We owe Tom Kaye a debt of gratitude. He was the visionary who first introduced a hobbyist 4500 psi compressor within the budget PCP and paintball enthusiasts. A decade ago the first Shoebox chain driven model was priced at $300 with no frills. It evolved into the belt driven Shoebox Max for $500 with fan cooling and some internal upgrades. It further evolved into the F8 with pressure adjustable shutoff for $1,000 and then the F10 for $1,200.
The Chinese saw the potential market and started offering very cheaply made but faster filling compressors which undercut the Shoebox and forced them to lower prices to remain moderately competitive. The F10 was lowered to $500 for several years before Shoebox recently decided to cease manufacturing.
The issue as I see it is that Shoebox was basically a small scale "garage" manufacturer. Considering the components inside of a Shoebox, it is an intelligent, simple to repair, durable, slow filing compressor which is much more durable than a Chinese Yong Heng class of compressor. However, the problem is that it didn't remain competitive price wise because of it's small scale manufacturing model can't compete with a mass production factory. Shobox should license its technology to a manufacturer which can mass produce Shoeboxes to bring the manufacturing costs down to a level so an F10 can be sold profitably for $350. There is a market for these compressors if the manufacturing cost can be brought in line with the actual cost of the the components inside. It's an excellent booster compressor. A garage manufacturer can't compete with China by selling a compressor at 2.5 times it's faster filling competition. JMHO.
