Many of you who find our products have heard some of the story about why they look the same as products being sold by a couple of Florida-based companies. I don't want to wade through all that mess, but here is the gist of the story.
When I first started my company in 2009, I did a number of design deals where we would do all the design work without getting paid, then we would receive a perpetual royalty on all sales of the parts we designed. We also, obviously and necessarily, retained ALL OWNERSHIP of all aspects of the designs.
27-MAY-2017 EDIT TO ADD:
Our ownership of these designs is documented through Copyright. I have been asked many times why we do not/did not patent these designs. The simple truth is that for most of these parts, the sales during the lifetime of the part would likely never generate enough profit just to pay for the patent. Were I a patent attorney, I could confidently do them myself, but good patents are hard to write and expensive to defend. So, while some of our designs are protected under patents, in most cases - especially for automotive performance products in a specific market - it's not feasible to do so.
As my patent attorney said to me: "A patent is a very expensive piece of paper that states you have the right to pay attorneys to argue on your behalf with other attorneys." I think that about sums it up. :) Okay, back to the story...
A "manufacturer" and retailer in Florida (Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, respectively) who sold our designs decided in 2014 that they really shouldn't have to pay us for the designs anymore. They took parts to a machine shop and had them copy everything about our parts.
They have even gone so far as to do slight redesigns on some pieces and claim they are "fully in-house designed..."
Anyway, tired of watching our stuff getting ripped off AND seeing unhappy customers because the impostors don't know/understand (care?) how to make them right, what tolerances to hold, etc., we decided to go direct to the customer with the best parts you can get.
So there you have it - now you can get the parts that we design directly from us. No middle man. No superfluous markup. No bullshit. Just great parts!