An Inconvenient Truth… About JDM - aka "The Death of Innovation"
Jul 30, 2008, 04:18 PM
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An Inconvenient Truth… About JDM - aka "The Death of Innovation"
An Inconvenient Truth… About JDM - aka "The Death of Innovation"
... by Ben Schaffer of Bulletproof Automotive
Let me preface this post by mentioning that what I’m going to say here is something you’re probably not used to reading in magazines or other professional media. Unlike media which requires advertising money to survive (the same advertisers I’m about to talk about), I don’t have those biases and conflicts of interest which limit my ability to speak the truth. The cover-up of the damage being done is massive. Everyone (from magazine editors and website forum owners who happily accept their advertising money, to the very retail companies which sell these problematic parts and happily reap the profits) will admit behind closed doors that this is an industry crushing problem and yet everyone says they cant change it or do anything about it. The fact is nobody wants to stick their neck on the line to do anything about it and for that reason they are right…nothing can be done. On to the post.
_____
I half jokingly can say that I’m the Al Gore of this particular topic. Much like how Al Gore made it his duty to explain to the world the disastrous consequences of global warming, I’ve been over the years trying to educate people about the disastrous effects of these companies making knockoffs and what our future will look like if everyone keeps supporting them by buying their parts.
I’m at the point these days where I’m tired of talking about it because the fact is that I always end up being the “bad guy” for just bringing it up. So rather than talk about how these US companies are stealing designs and putting companies in Japan out of business…and rather than talk about the horrific future of this industry that will exist when the only new product designs coming out will be original designs from the same knockoff companies that got rich stealing other peoples work and eventually have nothing left to steal (have you ever seen how awful their work is when they’re forced to make an original design?).
I’m just not going to go deep into talking about it this time. Instead I’m going to show you a concrete new example of exactly what I’ve been warning people about for the past few years. Nobody cares when I say it…so here are the facts and not my words:
FACTS:
(posted with permission of DriveLine and Bulletproof, Voltex’s two distributors in North America)
Voltex just recently announced on their website that they are stopping all production of their wet carbon CT9A Lancer Evolution 8/9 hoods. Why? Because they learned that Seibon made a knockoff of their hood and that people were actually buying the knockoff. Out of concern that people could accidentally mistake the Seibon quality for Voltex quality if they saw it on a car at a race/street/show, Voltex made a statement on their website that they will no longer make that hood in wet carbon.
Here is a picture of the Voltex hood which they wind tunnel tested and did extensive R&D with the Cyber Evo over the years, at their expense of course…with the hope that they’d be able to sell enough to recoup their expenses so they could continue on making more innovative original parts:
And here’s Seibon’s version, which simply came from buying one authentic Voltex hood and then making a cheaper replica (which of course they can sell cheaper since they saved all of the R&D, molding and tooling costs):
http://www.seiboncarbon.com/Images_U...TEVO8-CWII.jpg
So there you have it. Another product is now dead. Do people care yet? Probably not…Will people care the next time Voltex needs to look at the costs to decide if they want to produce an Aero hood for their next car and conclude that its not worth it? Probably still not. Will people care when there are almost no new products coming out with proper R&D because no company can find a way to make their money back? Yeah…probably then people will care…but it wont matter because by that point it’ll be too late to say we’re sorry and turn back the clock.
I hope everyone with their Seibon hoods out there are happy. And Seibon isnt the only company, there are many. I can name hundreds of examples of the same story, just swap Seibon for another brand and swap Voltex for another industry innovator. An interesting point is that if you pick up any US magazine you can find most of the companies that are making the copy parts with full page advertisements, yet you wont find nearly as many of the true innovating companies (the ones getting knocked off) because they cant afford the advertising rates to publish their own ads. This is because the knockoff brands are making far more profit than the companies who actually design the parts, and as such the innovating companies often cant afford the costs of full page advertisements whereas the knockoff brands are increasingly more rich and can afford the ads. As a result, the knockoff brands have the magazines and major media support despite the lack of ethics in the whole thing…like they say, money talks.
In a time when the Japanese tuning companies rely on overseas sales more than ever for their survival, they look over here and see cars on the covers of almost all US magazines with knockoffs of their products proudly sporting Seibon stickers and other like minded brands. Maybe you can tell me how to convince these companies in Japan to keep making new parts when their own fans who claim to represent JDM will drive around at the same time with a Seibon hood on their car. I honestly dont know how to convince them anymore…and quite literally I am the guy they often consult with when deciding what new parts to produce.
