[overgard]

As a person that's bought an electric skateboard in the past and a lot of other dumb stuff, I feel like I have a decent grasp on the target market here... but I couldn't buy one of these, they just look so dorky. It's like wearing cement shoes or something. Way too bulky and garish. And the marketing video.. ugh. Like the shirtless dude and the weird slow-mo cuts and the obvious pandering to a male audience? It just gives off a very desperate vibe. If they have to go to such great lengths to make it seem "cool" you can be almost assured they realize exactly how uncool it looks.

The other thing is, your target market is basically college students to start with (probably), or kids. 400+ is out of their range. I think you can get away with cheap/functional+dorky (regular skates), or expensive+cool, but you can't do expensive+dorky (segway territory).

[peter-row]

I think their marketing is off.

It's 10-20% of the price of a segway, and you can climb stairs, and carry them much more easily. They also look easy to put on (unlike rollerblades).

If they can sell 500 units, they'll easily hit their stretch goals. I think they'll do OK.

They just shouldn't be afraid of being the next segway - segway didn't fail because it was "dorky". pg was using that as an example of the problems companies get when they run fat and are too cloistered. Segway had a lot of other problems (with the same root cause) - it was way too expensive, and it was too awkward outside a controlled environment (both of which these skates seem to solve). It also tried to sell 50,000 units on the first iteration, while these guys are selling maybe 1000 (for the kickstarter), and can then tweak things based on customer feedback.

[gee_totes]

Not all rollerblades are difficult to put on -- check out Doop skates.

[AndrewKemendo]

>but I couldn't buy one of these, they just look so dorky.

Congratulations you described why rollerblading really never took off in the 90s. As a rollerblader even I can admit that there is just something about the look that screams "not cool", I'm just not quite sure why.

[tricuspid]

It mostly has to do with the human tendency to discern an innate level of intuitive ass-kicking power that any given artifact might imbue upon or withold from the wearer.

Ask yourself: If I had to fight Chuck Norris, would this magic item improve my chances of winning?

When the answer isn't a resounding "yes", the prospects of coolness are in doubt.

[endgame]

The marketing video is very cringe-inducing for me as well. I think that any time you're playing music over video, there's something in the real sound that you're trying to hide. I would not be surprised if these were annoyingly loud.

I'm still looking for a compact, possibly wearable short-medium distance personal transport. The sort of thing that lets you go further than walking when you get off a bus or tram (where you're unable to take a bike).

[prawn]

What disadvantages are there in taking something like Boosted Boards and making it smaller?

[endgame]

I don't know, I'm not a hardware guy. Battery capacity would probably suffer, limiting range. Seems like a decent idea.

[prawn]

I meant the board itself rather than everything. They're using a specific form-factor which might be unnecessary for people who aren't interested in longboards?