Extreme component branding practices...

The Kaiser Chiefs are onto it...

Television's on the blink (there's nothing on it)
I really want a really big coat (with words on it)
What do you want for tea? (I want crisps)
Why didn't you join the team? (I just didn't)

It's cool to know nothing
It's cool to know nothing


Bloody philosophers, those chaps.
 
I'm a bit late to the conversation, but me & my riding pals all get together & chat bikes. Were a bit old school in that we are all for the most part still rocking rim brakes on our road bikes. So one of my mates has been in the market for a new bike for what has to be the last 6 years. 6 years! He is so undecided mostly because nothing looks to his taste. He wants plain packaging on a carbon framed, Ultegra level endurance type road bike. I will say he is fussy but I am siding with him. You can't get away from the huge brand names & every surface of a frame has some trademark feature with a label, boasting what a fantastic b/b shell you bought. It is a thing & it does suck.
 
* COUGH * Started it, I don't know.

But Kore 🤔 was one of the very few brands, although acetone friendly, did have a good type face and neutral matching other stuff.

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Bare with me here ..... at least it was a proper manufacturer of stems with a massive range and the logos printed the right way. Always.

Whoever decided we should have flip-flop stems and have a bike with a logo printed upside down should not be pardoned for jail time.

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Could you imagine any one doing such a crime in a vintage "Classic" era? Horrible practice. Just shameful.

Syncros, since 1986.
Not surehow early this is:
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Mavic disc wheel, strongly branded, but 1989! Screenshot_20250123-075500_Firefox.jpg
The wheelwas a bit of a pro product though, I'm thinking about stuff aimed at Joe, or Jolene Public.

(The pros were the billboards first, probably with the introduction of publicity shots a long long time ago.
Some consumers have been expected to want to look like a pro for a while - a growing segment?)
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Kore, a little late to the party?
Other products please?
 
That isn't entirely true, it comes around again. Never underestimate them.
The tail of a comet points away from the sun, so a scientific correctly aligned comet sticker would be impossibe🤯
The "cartoon comet" trails its tail in its wake, so that would look like this:
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Still not massive though...yet
 
Iirc the trend to put big component and manufacture branding on ‘low end’ parts started around 92. This is when Shimano started to downgrade their mid/lower range components, many of which were irreparable, with no spares etc. It maybe made the mid to lower end bikes look better for sale. As has been said its all gone into branding over drive ever since. Personally I always liked understated signs of high quality fabrication, let the invisible signature welds speak for themselves I say.
 
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