Counterfeit camping gear: head lamp 

September 2010

Someone gave this to me as a gift. It is a seven LED head lamp that one can put on a helmet. This someone is a person who is not a very sophisticated consumer. Although I don't go climbing or camping much, I thought perhaps this head lamp could be useful for illuminating electronics during repair. I assumed it is a rechargeable lamp as the package doesn't describe it at all. I thought the material quality isn't very good after unpacking it. The detachable electrical cord has a closed end which fits inside a circular socket on the back of the lamp. It charges the lamp with electrical induction. My first thought was "that's innovative". So I plugged it in an the lamp lit up. There is no power switch. I thought it is very strange to not have such basic function. After "charging" it for some time, I unplugged it from the power cord. The light went off instantly. I thought it is even stranger that it shut off. Upon closer inspection, I realized there is no battery and it has to be attached in order to function. It defeats the whole purpose of its design!

This object turned out to be a utterly useless waste of resource. After using plugging it only once more, six out of seven LED bulbs don't work anymore, and the seventh one only emits a very faint blue light, which renders it even more useless.

Why would a manufacturer waste its time, resource and energy to counterfeit another brand and make an utterly useless item that is useless in its design and function? The material and cost of labor to make it may be very low, and they may fool some unsophisticated consumers by selling it to low-end market sellers, at what profit? Is it really worth their time to make it in the first place?