Buyer Beware: BYND4x4 "Tactical Cap"…Now With Lawsuits!

but much of that probably isn't true.

aftermarket tail lights almost always have issues with moisture for a variety of reasons. a ton of it has to do with the experience behind the molding and forming design teams--toyota can afford and attracts better talent, but some of it also comes down to cost cutting as well. i know it seems crazy that a $500 set of tails has cost cutting details, but they really do.

in general, it can cost tens of thousands to design and build the plastic molds for lights. and as legally required, if the company submits any lights for federal testing(technically required, though there's a loophole that allows OEM's to self-certify, which would still require destructive testing to generate the certification paperwork, but can be cheaper), that testing can cost upwards of $10,000 per light, and they'd need to individually certify both left and right light housings.

toyota has an advantage in all of this, they're making these molds and certifications for 200,000+ vehicles per year. $100,000 in general setup costs for tail lights divided out by 200,000 units is essentially nothing--about $0.50/truck.

but a company like form will have the same setup and certification costs, but they might only succeed in capturing 5% of that 200,000 tacoma's per year that toyota made. 5% of 200,000 is 10,000 trucks. $100,000 in setup cost across 10,000 possible sales is an entirely different cost ratio. where toyota's setup costs might only amount to $0.50/truck, all things being similar, forms setup costs would be around $10/truck. that's a 20-fold increase in only initial setup costs.

i alluded to it previously, but it's also quite common that once those very-expensive molds are made and the initial order fulfilled (toyota might use molds for many years, further lowering their initial cost outlay, but in the case of form, they might easily only make enough lights that the mold is only a 1/8 or 1/4 of it's realistic lifespan, because they don't anticipate selling anymore), especially in china, it's extremely common for the manufacturer(not form, they'd reach out to an existing plastic manufacturing company for the task) to attempt to further capitalize on the possession of the molds by making their own iteration of the product.

before going further down the sales rabbit hole, i should specify, alibaba was originally developed as a china-to-everywhere corporate sales platform, connecting suppliers with manufacturers. the idea was to make the process of getting quotes for '1 million resistors', '4 million round knobs', or even '2 million fully-assembled gauge assemblies with ____ logo stamped on them' easier on both sides of the discussion. before alibaba, this required flying out to china, and working with local people...

aliexpress specifically is a spin-off site deviating from the main alibaba site's purpose, due in part to the popularity of non-manufacturers like us looking for much smaller quantities of materials and products originating in china. this is something that alibaba was not, and does not ever want to be set up to deal with. alibaba is for 'big fish', aliexpress is really for 'tinkerers and everyman'...

back to our discussion-- because the molds are still plenty usable, and the whole line is already set up, it's in the subcontracted manufacturers interest to continue making product past the original order fulfilment requirements, and then put those products on a site like aliexpress to try to make a quick buck going after the same end-user that form originally contracted them to build the lights for. in all likelihood, form paid for the molds and setting up the entire line, making the aliexpress listing nearly pure profit for the manufacturer, only costing them in raw materials and typical factory costs to 'keep the lights on'. they only stand to gain further by running the plastics thinner, or using less purity in the raw materials, which once the original order is fulfilled, there's no reason not to other than personal ethics.

the existence of products on aliexpress doesn't indicate that it's the origin of the product. in all reality, it's mostly overstocked product.

someone must pay to have the product designed, molds and patterns made, and finally produced. the majority of aliexpress aren't new and innovative products. in fact, i don't think i've ever seen anything on there that was a new idea. it's mostly a regurgitation of products that suited someone else's needs, that an entity contracted a chinese outfit to make. someone just didn't hit 'stop' on the machines once the order was complete.

that's really a major difference in business practices between american and chinese manufacturing.

in america, if 'craftsman' makes a new wrench, they want to own the design and protect it with big lawyers to make sure no one else uses that design anywhere.

in china, if 'mta products' makes a new wrench, they get someone to make it. that person makes it, and then the person making it goes "hey! if 'mta products' can sell this, that means there's a market for this! i'll skip my lunch break, make 1,000 of these, re-stamp them 'tma specialty', and toss them on ali express! the extra money can go towards my vacation next month!"

