The very first line of Peak Design's Mission Statement is "make the best things." This is the single most important thing we do, and we've built our entire operation to ensure that we never have to cut corners when bringing a new product to life. Our reputation depends on many things, but first and foremost, it's rooted in the products we design and market to the world.

A side effect of being a successful product design company is other people copying your ideas. It's inevitable, and it's not always a bad thing. Good design ideas are naturally promulgated. Good designers naturally source inspiration existing good designs. At Peak Design, we like knowing that we've influenced how other people design products. After all, many people have influenced us.

But sometimes, people copy our ideas in bad ways. Specifically, in ways that screw over consumers, factory workers, and/or the environment. This includes knockoff products, counterfeit products, and straight-up scams.

See something fishy? Tell us.

To report a potential knockoff, counterfeit, or scam, email info@peakdesign.com and provide whatever info you can (a link to the product, a screenshot, and a quick explanation of how/where you found it would be great).

Counterfeit Products

Counterfeits are products that are made to look identical to PD products in an effort to deceive the buyer into thinking they are getting a genuine PD product. Counterfeit products may look very similar to our gear, but that's about it. Counterfeiters sell products by heavily undercutting their retail pricing. To do that, they heavily reduce their production costs. That means counterfeit products are typically made with cheaper materials and manufacturing processes. They're also not subject to rigorous quality control processes. And they're most definitely not accounting for their environmental or social impact.

Knockoff Products

Knockoffs are products that have a near-identical design and functionality to PD products, but are marketed under a different product or brand name. Like counterfeits, knock-offs are typically a lot cheaper than PD gear and lack the quality, precision, consistency, and social/environmental safeguards of PD gear.

Scam Sellers

Scam sellers use Peak Design imagery and graphics (typically trademarked content) to deceive consumers. Sometimes they're selling counterfeit/knockoff products, and sometimes they're just stealing your money.

You get what you pay for, so be smart.

We work hard to prevent counterfeits, knockoffs, and scammers from selling their products online. We have a global portfolio of trademarks and patents that give us the legal basis to do this, and we have both internal and 3rd party resources dedicated to finding an eliminating copycats.

But frankly, we live in a world where this stuff happens—to us and to many other designers out there. It's ultimately up to you as a consumer to be careful about what you buy. If you see something that looks like a PD product on sale for a fraction of the retail price, think twice. Do you know and trust the seller? Do you trust a knock-off product to protect your expensive photo gear? Do you care about the environmental impact of your product, or the ethical treatment of the factory workers who made it?

As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.