i am flattered

COPYING THE TRADE NAME LAMILITE

This morning I was reading the SGB email of which I get two per day and I saw that the lamo company is now calling their footwear lamolite.

You may recall that Mountain Hardwear came out with a line of sleeping bags or I should say “no sleep sleeping bags” which proved that is how they perform and the result is they are no longer being sold except at dumping prices. According to Paul Kramer who owned the company at that time, he subsequently sold out to Columbia Sportswear, the name lamina was as close as he could get to LAMILITE.

This company just like mountain hardwear did not exist when the trade name LAMILITE was registered, that was 1989 by me but it is owned by Wiggy’s Inc.

Here is what they have to say;

“We are so confident in our Lamolite® Product that we are offering a 30-Day, No Questions Asked, Comfort Guarantee. Wear your Lamo Footwear, Lamolite® shoes for 30-days and if you aren’t completely satisfied, send them back for a full refund.

If you did not purchase your Lamolite® Footwear from this website, please contact the retailer or website where our footwear was originally purchased to return the product. The retailer will honor our 30-Day Comfort Guarantee and will offer you credit or an exchange based on their own return/exchange policy.

If the selling retailer cannot reasonably satisfy your claim, please contact us at sales@lamosheepskin.com for further help in resolving the matter. This 30-Day comfort guarantee only applies to Lamo’s Lamolite® product line.”

What follows is what I wrote to them in the contact us box on their web site.

I own the Wiggy's Incorporated company and LAMILITE is a registered trademark of my company and has been since 1989. Your company is not the first to use my trade name changing by a letter or two. Mountain Hardwear has the honor of being number one when they came out with their line of bags trade named lamina. it took about five years for the line to die away since the bags are only good for southern california weather.

I guess your sales are faltering so you latch on to a trade name that you hope will give you a boost since the LAMILITE trade name is known worldwide as being the best insulation in the world. I find your effort to associate with the Wiggy's Inc. trade name of LAMILITE will give me free advertising, so for that i thank you. However, I will point out to my readers of my newsletters that there is no association with your company because I do not want to be associated with any product that does not perform.

I love when I am afforded free advertising as is the case with this company utilizing my trade name with their spelling a slight change as mountain hardwear did. There were times I received enquiries about the lamina product and I had to explain that it was a company copying me. The same holds true with the lamo company copying me, and again I will get calls to see if we are related in some manner, and of course the answer will be no. I believe they are hoping to get a benefit by trading on the LAMILITE name.

I told Paul Kramer that I had no intention of suing him because I believed that the free advertising was good for me. the same holds true for lamo, because I again will benefit from free advertising. I also told Paul his bags would fail as they have.

Maybe as time goes by more companies will find ways to incorporate their version of LAMILITE name; and Wiggy’s will get even more free advertising.

UNCERTAINTY

I keep getting emails from various companies and other organizations wanting me and I assume many other companies get the same solicitations wanting to advise us on how best to deal with the “uncertainty” of what is going on as a result of the pandemic that we are all dealing with day to day.

Somehow, they have past experience that will allow them to tell us how we should be dealing with the current situation. Since the current situation has never taken place before, yes, we had the pandemic of 1918 but back then we did not have the medical resources we have today. Back then we had only one hundred million people in the country. Today we have 330 million occupying the same land mass.

Today we know what we are facing and I can only assume the pharmaceutical companies are working diligently to find a vaccine. I also know that we have a communication system that did not exist in 1918 so we can know how things are all over the country and world for that matter.

We have or should have learned that masks of all types give us protection, we know that large gathering can be fatal to some who attend them. I know this from the reports made available to us.

I do not know what these companies can tell us that about the uncertainty of my business. My business is my responsibility and I have to see what I can do to keep it going. Someone who knows nothing about my business cannot be of service to Wiggy’s. These people probably offer scare tactics I suppose. Those who engage them will I believe go by the wayside. They for some reason after building a business have suddenly forgotten how to think about what the best actions are to take at this time. However, the reality is as far as I am concerned that many, many companies have responded quite well to how we have to conduct business today. So, the need for companies to step up and offer what we should do is an insult to the business acumen of businessman today who have been very successful.

The most obvious example of how quickly the American businessman can do what has to be done is the way the major grocery chains changed to now offering home delivery, etc. need I go further since I am quite sure all of you out there have seen and experienced what has been done.

The USA is a very resilient country and will deal with this situation for as long as it lasts; and I hope not much longer. You see the way of life I enjoyed (I am 78) till this is momentarily gone and I as well as 330 million others in the country would like to see a return to what things were.