itself.

🔧 Why does Taimen work differently?

Where many traditional brands are trying to go, Taimen started. Taimen didn’t “switch” to direct sales – Taimen was born in direct-to-consumer.

We began as an online fly-fishing shop, back when buying on the internet clearly meant one thing: better prices because the model was leaner and more honest. From day one we’ve been close to anglers, their needs and the reality of cold water and bad weather.

When we decided to design our own products – technical fishing apparel and gear – one thing was obvious: we would build everything on direct sales. No retail network, no extra links in the chain, no unnecessary markups.

🏆 Why can Taimen be cheaper – and better?

Not because we cut corners on quality or skip important steps.

Our core market is fly fishing – a demanding, well-informed group of anglers. People who know what they want: well-designed, functional gear without gimmicks and without hidden costs.

Many Taimen users belong to generations that have watched production, commerce and environmental awareness change. They expect real quality, not just marketing noise.

Because we sell directly, we don’t have to share our margin with wholesalers and large retail chains. We don’t pour budget into big image campaigns or fancy branding agencies. Instead, we put our money where it matters: solid fabrics, proven membranes, reliable zips, smart pocket layouts and details that only someone who actually fishes would bother with.

That’s why we can offer high quality at a fair price. Not because something is missing, but because we know what really counts on the river.

For us, being able to offer high-quality products at an honest price is a key advantage that comes directly from our business model – and we lean into that on purpose.

The effect?
We can use better materials and more advanced construction, and still offer the finished product at a price that makes sense to you – not just to our margin calculator.

Today, around 95% of our sales are direct to the end customer. Most orders go through our own online store taimen.com and its local versions.

A smaller part runs through selected marketplaces. The remaining few percent outside our home market go through a handful of trusted partner shops.

We don’t sell through wholesalers or distributors. Our model is built on direct contact with the angler – and that’s how we intend to keep it.

The products we offer are physically in our warehouse. We shoot the photos ourselves. We write the product descriptions ourselves. We control the shipping ourselves.

We don’t do everything perfectly. But we do everything our own way. And that’s how we can be sure that what you receive isn’t a polished promise – it’s an honest product.

🎣 Who is Taimen for?

• For anglers who would rather pay for fabric, cut and durability than for a lifestyle photo shoot.
• For those who want technical fishing apparel and wading gear built for real fishing, not just for posing.
• For people who value direct contact with the brand and want a say in how products evolve.

❓ Why Taimen?

Because we chose the simplest and hardest path at the same time: to design technical fishing gear and sell it directly to the anglers who use it. No extra layers of marketing, no artificial prestige – just solid, technical apparel built for water, stones and weather.

👉 What next?

If you want to see what direct-to-consumer really means on the water, start with the essentials: our fishing waders, wading boots, wading jackets, fly-fishing vests and technical shirts. The rest you’ll judge yourself, standing mid-current.