Sorry guys didn't get home from towing till 11:30 last night
Anyhow here we go
So our story starts long ago in a world that was alot simpler. I think it was about 5-6 yrs ago my bubby went to a show out east and came back with a new thing for our derby cars, a 1/4" engine cradle (Just a cradle no pulley protector) that he bought from some guy selling them from the back of a pickup. Well we ran it and bent the crap out of it. By this time I had gotten a job running a waterjet, so I decided to work from the original design and try to make it dam near indestructible.
So I drew out the parts decided everywhere I thought it needed to be changed, got the help of an engineer at work and had him draw up the parts. I think the only part that wasnt reworked were the motor mount tabs. Evrything else was either redrawn or changed in some way to make them stronger. We went through a couple redisgns on the front plate and then I drew up the pulley protector, and cut out the first units on the waterjet.
We made these for a small group of guys to use that was the original idea. Then word gets out and people start asking for them. So I found some sheets of material at a auction and got them for cheap, cut up our first batch of parts and along with the best welder (Rob Golden) that I have ever met started assembling our cradles. Then we went to Mayhem and tested out the waters of vending, and we sold out everything we brought. Then we turned around reinvested and bought more material and built more.
Well this went on for awhile then the time came when it became obivious the waterjet wasn't the answer for our cutting needs.
Thats when we hooked up with a laser cutter here in MN, who does great work at a very reasonable price. And ever since we have been continually building and trying new designs and parts because of the ease of getting the parts from the laser.
Skip ahead, to Blizzard Bash 2010 we had a sit down with Sam (Derby Guy) and Wade (Money/Marketing) they presented something that sounded very interesting. An online store, one stop shop for derby parts, in the beginning sounded good.
Hear was the deal, they wanted to buy our parts 25% off our retail, that would be their "PROFIT MARGIN". Well down the road a couple of months and with the launch of UD Superstore they start talking up their UD Parts Truck (which was only BREIFLY mentioned at our original meeting) now it turns out everywhere we go to vend (the bigger shows) they will be to....this was like WTF. Their thought was well we don't want you guys to vend we want you to just supply with the parts and UD will do all the selling, vending and interacting with the customers. UHMM NO! we told them that we did not and don't not plan on doing this as a business to quit our jobs (unlike their intentions) We go to shows to talk to customers and get feedback, thats THE best way to make imporvements to a product, listen to your customers (something they should've done along time ago with this whole WeCrash fiasco) and that we were not gonna stop going to big shows.
Then last fall we were planing on going to Baker's Team Show in Macon, MO and then shortly before the show they announce that they will be there too. So when we were there we sat down with them and first thing was UD needs to make more on your parts, Now that we are established all our new vendors that come on have to do a 30% discount, told them that s not going to happpen. They were still upset because we never even went to 25% on our Cradle w PP combo we only gave them around 21.5% on that. At that meeting we went over again, the discount thing only works when they buy in volume. They agreed, and would commit to buyying Minimum of 12 cradles per month wether they sold or not they would stock them. Well that never came about, so yea the last few orders that they have placed we havent always filled them completely. Shorting them a few sets of mounts or Pedals because we needed those to fill other indvidual customer orders, they wern't keeping up so were wern't putting them at the top of the list anymore.
Ever since the Macon show we also noticed the orders getting smaller and further inbetween, even questioned Wade (because Sam doesn't respond anymore) and he was like "what do you mean"
Then I get ABSOLUTE PROOF of what we had been starting to wonder, Copies of all our parts and OTHER VENDORS ASWELL!!!
SO YES WADE, as per our coversation the other night. I DID NOT DESIGN THE ORIGINAL CRADLE. I REWORKED DAM NEAR THE WHOLE THING TO MAKE IT WHAT WE WANTED.
NOT A DAM NEAR EXACT COPY! MEANT TO RESEMBLE OUR CRADLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR REPUTATION AND MAYBE EVEN MAKE PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE GETTING A CRADLE THATS WARRANTIED LIKE OURS. WHERE IT GETS WORSE IS IF YOUR PRODUCING AND PUTTING OUR LOGO TAG ON YOUR COPIES. i SAY "IF" BECAUSE I DO NOT HAVE THE PROOF OF THE TAG COPY YET, UNLIKE ALL OF OUR OTHER PARTS THAT YOU COPIED. I HAVE ALL THE DRAWINGS OF OUR PARTS WITH YOUR NAME ON THEM.
Wade didn't even bother to deny it either, when I questioned him on it he had to pause and then say "well I told you we were gonna have to bring in another vender to increase our PROFIT MARGINS"
I said yeah I didn't care if they wanted to bring on another cradle vendor to DerbyParts.com, even though when we signed up with them in the begining months before the original UD Superstore launched. They told us you guys will be the only cradle vendor (LIE) but I said It's a big difference between bringing on another vendor and having all of our parts copied and cut and then delivering them to be welded up by some local fabricator
Yeah, BIG F'n DIFFERENCE!!!
I know I promised pics but I have to hold off on those for alittle bit here, more stuff is coming. They will be posted soon enough.
In the mean time compare the UD Gas Pedal to MGM's Gas Pedal
Mike sold them his but then quit selling to them and seperated from them after getting screwed by all their drama at this past Blizzard Bash. So now poof COPIES!
I have to go to work now but I'll add some more to this later
Shane
