I have something in mind to avoid copiers or to make their lifes a little harder. I can make a GG with a small flaw in a way that copiers will not understand it and then I will send the update to my customers. Copies will spend enough time until they understand what is going on and the buyers of the copies will not be able to see why their "GG" isnt working like it had to be.
Its just a thought
Personally, Imeo, I find that a terrible idea, as it would be like stabbing yourself in the back. And here's why I think so: For one, if you did do it, it would be wise to keep it to yourself and not announce it on a public forum that is surely read by copiers themselves. More importantly, you would break the trust you have with your customers who expect a $200+ mod to work perfectly out of the box and not have a product that is faulty for weeks in their hands until a spare piece arrives. Not to mention that by saying this, many will begin to question past and future actions like the small nut that was delivered to us after we received our Ithaka. And I doubt copiers will spend too much time; all they have to do is see the spare part which you will have to hand out almost immediately.
I mentioned it in a previous post if you remember (even though you didn't seem to agree), that in my opinion, it was a big mistake on your behalf to come out and say it's fine for copiers to clone your products. You basically gave them a free pass to move on from closely related clones to exact replicas.
Improving the flow and supply of products with pre-orders is a very wise move that I applaud! If you're not willing to go the legal way as I have said in the past (even though costs will drop dramatically from 2014, but you should know better so I'm not insisting on that), essentially to stop sales and distribution of the products in key markets, one way to tackle this problem is what Nefelis proposed but with a twist. Don't lower the price of the Ithaka, introduce something like the Kayfun Lite - a lighter version of the Ithaka i.e. with a single plastic window (instead of the three-piece design) and only top and bottom caps, without air control rings etc. or maybe an Odysseus lite, at a more affordable price. People do want the original.
Imeo, I hope you don't take these comments, suggestions the wrong way (I'll blame the internet if you do
) - the only reason why I'm responding is not to criticize you, but to share my thoughts because I really like your work and it bugs me that Chinese companies are ripping GG off. Greece already has a ton of problems with its economy to be dealing with these issues. It's a shame that we have a number of talented people like Imeo and other Greek producers of mods and accessories like Atmistique, Vapourart and Atmomixanh who are trying to create new jobs and help the local economy only to have others stealing their creative work with cheap knockoffs. How are these countries to survive when any new idea, product they come up with is illegally cloned and mass-produced at cheap factories?
