For those who don't know, their is a replica Do-luck trunk being sold over at Socal Evo. It's a shame that people feel the need to save a couple of dollars for a replica instead of supporting the people who put the R&D and the money to create the originals. This is exactly what's destroying vendors making quality products because of vendors that make replicas and rip off sales from the originals.

Bulletproof said "If a knockoff comes out for that trunk, I guarantee the Evo community that we will not be funding any more development in the future".

And i hope this doesn't happen .

As far as i'm concerned, if i cant afford the original, i start saving until i can... I'm looking forward to purchasing my do-luck trunk soon.

but you know whats the worse part of all this? these kids are going to running around sporting a knock off trunk and claiming its real. Lol..

*if this is a repost, mods please delete.

Link to the Socal evo thread : http://www.socalevo.net/index.php?op...&topic=93502.0

 

there's a couple knock offs. oh well, atleast i've got the real thing :-/

 

I think that's a pretty stupid thing to say on Bulletproof's part. There are always going to be replicas, and there are always going to be people that want to cut corners. Making a threat like that isn't going to prevent people from making knock offs.

 

I'll just repost what I said in the previous replica Do Luck trunk thread that popped up a few weeks ago.

I'm sure most of you already know, the original Do-Luck Duckbill trunk for the Evo X was a collaboration between Do-Luck Japan and Bulletproof Automotive. This trunk was one of the first products that we invested in to develop. We made the investment because this trunk was never going to exist and we felt it would be a great addition to the Evo X. We paid Do-Luck Japan’s R&D costs to build this trunk for us because we felt that the US market would enjoy it. And so far many people have!

The fact is, this trunk was not going to even exist because Do-Luck is already hurting from the knockoffs and they obviously don’t have the R&D budget to do so many new projects these days. We went ahead and helped them pay the expenses (removing their risk to make these trunks) just to have people ask for more knockoffs!?

As enthusiasts and owners of the Evo X, recognizing this fact about this history of this trunk I’m curious how you feel. Would you suggest that we and the companies in Japan next time do not invest our money into creating new parts like this? Do you have perhaps other advice for us? While it costs nearly $30,000 to create a new mold and production setup for a trunk like this, it costs less than a tenth of that for someone to knock it off. It is this reason and the lack of caring most people seem to have that less and less parts are being produced in Japan. It is massively ironic that in this case, this part was never to exist in the first place because of threads like this. So in hard times like this for innovating companies like Do-Luck, it would be helpful to at least learn from the experience and see if indeed it was better to never have made this part to begin with.

I would also like to especially thank members who have supported this project from day 1. As an Evo X owner myself, I love seeing new products being brought to the market, and the only way to do that is to show these companies that create new products the support needed to instill confidence in bringing future products to the Evo community.

In case you guys would like some background on the process/creation of this trunk check out some of our blog posts --

http://www.bespokeventures.com/blog/...stment-in-jdm/

http://www.bespokeventures.com/blog/...of-cz4a-trunk/

http://www.bespokeventures.com/blog/...of-automotive/

--Jason

 

I'm not saying it's right for someone to use your design to create the same product for a lot cheaper. But it happens, and there is no way to prevent it. Unfortunately businesses like Do-Luck, and BP have to suffer, but there is really no way around it.

I do not buy knock off parts, I appreciate quality, and understand that you get what you pay for.

But that is me, and unfortunately everyone doesn't share my opinion on this topic.

 

beating a dead horse with this topic.

 

+1. The fabrication world revolves around someone doing the leg work and someone copying it and under-selling it. Facts of life in any design business. If I was going to buy, I'd buy the real thing, because as a preivous guy said, you do indeed get what you pay for in the car world. However, on the contrary, if theres no further R&D on products then theres no replicas coming out either. As such the market will fall flat in certain areas if that were indeed the case.

 

I completely disagree with you, sorry. If I go out and create an original product and I try to sell it for an exorbitant price, and someone else comes along and builds a similar products, and sells it for less, and outsells me, well hey, that's BUSINESS. Do you see Bill Gates crying in a corner when Apple releases an OS that is better than windows?

I don't believe that you always get what you pay for in the automotive arena. I believe that's the rule of thumb, but it doesn't always happen that way. I pay a ridiculous amount of money for OEM parts, but then can spend 1/3 that on an aftermarket part that is better.

The doluck trunk may be better constructed, or better painted, or better in some way over the replica, but has anyone proven that fact? And besides, how do you PROVE that the trunk is in fact a replica of the doluck? How do you know that some dude out of the billions of people on this planet, didn't have a similar idea at the same time. Whole lot of ASSumptions going on here.

 

At this point its a matter of quality for me. I would rather have a better built product. I am not opposed to competing similar products, but cheap knock-offs tend to be problematic when it comes to fit and finish. I hope those considering a purchase of this product or the knock-off consider that.

 

It's not business, it's called capitalism. You can't just inject product into the market and set arbitrary prices but that is exactly what is going on. I bet if you ask them what the maximization of the profit motive means they will probably look at you like you have multiple heads.

 

Things will always be copied, especially in the body kit world. If BP and Do-Luck do not feel it's worth their investment, then I think they should just avoid future innovation and development to be honest. Knock-off companies are also able to produce original products. It's not that hard to make a fiberglass/bondo custom trunk, and build a mold off of that. A long time ago, I made a custom front bumper. It took hours and hours of work, but the plan was to mass produce it (but it never happened as I gave up on the project). I understand it takes a lot of hard work, but other companies are able to use cheap labor to build knock-off OR original products. If you're tired of people making knock-offs, then stop making original items...then those same people making knock-offs will be the ones making innovating new products.

 

How is for-profit business not capitalism? It's all about making money. That's the business the majority of businesses are in.

It's really simple. People have a choice, and the choice usually points towards money. Companies know this, but choose to make the expensive product and be knocked off. Why not make a cheaper product, and a more expensive one? Cut competition out from the start.

 

We would never have AMD CPU's if it wasn't for them reverse engineering Intel's CPU. And to this day AMD pays outrageous licensing fee's to Intel because of the patents. Has AMD made bad products? yeah. But they have also made some really good CPU's for cheaper than Intel's too.

This isn't limited to car parts or CPU's. It's applicable to all manufacturing and design industries. If the replica's are really hurting the originals why aren't they using design patents to protect themselves from this intellectual theft?

 

And you just helped the knock off guys by making this thread and putting the word out that people are making this part. I for one would have not known about a competing product without this thread.

 

Capitalism encompasses the big picture of why this is happening. Just to say that its 'business' is a bit narrow.