the important aspect here is that within china, this is legal to do, in fact, china has a well established history of protecting internal business interests over that of external business interests-- so if the product is a copy of something in another country, chinese courts have well-established that they'll rule in favor of the local business, regardless of anything else. in the case of BYND, they sold and marketed a patented design of another company within the US. that's really BYND's major failure-- not changing the design enough to bypass the patent.

officially, even the knockoff caps can't be sold in the US because they infringe on an existing US patent. but by use of aliexpress, chinese sellers and american buyers can skirt this issue by drop-shipping to individuals, reducing the likelihood of getting caught by customs agents that are responsible for enforcing american business practices.

this is specifically evident in the case of sparkfun's accidental volt meter mishap, where they unintentionally infringed on Fluke electronics colors, protected by similar federal laws. 2,000 volt meters were destroyed by incineration.
https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428

in terms of lighting, it's federally illegal to produce, distribute, or install automotive light sources that deviate from the bulb base designation. changing a filament-based bulb to an led, or hid light source has had the same ramifications. years ago, when drop-in halogen-based hid bulbs were all the rage, it was well documented that customs would catch every few bulk shipments to the main distributors of the products, and would also destroy the shipment(same as sparkfun, they were given the option of sending it back, but due to chinese shipping subsidies, it normally costs more than it's worth). many companies admitted at the time that it was 'just a cost of business', and they planned for every few shipments to get caught.

most shipments would make it through due to falsified shipping documents, as well as the massive volume of shipments coming in. 'lost in the noise'. in most cases, due to the frequency of recurring shipments and massive quantities they were shipping, all to the same addresses, they were more likely to get noticed, and get caught. some of those companies started getting noticed more than others, and would change tactics to drop-shipping products to customers to attempt to continue getting around customs.

so while on the surface, it all seems cut-and-dry, the world of international patents, copywrite, and manufacturing is in most cases far more complex and nuanced than 'lets buy this off ali___ and sell it!'

 

^^^^

Damn. Is this available in a cliffs notes edition. Hehehe. Just fooling. Good read.

 

if you’re going Chinese then order Ute tray and top…

 

This should probably be a sticky. Great response!

 

More Ali Express stuff in the works. USA designed and assembled.

 

Lol what company is claiming this is there new product

 

This was on bynd 4x4 Instagram stories

 

Oh great, someone needs to get rid of this bynd company just pure trash

 

This is pretty dope looking though, camp out in that thing, just dont buy from bynd, he will take the price to like $9000+

 

What a bunch of crap.

Made alongside the finest tinker toys coming out of China.

 

Imagine replacing your entire bed with this heap of garbage only to have it rust to pieces in a few years. I can almost smell the spray paint through the picture.
I feel terrible for anyone who’s clueless about this companies scummy tactics and accidentally buys one. I’m sure this won’t be the last Bynd lawsuit thread.
Part of me wonders if the owner is desperately trying to sell more product to cover his current legal fees.

 

Can anyone explain what “premium tactical camping” is?

I understand the words individually, but together? Not so much…

 

I believe 'tactical camping' is basically what they're doing in the Ukraine right now... I don't believe most of them are in the market for new truck gear though.

 

I’m not sure. Most of the tactical camping I did involved being cold, wet and miserable with some of your closest friends while trying to keep an eye on the less wet and cold but still miserable fucks that wanted to kill you if they found you. Not a ringing endorsement at all.

 

That’s where you pay extra for something because it says tactical. What an overused misunderstood word in current times. A tactical knife? WTF is that? Tactical flashlight? Now we have a tactical camper.

Might as well go ahead and go full retard and get a used military dress uniform and just put every medal and ribbon on it that you can find. About as close to tactical as most ass hats that spout the term tactical will ever get.

Premium tactical. Hehehehe.

 

Ahh the Kaiser Wilhelm strategy. Excellent gambit.

 

Found another New one up in the mix this site is pretty new so is there I.G same caps anyone can purchase from Aliexpress or any other China Distributor...
https://nghtowloffroad.com/store/nghtowl-trailblazer-camper-shell/

 

how does one actually GET...this try and canopy (one)

not sure if there's other ways; I see that pic shows "minimum order 5"
which, I guess if 5 people are down...

 

It's sad that there are people out there that have no idea and will still buy it and keep him in business