Sometimes I’m ashamed of elements of this industry that I’ve dedicated my life to. It saddens me that there is such little incentive and motivation for the innovators that are the ones who actually make the parts we love. Unfortunately nobody will care until its too late and the scene is dead. Or thats what it seems at least. I sure hope I’m wrong.
PS: People have often said to me that my no knockoff stance of how I handle my cars, my promotion, who I decide to affiliate myself and my company with, and which cars we sponsor would classify me as a “JDM purist”. I take no offense to the word “purist”, but I am not a purist simply because of my belief that I wont condone knockoffs. Being a purist implies some uncommonly strong belief in something. I would instead prefer to think that my belief of not wanting JDM to die is a fairly logical and common belief amongst anyone who loves this culture and loves the innovative cars coming out worldwide.
______
To view the original source of which this post came from, please review the link below:
http://www.bespokeventures.com/blog/?p=1002
... by Ben Schaffer of Bulletproof Automotive
Let me preface this post by mentioning that what I’m going to say here is something you’re probably not used to reading in magazines or other professional media. Unlike media which requires advertising money to survive (the same advertisers I’m about to talk about), I don’t have those biases and conflicts of interest which limit my ability to speak the truth. The cover-up of the damage being done is massive. Everyone (from magazine editors and website forum owners who happily accept their advertising money, to the very retail companies which sell these problematic parts and happily reap the profits) will admit behind closed doors that this is an industry crushing problem and yet everyone says they cant change it or do anything about it. The fact is nobody wants to stick their neck on the line to do anything about it and for that reason they are right…nothing can be done. On to the post.
_____
I half jokingly can say that I’m the Al Gore of this particular topic. Much like how Al Gore made it his duty to explain to the world the disastrous consequences of global warming, I’ve been over the years trying to educate people about the disastrous effects of these companies making knockoffs and what our future will look like if everyone keeps supporting them by buying their parts.
I’m at the point these days where I’m tired of talking about it because the fact is that I always end up being the “bad guy” for just bringing it up. So rather than talk about how these US companies are stealing designs and putting companies in Japan out of business…and rather than talk about the horrific future of this industry that will exist when the only new product designs coming out will be original designs from the same knockoff companies that got rich stealing other peoples work and eventually have nothing left to steal (have you ever seen how awful their work is when they’re forced to make an original design?).
I’m just not going to go deep into talking about it this time. Instead I’m going to show you a concrete new example of exactly what I’ve been warning people about for the past few years. Nobody cares when I say it…so here are the facts and not my words:
FACTS:
(posted with permission of DriveLine and Bulletproof, Voltex’s two distributors in North America)
Voltex just recently announced on their website that they are stopping all production of their wet carbon CT9A Lancer Evolution 8/9 hoods. Why? Because they learned that Seibon made a knockoff of their hood and that people were actually buying the knockoff. Out of concern that people could accidentally mistake the Seibon quality for Voltex quality if they saw it on a car at a race/street/show, Voltex made a statement on their website that they will no longer make that hood in wet carbon.
Here is a picture of the Voltex hood which they wind tunnel tested and did extensive R&D with the Cyber Evo over the years, at their expense of course…with the hope that they’d be able to sell enough to recoup their expenses so they could continue on making more innovative original parts:
And here’s Seibon’s version, which simply came from buying one authentic Voltex hood and then making a cheaper replica (which of course they can sell cheaper since they saved all of the R&D, molding and tooling costs):
http://www.seiboncarbon.com/Images_U...TEVO8-CWII.jpg
So there you have it. Another product is now dead. Do people care yet? Probably not…Will people care the next time Voltex needs to look at the costs to decide if they want to produce an Aero hood for their next car and conclude that its not worth it? Probably still not. Will people care when there are almost no new products coming out with proper R&D because no company can find a way to make their money back? Yeah…probably then people will care…but it wont matter because by that point it’ll be too late to say we’re sorry and turn back the clock.
I hope everyone with their Seibon hoods out there are happy. And Seibon isnt the only company, there are many. I can name hundreds of examples of the same story, just swap Seibon for another brand and swap Voltex for another industry innovator. An interesting point is that if you pick up any US magazine you can find most of the companies that are making the copy parts with full page advertisements, yet you wont find nearly as many of the true innovating companies (the ones getting knocked off) because they cant afford the advertising rates to publish their own ads. This is because the knockoff brands are making far more profit than the companies who actually design the parts, and as such the innovating companies often cant afford the costs of full page advertisements whereas the knockoff brands are increasingly more rich and can afford the ads. As a result, the knockoff brands have the magazines and major media support despite the lack of ethics in the whole thing…like they say, money talks.
