O'brien and Liquid Force the same?
 

I heard that O'brien and Liquid Force are made at the same factory, and this year there bindings are pretty much the same, just have a different label sewn on? Is this true?

i have actually noticed this. on the little tags/paperwork that comes with them either the LF had obrien written on it, or the obrien had LF written on it. on the warrantee card i think it was. i cant remember which.
so kinda validates what your saying.

they are made in the same factory, and this years obrien boots are built on the "pro-plate" platform that liquid force came out with in 2006. The design and shaping of the boards, however, is completely separate.

Well, if you really must know, there's a company called Kent Watersports. They're most noted as the maker of those lovely orange life jackets.

Kent Watersports is the parent company to O'Brien, Liquid Force, Free Motion, Obscura Wakeskates, HO, Hyperlite, Accurate, WakeKite, CWB, Connelly, Pro Line, and probably a few others that I don't know about.

However, they all operate independently. Kinda weird.

Found their website: http://www.kentwatersports.com/

hell kent even owns shadowbox!

its not wierd, its the same in all board sports. snowboarding, skate, surfing etc.

take for example Billabong they're the parent company for Element, Von Zipper, Kustom, Nixon, Xcel, Sector 9 and DaKine as well as a couple others. its really the only way for a lot of these brands to compete in the global market...

FKING monopolys!
and i thought walmart was bad....

Does anyone else find it a bit scary from a business perspective that the largest wake companies in the world are all owned by a single parent? I've seen the cost sheets to the marina for most products from the big 3 (LF,CWB,Hype) and the mark-ups are very significant.... I wonder how truly "independently" Kent's subsidiaries operate from the parent company. Interesting... Thanks for the post Tuneman

No I don't find it scary. I love the sport and pick a product that fits my style and my budget. They have boards from $100 to $700.

just Kent is the parent company to everything that Herb OBrien every started except Ronix. That is weird.

So if you bought 2010 O'brien bindings they would be the same as the 2006 Liquid Force bindings with the 6" baseplate? I have 2006 Shane bindings right now so that seems like I would be buying the same thing?

Makes me feel good every time I ride my Sine.

Thanks Zach.