It's one thing to get a "bro-deal", or score a product for a crazy cheap price. That's super cool, and we all aspire to that. It is the bargain hunter in us all, the way we stretch our dollars and make our hobbies and passions fit into our budgets for the necessities of life. I get that part.
But it bothers me when I see a company spend a lot of money and time to develope a product and then to have their contracted manufacturer, or another company altogether pretty much copy all the salient features of the original desgin and sell it out for peanuts. Well, I should say that it isn't the companies that are doing this that bother me. No- it is the folks voting with their dollars this way that bother's me.
I mean, how can you fault the companies that do this sort of marketing? If we as consumers don't seem to care about the "original design" and the people behind it, then the companies making the copy-cat bikes will make money. Hey- that's the whole point about being in business, making money.
I suppose there will always be those folks that just do not give a rip about supporting the folks whose ideas are being taken and sold down the river. Maybe they think the original design's makers are ripping us off, or whatever. I don't know. I don't pretend to have the answers to this snarl of an issue, but I do know it makes me feel slimy when I have done the "knock-off" product instead of the original. I guess that's my issue.
Well, I just hope we as mountain bikers utilize the information we have available and make a wiser decision. Ya know- if it weren't for the folks willing to take the initial risk, we wouldn't have more choices. I say support those folks. You can vote how you see fit.
