Source of MAKO Spearguns products. Spearboard forum censors bad reviews to protect MAKO Spearguns.
Some background information before getting into the source of MAKO Spearguns products and the real reason for their cheap prices. In 2010 the advent of high definition POV cameras brought huge interest in the GoPro camera, capable of producing near professional quality video. But the GoPro camera housing had a curved lens which caused underwater video to be blurry, making the GoPro unusable for divers. A German company Aquapixs developed a flat lens compatible with the GoPro camera which solved the focus problem. Speardiver International was the US distributor for the Aquapixs flat lens, and the first to include a free lens with every GoPro camera purchase. This marketing strategy proved to be a great success among divers.
Being a GoPro dealer himself Dano, owner of Mako spearguns, knew that the flat lens is a major selling point. He bought the Aquapixs lens from Freedive Store, copied it and began selling his own inferior version. Ensued a heated argument on Spearfishing planet forum, one of Mako Spearguns main advertising venues, between Dano and the Aquapixs lens inventor MAKO Flat Lens for Go Pro Housing - Spearfishing Planet. Most of the posts by Aquapixs have since been deleted by Spearfishing Planet forum administration, to protect Mako Spearguns who is their paying advertiser.
When confronted by the lens inventor, Dano posted a rant justifying his actions stating that the Aquapixs patent pending lens was too expensive, then disclosed his own cost of making the lens to demonstrate how benevolent Mako Spearguns is in pricing their products. Conveniently omitting of course the costs of research and development which Mako Spearguns did not have to pay since Dano simply copied the lens. Then in a condescending fashion Dano offered the very same person who's work he stole, to buy the lens from Mako Spearguns because he was capable of manufacturing it for less.
Mako Spearguns appeared on the spearfishing scene only two years prior. Their debut on Spearboard forum consisted of the copied line of Rabitech spearguns. MAKO Spearguns main marketing strategy was to capitalize on Rabitech established presence in the spearfishing community and undercut them. Followed a barrage of re-branded Made In China low quality gear along with other copied products. Mako Spearguns saturated the online forums Spearboard, Spearfishing Planet, DeeperBlue, and ScubaBoard with incessant propaganda, quickly earning a bad reputation among experienced spearfishermen, but at the same time establishing a presence with newcomers to the sport who were swayed by the cheap prices and were not in a position to understand what they were really buying.
Copying the GoPro flat lens was our call to action to bring to light Mako Spearguns unethical behavior. Since Mako Spearguns is a paying advertiser on the all the major spearfishing forums, criticism of Mako products is stifled by the owners of those forums. The most blatant example being Spearboard where anyone who posts about having a problem with Mako Spearguns immediately has their posts deleted and threatened with banning, at the explicit direction of Tony Grogan the owner of Spearboard. The grogan, as he is affectionately called by the many spearos that he alienated, is another gem in the spearfishing community, see background information about him here The Spearboard monopoly
Mako Spearguns cheap prices on the surface appear to benefit the spearfishing community, the reality is their products are sub par to say the least. This information needs to be available to the spearfishing community, and the only place where it can be done is here on Spearfishing World forum. We now offer the following expose in the style initiated by Dano himself. Mako Spearguns prices are cheap because the products are cheap Chinese made crap. Visit this Chinese company's website www.aropec.com and have fun finding many Mako Separguns products.
We contacted Aropec and ordered mask samples. These masks were low quality. Mako is selling these masks for $35 and wetsuits for $160. It appears that mako really cares about spearos, but we know Aropec's prices and those are $4 masks and $30 wetsuits. You get what you pay for.
Check out www.TaiwanSports.com to see Mako's assortment of spearguns. Take a close look at the handles of these spearguns, if you're new to speargishing gear you'll probably miss the fact that they're not ergonomic and do not allow a good grip on the gun for tracking. To the uninitiated this handle design may appear to be something special for spearfishing. In reality it was designed by Daniel Hu a Chinese manufacturer, who does not dive or spear. They're just something he thought would be different and marketable.
Mako Spearguns Predator Pro speargun AKA Taiwan Sports Master
In turn Dano the owner of Mako Spearguns is not a spearfisherman himself. To date there hasn't been one spearfishing report posted by him on any forum, nor has he participated in any spearfishing discussion other than to promote his company. Dano doesn't know good spearfishing gear simply because he doesn't use it. He just selects the cheapest offerings from Chinese manufacturers that to his eye looks like it should function properly, as long as it fits his pricing structure he'll sell it. On the surface it appears Mako undercuts other legitimate spearfishing gear manufacturers. In reality Mako products are sub-par and not comparable to anything a self respecting company would offer as spearfishing gear.
Keep reading the thread, there are regular additions about new Mako Speargun products as they come out, disclosing the China source and offering uncensored reviews.