After more than 40 years as a French-made watersports icon, BIC Sport is no more. At the end of 2020, it merged with Tahe Outdoors to become a new brand: TAHE.
TAHE’s mission is to develop products that are accessible, reliable, simple and innovative, ecologically responsible and manufactured in France whenever possible—with the bottom line of helping their customers enjoy time on the water. The company is also committed to the development of watersports competition opportunities for youth riders and racers.
Under the agreement, BIC Sport’s workforce remains in place and its most popular category names will carry forward. Products such as the Techno windsurf boards, Borneo and Bilbao kayaks, the Cross and Performer SUP series, ACE-TEC and TOUGH-TEC technologies will all incorporated into the new TAHE brand.
“BIC Sport was a legendary watersports brand for 40 years, but always had its challenges from being associated with pens and lighters,” says North American marketing and product manager Jimmy Blakeney, who moved over from a long career at BIC. “The new TAHE brand inherits all the best of BIC Sport including the employees, our exclusive and sustainable Made in France construction technologies and best-selling products. We’ll build on this foundation with the energy and excitement of a new brand with innovative, forward-looking products such as the SUP-YAK. Our mission is to help friends and family discover endless play time on the water.”
New products to TAHE will come out of its Vannes, France, factory as well, building on the foundation of BIC Sport and Tahe Outdoors.
BIC was born from the windsurf culture of the early 1980s, with the company developing some of the category’s best-selling windsurf boards. At the same time, Tahe Outdoors was building its own high-performance, expedition kayaks for the cold, inhospitable seas of northern Europe.
The new TAHE brand is the result of the fusion of BIC Sport and Tahe Outdoors, two companies that have been legends in their respective water sports markets for decades. Covering six sports, including SUP, kayaking, windsurfing, surfing, kitesurfing and sailing, Tahe’s brands include Core Kiteboarding, SIC (SUP, foil and surfboards), Zegul (high-end composite and HPDE touring kayaks) and Tahe (applying BIC’s history to SUP).
INFO: www.tahesport.com