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Kayak manufacturers seem pretty blase about the whole trademark thing. Examples:

The Stealth 9, Stealth 10, Stealth 11, Stealth 12, and Stealth 14 are all sit-on-top fishing kayaks. However, two of them are made by Emotion Kayaks and three of them are made by Malibu Kayaks. Can you tell which ones are which without clicking?

Swift Outdoor Centre in Ontario, Canada sells their own in-house line of Swift Kayaks. Meanwhile, Seattle, Washington kayak company Eddyline sells a line of Swift Paddles. The products are related (but not directly comparable) and the logos are very different, but would the average consumer be able to tell they were completely unrelated businesses?

Would the casual shopper know that Hurricane’s line of Excursion light touring kayaks are completely unrelated to SunDolphin’s line of Excursion fishing kayaks?

Would that same consumer be able to easily tell that the Ocean Kayak Malibu Two and Malibu Two XL are not made by Malibu Kayaks?

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Hurricane Excursion128

SunDolphin Excursion12SS

OK, so maybe Malibu is content sell boats rather than fight legal battles. And maybe Eddyline doesn’t want to tangle with a retailer who could, one day, be a distribution partner. And perhaps Hurricane and SunDolphin operate in such different market demographics that they don’t see each other as a threat.

But none of that explains why the Canadian recreational manufacturer Pelican is using not one, but two, nameplates also in use by other recreation-focused companies that compete right in its own backyard. Right down the road at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Pelican is competing with Future Beach for the store’s very limited kayak display space. Future Beach makes a tandem model named the Maverick 168T. Pelican manufactures a recreational boat called the Intrepid 100x … unless you buy it at Dick’s, where it is known as the Maverick 100X. Not smart.

And Pelican has an upscale line called Elie. Elie has two recreational boats that fall under the Sound brand. Not to be outdone, Perception has a line of six recreational boats using the Sound name. I saw an Elie Sound model and a Perception Sound model sitting less than 50 feet apart in the REI store in College Park last year. Was anyone paying attention to this possibility?

Pelican also has a two-seater fishing boat named the Predator, the same nameplate as the massively popular Old Town fishing kayak line. That does not make a whole lot of sense.

Maybe Pelican and Malibu just have lousy luck in choosing their bland, focus-tested watercraft names. Maybe nobody in the kayaking industry wants to spend money to fight bruising battles over low-margin brands that could be completely abandoned in the next round of mergers or product lineup shifts. Maybe kayak manufacturing culture is resistant to the less palatable aspects of business maneuvering. Whatever the reason, the kayak industry is a tower of brand babel.

Does the kayak industry even bother enforcing its trademarks? Kayak manufacturers seem pretty blase about the whole trademark thing. Examples: The Stealth 9, Stealth 10…

#Elie #Emotion Kayaks #FeelFree #Future Beach #Hurricane #kayak #kayaking #Malibu Kayaks #Ocean Kayak #Pelican #Perception #SunDolphin #Swift #trademarks