Wal-Mart sucks!

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Do you mind if I use your entry? The best entry of the day yet!

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Please feel free! Also, I just called retromodern, and they're telling their Magis rep.

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It's not like the average doughy Walmartian's butt could fit into those chairs anyhow, so I doubt they'd be selling enough of them to warrant a lawsuit about profiting off a stolen design.

Oh, & the lamps remind me of garlic.

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Despite the ass-essment, I bet they could still sell more than Magis. Modern goods are such a niche market thing.

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http://steve-savicki.livejournal.com/232538.html

Boss says I have to work now; may have to edit this condensed version later.

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When you edit, could you add a link to my entry? I'm always promoting.

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added. :)

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I saw some chairs similar to those in Target as well. They really arent bad. Would you not by the replica of anything?

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Now Amazon should really know better! Apparently Magis didn't protect the design too well.

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I found that on the Target website. Guess they are using Amazon's pictures.

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Everybody's in the act! The real culprit is the manufacturer Next Wave.

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It depends. I wouldn't buy a sure enough clone (e.g., a fake Eames chair), but I have bought conceptually identical products before (e.g., an IKEA "Samtid" lamp that has the same type of tilting mech as a $500 Ligne Roset lamp).

I was almost willing to make an exception for the $150 Thomas O'Brien table I made a big stink about. A licensed variant is available now.

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so youre gonna get the licensed table for $1450 more? Not that I dont understand... Just asking.

I dont see anything wrong with mix and matching pieces. But if its an obvious knock-off i'd think twice.

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I won't be buying the licensed table either. I'd rather spend money on originals I can afford or new designs that work.

A classic /non-repro will (probably) maintain its value or go up. New designs might one day prove investment worthy. Everything else will just be used furniture/candidates for the landfill.

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Isn't it funny how a nicely designed item still looks like crap beneath Wal-Mart's brutally unkind lighting, and sitting upon their shit laden shelves?

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Walmart Rules!

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Sorry to weigh in late, but isn't the Adler design just a knockoff of George Nelson's Pear bubble lamp?

http://www.modernica.net/browseProducts.asp?CatId=1012#

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What Adler did is not a knock-off. He did use Nelson's shapes, but he used them to create pottery. This is a new interpretation of a mid-century shape. This is inferior to what Nelson did, which was probably taking inspiration from an onion. It would only be a knock-off if Adler made his own bubble lamp.

Adler has done plenty of knocking off of Dunbar furniture lately, however. I noticed a particularly guilty chair and table in his last catalog have vanished from his site. Perhaps Dunbar - which is currently being reissued - warned him.

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So some guy has an idea for a CHAIR SHAPE and he's entitled to all profits from any chair that looks like it??? Stealing is when you slap a fake Magis label on it. Expanding the idea is when you make your own version.

Seriously folks, there's NOTHING new under the sun. All ideas are built of other ideas. This isn't ripping off; this is following trends. In 5 years both chairs will be in the garbage.

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I entirely disagree. A fake label is not required to make a fake product. It's still copying. Expanding on ideas requires actual changes or improvement (something these Wal-Mart stools lack).

You have seriously underestimated human creativity and the value of design.

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I don't really see this as a big deal. Wal-mart and the like specialize in bringing to the average middle to lower income family knock-offs of things they normally wouldn't buy or even look at. The designers they are copying aren't losing business, the people buying those bar stools at Wal-mart would never dream of paying more than $100 for any piece of furniture anyway. I have a small income and a taste for modern design, which normally doesn't mix... To buy a piece from a real designer that I like, I would spend my whole budget on a single chair. Thanks to Wal-mart, Target, K-mart and modifying older, cheap furniture I have a home that I can be proud to entertain in. Why is that so wrong? Besides, those bar stools are inspired by designs from the 50's. It's not a matter of the designer's failure to protect the design, he has no legal claim to it.

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Honestly, if you're going to go after Wal-Mart, you need to go after the other stores flat-out also...last month at Target I saw jewelry that was flat out ripped off (same colors, same art, same execution)of Lee Riot...if you have a good design idea, someone's gonna rip it off, unfortunately.

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It's true. They're all pretty guilty. In ways, Target is even more guilty than Wal-Mart because Target (probably) has a much more advanced staff for selecting and styling merchandise. They know what they're stealing whereas Wal-Mart probably just buys whatever least common denominator items their researchers recommend.

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I do care if an artist is ripped off, trust me, but making an example of a piece of crap that is over a thousand dollars from a California vagina pirate that probably only costs a few hundred to make is a stretch. It sounds like you are baby piss pants about the artist (who still can sell shirts) that did not go big time and make a shitload of cash. His/her choice as far as I am concerned. I would not sell out, but lets face it, the people who buy this shit are not in the cities and think "whoa, that is a cool shirt, but I can get it for less here" I see a condescending view point in this whole bag o crap about people who even shop at low ball stores. Not everyone has $50 for a shirt or $1,000 for a damn bar stool! Get over it and try to form your hate for small towns a little better. At least do not try so hard to put your foot on my neck as you call me inferior.

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I have defended knock-offs in earlier posts in this journal, pointed out bargain alternative furnishings from IKEA and spanked designers for their own piracy.

In other words, you don't know what you're talking about.

I don't claim to be superior to discount shoppers (who says I'm not one?) - just superior to you.

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Hi, I am a designer looking to get a design I did out on the market, and was wondering if anyone had any experiences with vendors/retailers who are good to work with and WON'T rip me off!???

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Sometimes it's not so much the companies as the designers themselves doing the ripping, but designers have to eat, don't they?

One thing you might try is fabricating and selling the design yourself. If you take a look through magazines such as ReadyMade, you will find plenty of designers selling their own wares. Then it becomes more a question of protecting your design.

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Interesting Comments. I just picked up 2 Magis Bombo bar stools at a local online auction for $50 each. I think everyone thought they were knock-offs. Both have the Magis label on the bottom and are stamped on the underside of the footrest. You can definately tell the quality between the originals and the knock-offs. Thanks Walmart for numbing the masses and affording me 2 originals!

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the magis chairs retail for about $800

what's wrong with making things affordable for regular joes?

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Nothing is wrong with affordable, but the affordable designers should do their own thing instead of copying. There are good designs out there at good prices that don't involve cheating.

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