Quote:
Originally Posted by bluetorp
Good write up, and an excellent indicator of just how many of those expenses OBX can eliminate by simply stealing a header design from someone else. And if you can circumvent those expenses by capitalizing on someone else's design, you can offer a cheaper product by default, regardless of quality or where it's made.
Can anyone honestly say that they don't see a problem with this?
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Really..in my mind..it's the way it is. I can try and educate people all day long. If you will only spend $600 on headers...then some moral talk won't convince you to spend $1100 or whatever. I am continually pushing to the vendors like Kooks, that the only way to fight this issue is compete. If someone is willing to pay $600 for a low quality chinese Kooks header..why not look at offering it yourself rather than letting someone else make money off of your design. Be honest about what it is, what customers should expect from it, and give it limited warranty and support. The knock offs sure lose their appeal when you can get something at the same price point from Kooks. This is the same reason you can buy a mexican Fender strat. The guitar market got overrun buy japanese knock offs 30 years ago, and that was the only way to compete.
That being said, for a company like Kooks, that made a huge investment in north american manufactuering capacity two years ago..that would also be a huge risk.