Founded in 2010 and created with the simple idea of selling the best quality paddle boards on the market for the cheapest price, Tower Paddle Boards has become a San Diego paddle board icon. What separates Tower from other paddle board companies is our direct to consumer business model. We cut our costs, so we can save you up to $500 on the best paddle boards on the market.
Tower has been a leading San Diego paddle board brand for almost a decade, and was one of the pioneers of modern inflatable paddle boards. In 2012, we developed and sold one of the first 6" thick inflatable paddle boards. Prior to these 6" thick iSUPs, all inflatable paddle boards were 4" thick and sat on the water like a banana. Inflatable paddle boards at the time were no different than common inflatable pool toys. They were miserable, cheap and less functional than hardtop boards. We at Tower sought to change that. The innovation of increasing an inflatable boards thickness 50% (from 4" thick to 6" thick) increased the rigidity of the boards by over 400%. We introduced drop stitch technology into inflatable boards (thousands of mini fibers that expand in the boards interior when inflated, producing the same shape and rigidity of a hardtop board). We even layered our boards with the highest quality PVC on the market, the same outer layered plastic used and trusted by military grade boats. As a result, inflatable paddle boards became superior to their predecessors.
Do not confuse our products with the many cheap inflatable paddle boards on the market. Our San Diego paddle boards are incredibly strong, durable, lightweight and ding-free. Just because our prices are low does not mean our qualities are the same as cheap inflatables on the market. Our price point is reflective of our direct to consumer business model, not the quality of our boards.
As one of the first brands selling these 6" thick inflatable paddle boards, San Diego paddle board based Tower saw great success. We literally rewired the entire paddle board industry. Nowadays inflatable paddle boards are more durable and popular than hardtop boards, thanks in large part to our cutting edge designs.
Tower inflatable paddle board sales quickly skyrocketed with heavy word of mouth marketing. When customers found our site and value proposition, they were eager to tell their friends. We were able to sell extremely high quality boards for an incredibly low price. We wanted to change how the business world worked. Tower forgo the traditional distribution channel by cutting out retail entirely and only selling direct to market, so customers save $500 or more on SUPs. Over 30% of our competitors prices were marked up as a result of middlemen fees, retail fees, and advertising. We at Tower believe customers deserve to be able to afford high quality SUP’s for a low cost, so we cut out all of these fees, and sold only direct to consumer. Even to this day we hardly spend any money on advertising, and have no middleman, salesman, or other various fees that markup our prices. We know our product and value proposition is the best in the market, we don’t have to advertise it to you.
We were invited to take part in one of Shark Tanks inaugural seasons, and quickly partnered with Mark Cuban. As of 2020, we've done over $36 Million in sales and we're Mark Cuban's best investment of ABC's Shark Tank. A lot of people noticed, and a lot of companies tried to copy what we were doing. Today there's a wide array of quality and construction types on inflatable paddle boards, many not ideal. The quality is tough to differentiate just by looking at them (especially online) so it makes it even harder for consumers to find a quality product from a brand they can trust.
The power of our direct to consumer business model paired with the quality of the Tower brand has proven great success. That's what made us the #1 fastest growing private company in San Diego in 2014, and ranked us #239 on the INC 500 list of America's fastest growing companies in 2015... not to mention our inflatable paddle boards being singled out as one of the 10 most impressive products off the entire INC 500 list that year. Not bad for a San Diego paddle board company.
Nowadays, Tower has expanded into multiple markets and upgraded our showroom into a brand new Beach Club venue space on Mission Bay. The venue acts as a showroom for our various products and services, as well as our office. Visitors are always welcome to swing by, hang out, and chat with us about our products. Our doors are open Monday through Friday 9am-5pm.