I previously worked in motorsports marketing, specifically in racing, motorcycle roadracing and flat track, to be specific. I worked with athletes, teams and sponsors to maximize visibility and roi, to deliver value to sponsors and increase team and athlete value; I may be able to offer some insight here. Klipsch are charging a $1500 premium for a $100-200 vinyl wrap for their speakers. Naturally, they’d like to sell a few, but that’s not why they’re making them. Yes, it’s cross branding with an F1 team they sponsor and to be sure, a few f1 fans with deep pockets and poor taste will buy these. More reasonable fans will be intrigued, look into it and decide that it’s not worthwhile to shell out extra cash for some garish vinyl appliqués and will buy regular Forte’s instead. A few more will instead spend the money on Cornwalls, LaSacala and KHorns and even more will buy more budget friendly, non-heritage speakers. At the same time, they have people discussing them: three pages here and dog knows how many others are chatting on other platforms. There’s a maxim in the industry: there’s no such thing as bad publicity. While the comments in this thread are overwhelmingly jeering at the aesthetics of these speakers, we’re talking about them just the same. Nobody is saying bad things about the speakers themselves, only the polarizing graphics. If Klipsch doesn’t move them, they can remove the vinyl and sell them as seconds, quietly discount them or write them off entirely. The gamble isn’t whether they’ll sell them; that’s almost immaterial. The bet is that they’ll sell other models to F1 fans who may have been considering Warfdale, Martin Logan, Polk, B&W, Magnepan, et al. There’s a good chance that bet pans out or at least improves brand consciousness to a measurable degree.
