Go Pro

GoPro Cameras: Luxury Goods or Commodities?

Table of Contents

I. Company Introduction 3

Key Issues 4

II. Summary of Recent Events & Articles 5

III. Determinants of Demand 7

IV. Determinants of Supply 9

Appendix 10

Figure 1: Action Cameras Supply and Demand (Supply shift) 10

Figure 2: Action Cameras Supply and Demand (Demand shift) 11

Figure 3: GoPro, Inc. Action Cameras Supply and Demand (Demand shift) 12

Bibliography 13

I. Company Introduction

As a UC San Diego graduate in the field of visual arts, GoPro's CEO, Nick Woodman, had always had the entrepreneur spirit in him. He had two early startups that came crashing down quickly, but he learned great lessons quickly. While on a surfing trip to Indonesia and Australia, Nick tried clever ways to mount existing 35mm camera to his wrist using custom made wrist. He started to sell these to other water sport enthusiasts who, like himself, wanted an affordable way to capture footage of themselves in action. That surfing trip is what inspired him to start the company that we now know was GoPro (Shontell, 2012).

Using the money Nick made selling wrist straps to fellow surfers and a $35,000 loan from his parents, he started his own company GoPro in 2002. GoPro took things one step further by not only selling the wrist straps, but would also bundle them with a tiny camera that he outsourced from a China factory (Shontell, 2012). The company is now headquartered in San Mateo, California and offers a full suite of products including high end, waterproof action camera, mounting accessories, and software that make it easy for end users to create unique videos that can be shared on various social media platforms. GoPro cameras are available in over 200 countries around the worlds and had offices internationally in Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, China, and the Netherlands. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - Form 10K, 2015).

GoPro went public in June of 2014 in hopes of paying off his debit and...