Jackson Kayak

Jackson Kayak is a producer of kayaks and was founded by its namesake, Eric "EJ" Jackson. After working with Wave Sport Kayaks as a team member and as a designer, Eric Jackson and business partner, Tony Lunt formed Jackson Kayak in Rock Island, Tennessee in October 2003.

Already in their first year, the company sold 2,500 boats, resulting in $1.5 million annual sales. Year-on-year sales increased by 80% until 2007, and the company sold 7,515 boats in 2008. In the United States, the company sold 40% of whitewater kayaks in 2008/2009, and the expected sales in 2009 was 7,000 boats. It also has the largest market share in England and Japan, and increases its share in France.

The kayaks have become very popular as high-performing playboats of Freestyle athletes. Many of the world's leading Freestyle paddlers use Jackson kayaks, and Jackson Kayak's sponsorship of some of the best Freestyle kayakers in the world adds to this development (see below).

Jackson Kayak works primarily with smaller dealers instead of large retailers. They have particularly promoted Kayaking as a family sport, especially by producing boats for children as small as weighing 13.5 kg (30 pounds). Canoeist Joe Jacobi, an Olympic Gold medalist in 1992 and teammate of Eric Jackson at the Olympic Games, believes that Jackson has "made whitewater kayaking a family sport in a way that no one else in the industry has been able to do."

After a peak in 2006, the kayak market in the United States has declined. In view of their success and their inexpensive boats, Jackson Kayak has been accused in the kayaking world of flooding the market with kayaks and, also by creating a large second-hand market, of being in part responsible for the market to decline in recent years. Opponents of this view blame the evolution of kayaks for the market development: As long as kayaks evolved fast, and differences between boats of different generations were large, the market boomed, and Jackson Kayak was there to serve the demand. Now that the evolution has greatly slowed down, they argue that the interest in new boats has naturally decreased. Eric Jackson himself claims that his company has actually activated the market.

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