After that, I got an email from Daniel Moyer, the designer behind Funkin Function. He has agreed for his email to be reproduced here, so that readers may understand his side of the story.

Below are the main excerpts from his email, along with some of my thoughts:

Your only mistake is in assuming that I am a manufacturer. On the contrary, I am a one-man one-at-a-time furniture maker using the scrap from my furniture pieces to make similarly artistic longboard skateboards.

Each board is composed. Stock is arranged for visual statement and for physical characteristics that might contribute to the natural flex that makes these boards so nice to ride. Then I thickness plane, joint the ends. biscuit for reference, glue-up, rough sand, shape, mill for truck-mounting, finish sand, wet-sand-in a slurry coat of oil, buff off the slurry, and finish with a few coatings of hand-rubbed oil.

A one-man operation (OMO) like Daniel Moyer’s is still a manufacturer. But I see his point that he does not have the economies of scale. These skateboards are more akin to works of art – hand-crafted and one of a kind.

As a business model for manufacturing, this is a disaster. I’m not on a green mission; I’m just trying to be responsible with my own waste stream and make a wage from my time.

As a businessman, Daniel Moyer is entirely justified in pricing his product at what he considers to be a fair price. His rationale for the high prices is that his skateboards are entirely hand-made and artistic.

Where we disagree is what that price should be: his costs of production are low, and after taking into account the amount of manual work, I feel that he could still turn in a healthy profit even with lowered prices.

I realize that being thrust into the eco-spotlight by the BKLYNDESIGNS coverage leaves me open to whatever criticism I have coming to me. However, if someone were to imply I was seeking to milk or even bang the buying public while flying the green flag, I would find that most insulting.

I had never intended to imply that Daniel Moyer was taking advantage of the eco-conscious customer.

My point was that eco-friendly products should be more attractively priced to attract mainstream customers. Pricing them too expensively might actually slow down the green movement, as it creates a misleading impression that green goods are only for the rich and privileged.

And if the product is not intended to be positioned as a green product, then why not play down the “scrap wood” and promote the “hand made” and “artistic” parts?

There, I hope I have given a fair account of both sides of the story. Feel free to tell me what you think.

I have discussed this issue before. It is perfectly understandable if prices are higher due to higher costs of manufacturing. But we have to ask ourselves, is it a fair price?

I came across Funkin Function skateboards made from scrap wood. They are made from scrap pieces of wood, such as oak, walnut, and ash:

We used to manufacture eco-friendly bamboo skateboards for an Australian company, before deciding to streamline our products and focus our attention on bamboo flooring.

Two things to note:

1. The boards are made of 2-3 separate pieces of scrap wood. These smaller pieces are much easier to source for than a single large piece of wood, which would make them cheaper
2. Unlike many skateboards which are slightly curved at the ends for greater control, these are flat longboard skateboards. This is much easier to manufacture, and saves on the cost of pressing.

A typical skateboard costs between US$50 and US$120 at this online skateboard store.

Yet despite these cost-saving measures, the scrap wood skateboard is going for a princely sum of US$495. That’s almost 10 times the price of an entry-level skateboard.

The bottom line is obviously important, but we green manufacturers also have a social responsibility to encourage greater use of eco-friendly products.

Pricing eco-friendly products at such sky-high prices is not helping the cause.