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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 17, 2015 - 11:53pm PT
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From the archives:
Back at the height of A5, I got a call from my friend Eric Doub congratulating me for opening a branch in Spain. Huh!? I didn't have a branch in Spain, even though we sold quite a bit of big wall gear to Europe. The. I started to see full page ads in Desnivel, with my logo and the A5 copyrighted "upside down guy", our well known McMullen illustration.
I asked Eric to send me some photos, and this is what he sent (bonus 'topo' of Eric's then-recent Diamond testpiece Eroica):
The outside of the shop:
Inside the shop was lots the latest gear, but no bona fide A5 gear (even though we were open to business from overseas shops, which then probably accounted for 20% of our business). Probably the thing that irked me the most was their selection of big wall specialty gear like the haulbags looked like crap!)
I wrote to these guys several time (this is before internet), and left some messages on their phone, but never got a response back. Over the next months, the ads in Desnivel continued:
I really couldn't believe how blatant these guys were, unabashedly lifting all of our work to market their shop. I talked to Wendy White, our local climber lawyer, but she said I would need to discuss it with an international trademark lawyer, the fees would start at five grand for an initial action.
Then a solution dawned on me--I'll just place ads in Desnivel highlighting the fact that their shop was a fake. Below a the ad--it says something like, "don't buy from a fake A5, buy only the original stuff from the A5 shop in Flagstaff, Arizona!"
I think I ran that ad twice, and soon after the shop changed it's name and stopped using our logos!
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
climber
/ ne'er–do–well
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Aug 18, 2015 - 12:57am PT
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Nice design, got any early sketches of the logo?
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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Aug 18, 2015 - 01:36am PT
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As you say, unbelievably blatant. Did you ever hear any more about these guys since? I wonder who they are now... Chouinard, perhaps?
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 18, 2015 - 03:47am PT
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Yeah, that one is availible
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 19, 2015 - 02:40am PT
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Never heard from these guys since. Eric said they were nice guys, just not too imaginative in coming up with new names for their shop!
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Rivet hanger
Trad climber
Barcelona
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Aug 19, 2015 - 07:58am PT
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Joaquin Olmo (the biggest guy on the photos) still has a mountain gear shop with a more realistic name (I guess he catched the idea and hasn't try to scratch Chouinard's balls). In addition of the shop, he spends his time putting up new via ferratas, which have a high demand. I guess "Eric said they were nice guys, just not too imaginative in coming up with new names for their shop!" is the most certain explanation of the fake shop...
Bu the way, BArcelona ain't exactly Spain, at least in the sense tha Madrid or Seville are...
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Rivet hanger
Trad climber
Barcelona
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Aug 19, 2015 - 09:08am PT
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Gripe-fest? It shouldn't. In Canada/Quebec you have a large experience in let people vote in a referendum. Not exactly the case in Span...
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 19, 2015 - 12:59pm PT
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Sorry, Catalonia!
Not really to shame, just a bit of old history--this kind of thing would quickly be exposed in the internet age, but back then, it took some doing and lots of postage stamps.
I never ever talked to the guys, probably it would be fun to have a beer and a few laughs over the episode.
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Roots
Mountain climber
Tustin, CA
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Aug 19, 2015 - 01:16pm PT
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They dropped the "e" so totally different company. LOL
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Aug 19, 2015 - 02:48pm PT
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Nice solution with the ad!
And it's cool to see that Rivet hanger remembers it, too.
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Eric Doub
climber
Boulder
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Aug 28, 2016 - 08:19pm PT
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Fun retrospective...which I hadn't thought about for years! Thanks, John.
Of minor interest to some, perhaps: The postcard shows the first part of Eroica on the Diamond, yes, but the rest of the line I drew is what became The Honeymoon is Over.
In summer 1994 when I happened upon this fake A5 shop in Barcelona, I was on the first part of a 6-week Bachelor's Trip climbing in Spain, Catalonia, France, and the Elbsandsteingebirge where I had not climbed since it was behind the Iron Curtain. In October I got married below the Diamond. Then over the next 3 summers I established the Honeymoon is Over, using bona fide A5 gear. Not able to accomplish the FFA myself, in spring 2000 I gave the topo to some young guy named Tommy Caldwell...
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Aug 28, 2016 - 08:25pm PT
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who is this Thomas Caldwell you speak of? ;)
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OlympicMtnBoy
climber
Seattle
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Aug 28, 2016 - 08:36pm PT
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Bump for cool history/trivia! Thanks for sharing.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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Aug 28, 2016 - 09:20pm PT
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They dropped the "e" ... and the "d"
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little Z
Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
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Aug 30, 2016 - 06:19pm PT
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gotta love the body language of those two guys in your in-shop photos.
who, me guilty?
...and I love their matching lycra
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Aug 30, 2016 - 08:34pm PT
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That's hilarious! Necky little buggers, eh?
Looking forward to getting my [lard]ass onto one of your/Chris'/Nathan's prototype ledges in a few weeks.
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