Well, you can’t have missed the PR and stories surrounding the kids balance bikes Kickstarter project from new startup company Zum Zum Bikes, featuring Steve Peat. Some of the ads were displayed right here on our own site along with a story announcing the wooden Zum Zum. But since that story broke it’s become apparent that all is not well in the world of balance bikes.
It seems that Zum Zum are not alone in developing this type of balance bike. There’s also a balance bike design that looks rather similar being developed by a company called.. er.. Brum Brum Bikes. Yup, that’s right. Both curiously rhyming companies are currently claiming their rights to the design, with Brum Brum Bikes posting their claims to the patent directly on the Zum Zum Bikes Kickstarter page. Zum Zum Bike’s response to the claim is forthright:
“This is one of many comments we have received in the last days from the same people. We want to make this clear to anyone who reads – there are no criminal proceedings against us that we would know of. We DO have a design patent and we can show it too. We have not infringed any patented rights. This is our bike and our design.”
Latvian based Brum Brum Bikes, however, would seem to be positioning for a legal scrap over both the design and the similarity in company names. When asked on their Facebook page if they are going to take Zum Zum Bikes to court the response was simple: “Yes”.
Scrolling down the timeline on Brum Brum Bikes Facebook page reveals a post that they claim shows the original design drawing of their balance bike that dates back to 2009.
And if all this wasn’t odd enough, a quick search for Zum Zum Bikes on Google turns up yet another similarly named company dealing in kids balance bikes. Check out Züm Balance Bikes who have been around since 2012.
Currently Zum Zum Bikes have attracted 102 backers pledging a total of $15k of their target figure of $50k.
It all seems to be playing out in a very modern and public manner on both Kickstarter and Facebook.
We’ll be contacting both parties for statements, and we’ll update you when we hear anything.
Comments (5)
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“All I wanna do is zoom a Zum Zum or a Brum Brum.” 😀
Just wait til Shimano or Specialized get involved- then the toys really will be thrown out the pram…
Looking back on what my sprogs rode, the saddles with this design all look too high for young kids anyway (unless it is an optical illusion and the wheels are really small or they sag a long way with rider weight).
Design not worth fighting over imo. Keep it simple cheap and height adjustable.
akak has it – the design looks good at first, but clearly has a pretty major flaw regarding the seat height (and lack of adjustability of that, combined with the seat naturally getting lower due to sag as your kids get bigger). Just look at the video on the Kickstarter page of kids with knees up around their ears and compare with a typical video of a Rothan or anything else similar with lots of adjustment. Not a design worth fighting over – nor one worth backing.