SE Asia has been knocking off euro and American ideas for decades. Even in the very early motorcycle days of 'merica, they were never that good at actual creation of design, mostly all copying of something else. So this is nothing new. Lots of other innovation goes thru the same kind of evolution.
The modern racing four-stroke motorcycle motor came from Husqvarna, a Swedish company, that got sold to an Italian company, and later to an Austrian company. Their history and design copied over and covered up forever, by everybody in the industry. Innovative and successful design parameters have become the design norms, accepted as simply as 'how things should be' and 'what works'. Like suspension layout, wheel size, overall dimensions, and on ad infinitem
Y'all just look back at Japanese import cars from the fifties and sixties, even seventies. They were crappy little nothings of cars - look at them today!
The only downside to knockoffs is that in many cases they also cheapened it in the process as well as copying it. So you get cheap junk that is just not the same thing.
Unfortunately, nearly all bicycle stuff is made in SE Asia, the vast majority out of China, whom are the king of knock-off. Even the big-3 are all made in china now. Don't be surprised when a few leaders pull manufacturing back over to the US, making them even more expensive than they already are. Or china's economy will be decimated to the point where our USD's will be worth more. The way they're printing money now for this new paradigm, I doubt that's going to happen either.
I have a ROAM phone mount for my ebike. I liked it so well I ordered another one on ebay, advertised as a 'roam universal phone mount', at a good price with shipping. Since I already knew what a ROAM mount was about, it was easy to see that what they sent me was a cheap knockoff from china. No extra silicone straps for sizing, no logo, cheap box, no manual, cheap looking plastic and screw - just not the same thing. I replied for a return to the seller, telling them how pissed I was for them lying about their product, so they sent me a ups return label and guess where it's going? Amazon returns. Cheating ebay'r is buying them from amazon and selling them on ebay. I reported them all to ROAM USA. This kind of stuff has got to be completely frustrating for legitimate companies.
A friend has built an entire online business patrolling manufacturer's dealers and resellers for MAP rules. Discounting and undercutting destroys the value of a brand. And companys will pay big bucks to protect their place in the marketplace, regardless of where their product is manufactured. Product knockoffs are the epitome of this undercutting.
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