
Malibu Boats
From the head company of Malibu Boats comes Axis Wake Research! A new wake boarding boat targeted at the price-sensitive market who still want quality but at a lower price.
With the economy going into dire straights, dream boats like Malibu’s and Mastercrafts with their extravagant pricing are swallowing every dollar- including your spare change.
So what does a multi-million dollar company like Malibu do? It conducts market research of buyer behaviors and realizes that buyers actually want to pay less for boats but expect more…crazy I know.
In Malibu’s mind this means they need to create another segment of the wakeboarding market; a discount boating market while still maintaining quality products.
So behold the birth of Axis Wake Research, Malibu’s new boat division dedicated to creating high quality low priced wakeboarding boats – primarily designed to capture wake boat buyers that want a Malibu, dream of owning a Malibu, but can’t afford the price tag.

Axis Wake
Hang-on a second I hear you say, hasn’t Malibu already tried to create a discounted Malibu brand from all its successful models… wasn’t this called the Ride Series? Well, yes and no. Axis Wake Research will not be built from the Malibu factory, it won’t even capitalize on the Malibu brand name, and it’ll be a more budget conscious boat than the Ride series.
Malibu Boats’ recent press release claims “by carefully sourcing components and materials, employing in-house fabrication, lean manufacturing, unique production processes and strategic sales and marketing practices, Axis offers low cost to the customer without compromising quality.” Like I said it’s a press release.
Ultimately, Malibu Boats is creating a new low-priced high quality wakeboarding boat company A.K.A Axis Wake Research and this has to be good news! This brand diversification is nothing new, it’s been used for years in car manufacturing, such as Lexus and Toyota or BMW and Mini.
The question you now have to ask yourself is; are you a premium wakeboarder or a budget wakeboarder? Personally, I’d rather drive a BMW.
Axis Wake are due to be released to dealerships in January 2009.