cnn has an article about our lamitron bags and trash in general. but i think the most important feature of the article is the fact they said what no one else would dare…
here’s the updates and information regarding this whole lamitron idea. including a real cease and desist letter from target!
twitter.com/timbuk2
6 Comments
Kinda sucky that they practically stole your damn idea.
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2008/05/target_newsweek.php
I’m starting to think Target is just as evil as the rest of em!
you may get a cease and desist for saying that!
Good intentions aside, I think if Timbuk2’s lawyers were notified of someone else’s bags with their swirl logos all over it they’d do exactly the same thing. Someone just didn’t think this one through far enough.
Yeah except the difference is we took shopping bags and upcycled them into messenger bags. If someone made messenger bags and used our logo on them that would be a whole different matter.
That’s not what I was saying. I’m saying if the tables were completely turned, if Target started selling upcycled bags that contained fabric that had T2 swirls on it, the T2 lawyers would have an aneurism. And they should! That’s what they’re paid to do. You really can’t play those kind of games with branding. A companies brand is more than a name, is quite often a company’s greatest asset. If you don’t protect that like a junk yard dog at each and every point of conflict you establish precedence regarding any future protection of that asset.
Rather than complain about Target in this matter the folks at T2 should accept that they made a mistake and learn from the experience. Regardless of what you think of Target, in this circumstance Timbuk2 did the wrong thing and Target did the right thing. It’s not a value judgement, it’s a mere fact of business.
(No. I don’t work for Target, though I did buy a pair of pants there once.)
In fact, thinking this through I think T2 missed the boat on this. Someone there should have quickly seen the potential brand conflict that would have (and did) come up with Target and turned that into a win-win instead of a lose-lose.
You guys should have looked at this and said, “Target’s lawyers are going to come down like a ton of bricks on this.” But instead of ignoring that you should have gone to Target and said, “Hey, we have this really cool technology and idea of how to use your waste product in our bags for our mutual benefit.” You could have tagged onto one of the largest marketing budgets in the world in a way that would have benefitted both companies AND the environment. Instead you got a cease and desist.
Like I said, someone just didn’t think this one through.