In a time when the Japanese tuning companies rely on overseas sales more than ever for their survival, they look over here and see cars on the covers of almost all US magazines with knockoffs of their products proudly sporting Seibon stickers and other like minded brands. Maybe you can tell me how to convince these companies in Japan to keep making new parts when their own fans who claim to represent JDM will drive around at the same time with a Seibon hood on their car. I honestly dont know how to convince them anymore…and quite literally I am the guy they often consult with when deciding what new parts to produce.
Sometimes I’m ashamed of elements of this industry that I’ve dedicated my life to. It saddens me that there is such little incentive and motivation for the innovators that are the ones who actually make the parts we love. Unfortunately nobody will care until its too late and the scene is dead. Or thats what it seems at least. I sure hope I’m wrong.
PS: People have often said to me that my no knockoff stance of how I handle my cars, my promotion, who I decide to affiliate myself and my company with, and which cars we sponsor would classify me as a “JDM purist”. I take no offense to the word “purist”, but I am not a purist simply because of my belief that I wont condone knockoffs. Being a purist implies some uncommonly strong belief in something. I would instead prefer to think that my belief of not wanting JDM to die is a fairly logical and common belief amongst anyone who loves this culture and loves the innovative cars coming out worldwide.
______
To view the original source of which this post came from, please review the link below:
http://www.bespokeventures.com/blog/?p=1002
Jul 30, 2008, 04:35 PM
#2
I saw on Voltex's blog when they discontinued their hood...Definately a bummer. Was unaware of the reasoning behind it 'til now.
It is what it is though as they say and what's happening to Voltex and others has happened in all industrites to many companies. There is still a market for Real Voletx products in the U.S regardless of who's ripping off their designs. It is undoubtably small, But then again Voltex's production times do'nt lead to huge sales....More like huge quality...Which happens to be expensive. JDM parts, especially really good ones are hard to get and often expensive, Those weakpoints are what have allowed others to take market share away.
Now please ask (I'll plea/beg) Voltex to make me a hood....I don't want to have to buy a used one. They will have me for a customer as long as they make bomb parts...
It is what it is though as they say and what's happening to Voltex and others has happened in all industrites to many companies. There is still a market for Real Voletx products in the U.S regardless of who's ripping off their designs. It is undoubtably small, But then again Voltex's production times do'nt lead to huge sales....More like huge quality...Which happens to be expensive. JDM parts, especially really good ones are hard to get and often expensive, Those weakpoints are what have allowed others to take market share away.
Now please ask (I'll plea/beg) Voltex to make me a hood....I don't want to have to buy a used one. They will have me for a customer as long as they make bomb parts...
Jul 30, 2008, 04:59 PM
#4
Wow! thats not good...
I remember back in the early 80's (in Japan) most Japanese tuners/companies refused to tune or sell products or assist american motorsport enthusiasts.
I know that has nothing to do with the above statement, but I think thats when the first copycats came about. LOL...My 2cents
I remember back in the early 80's (in Japan) most Japanese tuners/companies refused to tune or sell products or assist american motorsport enthusiasts.
I know that has nothing to do with the above statement, but I think thats when the first copycats came about. LOL...My 2cents
Jul 30, 2008, 05:02 PM
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Wow! thats not good...
I remember back in the early 80's (in Japan) most Japanese tuners/companies refused to tune or sell products or assist american motorsport enthusiasts.
I know that has nothing to do with the above statement, but I think thats when the first copycats came about. LOL...My 2cents
I remember back in the early 80's (in Japan) most Japanese tuners/companies refused to tune or sell products or assist american motorsport enthusiasts.
I know that has nothing to do with the above statement, but I think thats when the first copycats came about. LOL...My 2cents
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Jul 30, 2008, 05:30 PM
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It sucks but thats the name of the game. Theres nothing that will remain as ones own.
With econamy the way it is people will always edge towards cheaper ways to fullfill the void.
Check out the knock off Cwest kits. Or the Voltex canard set up sold by a company.
There are companys making seats just as good as brid for half the cost.
Its the game to fame. It a crap reality yet its the fact to face. Thats why so many little companies are still in business. AKA APC, BLOX, OBX, etc.
