What's happening now in tungsten world?
The price of tungsten
It's been a while since I updated the tungsten price blogs. After the devastating price surge up till March 2026 ($315 per kilo) we are now back down at January's price (the tungsten price has been stable at around $150 for over a month). Still a far cry from the $45 at the start of 2025 but we can at least breathe again as an industry.
8th February 2025 = 44.82
8th January 2026 = 153.31
17 April 2026 = 307.79
10 August 2026 = 150.49
Some darts companies are struggling
Not everyone is breathing easily however. There have already been some notable closures in the darts industry with a UK based darts factory closing its doors as well as a number of smaller darts brands looking like they are stopping.
The Luke Littler hype train has certainly slowed down and together with a potential looming global recession being touted, with inflation rampant everywhere, political chaos in many countries and the global fuel shock we may also see a bit of a bloodbath among lesser well run dart brands and in particular among dart shops.
Private Equity
Whilst private equity has pumped a lot of money into the darts industry, as well all know not all private equity firms are created equally so it remains to be seen if any will bleed their darts assets dry or if their lack of knowledge about the darting scene will see any of them significantly damage the brands. Strategically there are a lot of changes going on at a few major darts companies so time will tell who the winners and losers are going to be. And if Target can get an investor to meet their valuation and get a deal over the line then that is bound to create waves within the industry.
What's Loxley been up to?
But what's been going on at Loxley you may ask? Well we have successfully navigated this difficult period without having to inflate our prices to ridiculous levels. We have been careful with margins and tweaking things on the back end in order to keep things flowing with the least possible disruption to you guys and we can now really plan for the future properly and keep growing.
We have made some strategic sacrifices, for example we are discontinuing Reel Darts as a sub-brand (at least for the next few years) in order to push 100% of resources and time towards Loxley. We are also discontinuing a number of products from our range - though many of these will return at some point in the future in a refined form.
We don't like to write too many designs off completely which is where a future Model 2 can come in or perhaps see a limited run in the barrels only Naturals collection which proved very popular. Efficiency is very important for any business but we do also understand that a player using a discontinued barrel as their match darts may need a new, extra or spare set at some point in the future.
Taking advantage of troubled waters
Whilst the mad rise in tungsten price over the last 18 months saw everyone panic - it actually allowed us time to take a step back and analyse our operations. As founder for example I have been far too hands on at times with assembling darts, sticking stickers, preparing orders, etc. While this was a necessity as a start-up, now Loxley is more established my time is better employed elsewhere. I do enjoy the hands on hard graft and I think it's good not to be stuck behind a computer screen all day, this step back to look at things has allowed us to optimise.
The troubles in the tungsten market also actually allowed us to finally bring out some darts I'd kept on the sidelines for a few years. The Woodstock series for example is something I'd designed 3 or 4 years ago and have been waiting for the right time to pull the trigger on. The Marian Model Zero had also sat on a dusty shelf for years (I think the original prototype was made way back in 2021) so I'm over the moon that we finally got to bring these beauties out. I love these darts and this felt like the right time to finally make them.
Banks are begging us to take out loans - no thanks
Banks, lending companies, 'bridge funds' and even PayPal and Shopify are constantly trying to loan money to Loxley. I understand that having a smaller budget and less free capital means a company grows a lot slower - however if Loxley is completely debt free, solvent and progressing then it is not necessary to take on the risk or the interest payments.
According to BLS stats, 20.4% of companies fail within their first year, 49.4% don't make it to five years and 65.3% fail before they are ten years old.
Loxley is over 6 years old now and is here to stay. Given the current economic climate, a loan is the last thing on my mind. If there was a damned good reason to need an influx of cash I would not be looking at the borrowing market.
The case against chasing the latest trend
For a couple of years everyone was asking when Loxley was going to bring out an all-in-one flight and stem system. Lots of darts brand invested heavily in these systems chasing the trend and with the warnings not to be left behind and out. Fast forward to 2026 and how many brands are regretting this (I spoke to one brand in 2025 who regretted it already). How many of these systems are still actively going to be around in a years time?
The question I get asked all the time now is will Loxley be making screw in point darts? Like I would never use an all in one flight and stem system myself, the same applies to twisty points - I would never use them myself. I repoint my own darts with the Loxley Arrowhead points and that's it. I know so many pub players who don't even go that far and use the standard points that come with their darts.
With so many brands now jumping on the twisty point bandwagon the question needs to be asked - is this just a trend, a fad or an attempt at a cash grab? Is it the darting equivalent to a subscription service? Convince a percentage of players they need to change their points as often as they change their flights?
Maybe I'm being cynical and of course I can see that there is a small convenience in being able to repoint darts quickly and find the perfect point for your darts via quick testing. However I argue that no company has actually done this the right way yet. If both classic pointed darts and twisty pointed darts are going to co-exist in the market then surely all new darts should be release in both variations so both sets of customers can be served by each new design (this is completely unfeasible of course). The other argument is when it became clear Targets twisty point monopoly could be broken, why did ALL the other manufacturers not join forces and come up with one unified system which was incompatible with the Target system? They could have created a complete new industry standard and even slowed down Targets race to dominance.
For now I am holding off on a new points system. Maybe in the future, maybe not. I have factories in the UK and in China who are all ready to make the points, and the thread system in the darts itself is simple. But for now traditional points have worked for decades and decades so I'm in no rush to alienate fans of these.
The Loxley player roster
We get contacted all the time by players of various levels looking for sponsorship. I've mentioned it elsewhere plenty of times but we aren't in the market for new players. There are a small number of players out there who fit the Loxley profile but at the moment they are unavailable. We are in no rush, a small roster of proper Loxley players is far more interesting than a roster 50-100 deep of 'whoever comes along'. Seeing a novice like Filip Bereza grab a PDC Tour card a few months after picking up a set of Loxley darts gives us great pleasure and is becoming a bit of a recurring theme. You could say we are the real dream makers!
What happens next
I'm intrigued as to what the rest of the year is going to bring the darts market. Are there any big brands who haven't shown their hands yet regarding new prices? Have any been super canny in stocking up on tungsten before the price hikes or any that completely dropped the ball and paid top dollar leaving them with an end of year launch that won't sell? It's going to be exciting to find out.
And what can we expect from Loxley at the end of the year and into 2027? First off we are going full circle back to the original Robins. These have been the most requested darts year after year after year. We're reworking them into 2 new models, a tweaked version "Robin Revisited" and a new flavour "Robin Reset". Aside from these we'll be looking at our players darts to see if everyone is still happy with their setup. And then going back through the old catalogue and seeing which darts need to return or have a tweak with the priority focus being on the Robin Hood themed darts. We have taken one step backwards this year but taken two leaps forward.