Only KVD Sells Tackle? Nope

Few weeks ago, a post on Wired2Fish.com had this quote in it: “If your name ain’t KVD, you ain’t moving any appreciable product. There ain’t many pros that can sell you much these days.”

That’s a piece of bass industry info that’s become conventional wisdom – and like conventional wisdom everywhere, isn’t necessarily right. Also “ain’t” real sure what the value in repeating that decades-old wisdom is, but whatever.

Then well-known Wester Coaster bassin’ writer George Kramer – a guy I happen to like – posts on his blog a piece reacting to the W2F piece called “KVD and the 70-odd dwarfs.”

You can pretty much tell where that one went, though KVD got thrown under the bus there too. Even suggested that Elite Series rules are changed to suit KVD.

I assume George didn’t mean it that way, but I see that insulting to the other guys on the Elites, who can flat out fish circles around the rest of us. Yes they can. I’ve seen ’em up close and personal, maybe you have too. Sometimes they can fish circles around tKVD too…lol.

Anyhow, my opinion on the “only KVD sells stuff” thing is: nope.

Fer sher KVD moves more product than most. Same as Tiger Woods moved and still does move the needle on TV ratings more than any other golfer. Just a fact. After all, as I’ve said many times, Tiger is the KVD of golf….

But to say that all the other guys in fishing – particularly Elite pros – don’t move the sales needle isn’t true.

A huge reason for that is B.A.S.S. Let’s face it, in bassin’, Bassmaster media moves the needle. It IS the needle…and the gauge, and the machine. Just the truth as I see it, and every media stat you can find proves it. [If you didn’t know, full disclosure is that those folks are my friends, but so are people in other bassin’ media and pros on other trails.]

So if Ike, Alton, Brent, Skeet, Brauer, etc. win or do well or get covered, needles get moved. Product gets sold. Just the fact that I don’t have to put both names for those guys tells you that. This is why Elite pros now have more logos on their jerseys than Woo Daves did back in the day.

Whether products get moved for non-KVD wins/coverage as much as they do for yet another KVD win or a KVD promo is for the pundits to debate, and I wish them luck since that stuff can be impossible to track.

Who can tell if you read/viewed something somewhere and 2 months later bought five packs of it at a lakeside tackle store? Or if a Facebook Like moved you to Lurenet.com or Tacklewarehouse.com or wherever to buy something?

Maybe unbeknownst to them, the pundits are just measuring who can sell stuff most immediately. Or whose sponsors make the most out of a win (this definitely plays into it).

No one can tell. But I can tell you this: If something happens in a B.A.S.S. tourney or with B.A.S.S. media – and I’m including my buddy Z’s show in there – you’ll know about it. That’s how things get moved.

Speakin’ of movin’: