You all think that Cascade Designs is a huge company...thanks for bringing a smile to my face:). They are privately owned and have about 250 employees. They run on a very tight budget as well. It's amazing that as much innovation comes from such a small company...

There are many reasons why price increases are occurring at CDI. One is R&D costs. To be a true innovator, a company must spend money. If there is no money, then we shouldn't expect any new items coming from them. Seems fair. However, there have been some amazing new products in the past year from Cascade Designs including the Reactor, Hyperflow, and soon to come NeoAir. Innovation is paramount to their success.

Material costs have sky rocketed in the past few years. These have been absorbed as long as possible, but that can not go on forever. Stainless steel, titanium, aluminum, brass, high-quality nylons and polyesters, and so on have required Cascade Designs to raise prices in order to stay in business.

US manufacturing has also contributed to the increase in prices. There are many benefits to having stuff manufactured in the US, but it also costs more. Some of the benefits include far more control of production, communication between production, engineering, etc., treating employees right due to the USA's labor laws, money stays in the US, etc. However, if you compare quality to anything else on the market, you will see the Cascade Designs is very competitive. The bottom line is you get what you pay for.