Alva stealing prints?

[Chrijodo]

Originally Posted by newmommy13 Aren't the alva double gussets a rumparooz design knockoff? Never seen either but I remember hearing that. I think for a lot of people its about priorities. For one person buying usa is priority #1 so it comes before ease of use so they use flats/pfs or buy fewer. 30 is a big stash imo. Eta also this was no happy coincidence. They looked specifically at the best selling diapers and found out their most popular prints. This was deliberately done to steal business. Eta again lol to those who say alvas are made for a different market than more expensive diapers I don't believe that is true. My family was in a terrible financial position when my dd was a baby but I was working 13 hour days and daycare wasn't having prefolds. So I had 6 bg aios for daycare and the ready was pfs. Now with alva of course for the same price I can have a big 30 diaper stash if I pay coop prices. This time around I chose to get a dozen bg seconds for $150 and some flats off fsot. It doesn't make me a snob or even better than anyone else. I just made a different choice because I had different priorities at the time.

BGs didn't work for me for any of my children. Neither did Rumparoos or SB fitteds or Fuzzibunz or Softbums or a number of other. I tried. believe me I tried. Prefolds and flats meant I was having to change my daughters every 30 minutes or they were peeing through. Which with twins basically means I was always changing someone. Lucky for me, I could afford to stash hop and try new things in order to find something that works but for alot of people the only thing cloth diaper related that is in their price bracket is prefold/flats and they are intimidating to even seasoned CDers. So cloth diaper isn't looked at as a viable option because it's not affordable. I've seen good deals come up for some things on FSOT but usually they are gone almost the instant they are posted so someone who is truly shopping on a budget has little to no chance of scoring such an awesome deal. More often than not I see people mark up the prices on FSOT because of "shipping" or "handling fees" or "I have to price them high because of low ballers" etc. And even if you DO find a good deal.. it's still not as good as being able to get China cheapies new in package for about 4 dollars a diaper. For 4 dollars a diaper on the FSOT board it's listed under FFS or in UC. Even the good deals on the FSOT are more expensive than the cheapies from China, and for people who really are trying to CD on a budget, it's an option that I'm glad is there because I'd rather people CD their kids using China Cheapies than sposies. But maybe that's just my priorities.

[RockinLou]

Originally Posted by Chrijodo BGs didn't work for me for any of my children. Neither did Rumparoos or SB fitteds or Fuzzibunz or Softbums or a number of other. I tried. believe me I tried. Prefolds and flats meant I was having to change my daughters every 30 minutes or they were peeing through. Which with twins basically means I was always changing someone. Lucky for me, I could afford to stash hop and try new things in order to find something that works but for alot of people the only thing cloth diaper related that is in their price bracket is prefold/flats and they are intimidating to even seasoned CDers. So cloth diaper isn't looked at as a viable option because it's not affordable. I've seen good deals come up for some things on FSOT but usually they are gone almost the instant they are posted so someone who is truly shopping on a budget has little to no chance of scoring such an awesome deal. More often than not I see people mark up the prices on FSOT because of "shipping" or "handling fees" or "I have to price them high because of low ballers" etc. And even if you DO find a good deal.. it's still not as good as being able to get China cheapies new in package for about 4 dollars a diaper. For 4 dollars a diaper on the FSOT board it's listed under FFS or in UC. Even the good deals on the FSOT are more expensive than the cheapies from China, and for people who really are trying to CD on a budget, it's an option that I'm glad is there because I'd rather people CD their kids using China Cheapies than sposies. But maybe that's just my priorities.

Have you read this whole thread? Because a lot of these points you are arguing have been mentioned and addressed by both sides of the aisle.

It's not about where they are made, it's not about wether or not they work, or people being snobs, or even about popcorn and caramel. The point of this thread was originally to discuss the theft of copyrighted artwork. Artwork and designs that were developed by several businesses here who follow the rules when it comes to manufacturing such as paying for safety testing of the components of the products before distributing them to retailers and customers, paying importation duties and taxes on the goods being brought in, and then taxes on their earnings. These things are not done with co-ops and it is why they can price so low. It is not a level playing field, and it is choking the companies who are doing the right thing across the board.

Perhaps if the market weren't being yanked out from under them by the co-op system they could put out more affordable products with the hope that they would be successful and accessible to a wider range of customers, but with the way things are now it seems counter-intuitive for them to bother. (Though Econobums are nicely priced and clearly an attempt to respond to the need for lower cost products) Yes, the market is being consumed by the co-ops, anyone who caught the infamous FB Shark Tank heard their profits for the year, and OhKaty nearly closed its doors, these are manufacturers who cannot compete side by side with the co-op pockets.

I also feel that it is a common misperception in the diaper forums that the "big" companies are big. I'd say that Cottonbabies, GroVia, and Swaddlebees, followed closely by FuzziBunz, Softbums, Bummis, etc... are perceived to be "big", but they are big fish in a little pond. Nobody in this industry is anything other than a small business when looking at them from a business perspective. I would imagine that at the holiday party for any of the "big 3" there will be no more than 20 employees and their respective partners, because though their names are known in the industry, the industry is still less than 7% of the diapering market across the country. So when people imply that these businesses are big and in fancy corporate offices I always get a chuckle.... they all started with a mom, out of her home, and thought they've ridden the rising tide of cloth popularity with a lot of grace, they're lightyears from being a BIG business!

so in summary: stolen prints is stolen artwork, knowingly importing, distributing and reselling it (even used) is illegal and punishable quite severely by law.

several manufacturers are impacted by this, and it would be great to see them work together to draw attention to the issue with their congressmen in an effort to protect small businesses that are based in the USA (even though they manufacture overseas as well)

nobody set out to judge anyone, but to clarify that prints were stolen, which has been confirmed. They have ben stolen from people who are hard working individuals trying to support their families just as much as everyone who is buying the questionable items that are threatening their livelihoods.

This is a cyclical discussion that crops up frequently, and I'm a little sorry that someone revived this specific thread today, but back to the original post, are the prints copied? yes. is it legal? no.

[March]

Applause.

[Jenrose]

Still wanting to know which prints are known knockoffs. I know the grovia ones. I know the michael miller print (which was on Beco baby carriers before it was on diapers, IIRC) is likely a knockoff. I know lovelace. Which others? They've got hundreds of prints, I"m happy to avoid the ones that are copyright issues. But Alvas work the best for us, and I'm not going to stop buying from the company.

[Sweet_Fantasy_Fox]

Closing this thread, no spin offs please as they will be removed.