With econamy the way it is people will always edge towards cheaper ways to fullfill the void.
Check out the knock off Cwest kits. Or the Voltex canard set up sold by a company.
There are companys making seats just as good as brid for half the cost.
Its the game to fame. It a crap reality yet its the fact to face. Thats why so many little companies are still in business. AKA APC, BLOX, OBX, etc.
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Jul 30, 2008, 05:41 PM
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It's sad that is has come to this, I've been searching hard for that hood and no one has it anymore...
I noticed the Seibon replica, which is cool, but I really don't prefer knock off's. If i'm going to spend good money, I want the real thing.
It's a shame....
I noticed the Seibon replica, which is cool, but I really don't prefer knock off's. If i'm going to spend good money, I want the real thing.
It's a shame....
Jul 30, 2008, 06:11 PM
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Its not the same as saying volk---->Rota
Its would be as to say Varis----->Rexpeed
Or seibon to point out another.
If the quality of a part is just as good sometimes better that is what hurts another company in sales and what not. Yet you have to expect there to be knock offs.
Its would be as to say Varis----->Rexpeed
Or seibon to point out another.
If the quality of a part is just as good sometimes better that is what hurts another company in sales and what not. Yet you have to expect there to be knock offs.
Jul 30, 2008, 06:56 PM
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To be fair, innovation alone isn't coming only from Japan. So, let's not lump everything designed and developed in the US as crap.
AEM's ECUs are a prime example of a need developed in the US that has elevated the game considerably, versus having to buy only JDM ECUs that are limited in production and for the most part, locked out unless you spend more $$$. This is a cancer that my company has faced when we were knocked off, and the only solution was for us to change the manufacturing model in order to meet the customer's price point. But now, we get flack for that too. The industry wants those that spend time on development to be the mule that generates new ideas. And then conveniently die off in a gutter. This is not just a problem of JDM, but also of USDM.
AEM's ECUs are a prime example of a need developed in the US that has elevated the game considerably, versus having to buy only JDM ECUs that are limited in production and for the most part, locked out unless you spend more $$$. This is a cancer that my company has faced when we were knocked off, and the only solution was for us to change the manufacturing model in order to meet the customer's price point. But now, we get flack for that too. The industry wants those that spend time on development to be the mule that generates new ideas. And then conveniently die off in a gutter. This is not just a problem of JDM, but also of USDM.
Jul 30, 2008, 07:39 PM
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Simply Put... Holy f-ing hell...I'm sending you a pm right now. Thanks so much for trying to enlighten the rest of these people. It kills me to see people spending hard earned money on such crappy parts...
Rota for example...They knockoff every real "JDM" company out there. Advan and Rays come to mind right off the bat and I can't believe people think it's ok to slap something on their car that is such low quality. It's either going to take someones Rota falling apart or Rays or Advan to call it quits before they realize that they should have invested elsewhere.
I can honeslty say that right now my car does not and will never have anything on it that would be a shame to show anybody at all. Sure I have some of the High Profile companies, but they are still Japanese based.
You don't see a Porsche guy using knockoff parts on his 911 or GT3RS so why is it ok to put ****ty parts on a car that can and will out perform those type of exotics. Listen to this guy and his message damnit I wish he and I could actually do something, but it will take much much more than just us two to make a difference.
My .02 cents. RJ a.k.a. SoonToBe
Rota for example...They knockoff every real "JDM" company out there. Advan and Rays come to mind right off the bat and I can't believe people think it's ok to slap something on their car that is such low quality. It's either going to take someones Rota falling apart or Rays or Advan to call it quits before they realize that they should have invested elsewhere.
I can honeslty say that right now my car does not and will never have anything on it that would be a shame to show anybody at all. Sure I have some of the High Profile companies, but they are still Japanese based.
You don't see a Porsche guy using knockoff parts on his 911 or GT3RS so why is it ok to put ****ty parts on a car that can and will out perform those type of exotics. Listen to this guy and his message damnit I wish he and I could actually do something, but it will take much much more than just us two to make a difference.
My .02 cents. RJ a.k.a. SoonToBe
Jul 30, 2008, 07:44 PM
#14
The Voltex hood is one of the most well designed hoods I've seen so far on the market. It has enough vents that can extract a lot of heat within the engine bay and at the same time create a bit of downforce at least more than what an OEM styled hood can do. Now they're stopping production on this hood; people will be forced to buy the Seibon version and that just allows Seibon to take all the money.
