Not realy sure i want to get into this,
but i was looking through this thread and can only think you must be some sort of manufacturer, which if that be the case, i can simpethise with you but you must apreciate that joe public are not interested in who made who first, if you've only got £400 and you want a baja or £50 and want a tuned pipe and lets say you've examined the pros and cons of what people have said about this equipement then you just go out and buy it and nothing you say will change that because thats the way most people are.
From a manufacturers point, i can see how this could be devestating not to mention soul destroying as regards to future production
but as you must see by now as regards to posessions most people only think in the here and now.
I bought a hpi 5b2.0 but did'nt have enough dough for 2, so i got my son km baja and from my point of veiw we enjoy compairing them,
maybe i'm wrong to buy the km but i have to say i'm not losing sleep over it because i'm not a manufacturer, no disrespect intended and good luck.
I am not a manufacturer but I ran into these issues when I worked in the pharmaceutical industry both in research and in retail.
What I am getting at is Joe Public needs to realize that the innovation starts with the small garage business. Every new product and aftermarket design have been started by these small companys. If they continue to lose business because people don't understand this fact they won't continue to design new products. Especially when their items are counterfitted so exact it's near impossible to tell the difference.
I also work with trade shows and dozens of manufacturers on projects. I hear their complaints and concerns about these issues and rightly so they are losing business.
How many NEW innovations have you seen from Clone or these other counterfit companys? How often do you see Clone or these other company's sponsoring events or offering support to get tracks up and running and holding races? Offering free product for giveaways? The fact is they don't.
Now how often do you see the brand names at events and putting out product for giveaways? Giving their customes direct 1:1 contact? Sponsoring new tracks and sponsoring races? They do this at Every single large scale event.
Fighting counterfit items is extremely difficult when the items come from a country inwhich the laws don't support a legally enforceable market.
Using the counterfitted Hostile tires as an example I can tell you they are nowhere near the quality and not even made of the same materials which Hostile spent years perfecting.
This is an expensive hobby there is no question about that. There seems to be some sort of missconception that the small guys products are over priced. I surely havn't seen any of these guys driving ferraris or living in mansions. Most of these products are priced the same as everything else we buy on a pricing structure which is very thin to make a profit. Most of the time if not all the time the products made by the small companys are significantly better in quality as well.
When it comes down to it if you take away the ability of the small company to further design new products by buying counterfit. They will simply stop putting effort and money into the process of designing new products. This is happening right now which is why I am putting the information out there.
This isn't about bashing clone owners as some people have tried to turn it into. It's about the market getting flooded with cheaply made counterfitted items which in the long run will destroy the industry. And trying to inform people who don't know about this problem.
Just imagine a world in which every single thing that was developed was immediately counterfitted upon hitting the market and made of cheaper materials. There would be no new industry, there would be no small businesses, there would be no way for a company to make a profit.
There would be no quality control, There would be no warrantys, Walmart would be the only store.
If thats not a scary thought it surely should be.
Mmmm Waffles :lol:
