Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson during a free ascent of the Dawn Wall Photo: Jimmy Chin for Black Diamond
Pardon the colloquial headline but that’s pretty much what Black Diamond, the esteemed climbing and backcountry equipment company, said to Walmart this week, sending a cease and desist letter to the massive chain retail store that made it seem as if they were carrying the brand’s equipment.
Of course, it’s always more complicated than that. A year ago, with wet dreams of filling excel sheets with revenue, Walmart purchased the outdoor gear curator Moosejaw for a cool $51 million. The Moosejaw brand, as part of Walmart.com, is working on bringing a number of outdoor companies into the Wally World fold, including Dueter, Leki, and of course, Black Diamond.
I can’t possibly blame any company for not wanting to be associated with Walmart, as stories of the chain demanding high volumes from premium brands at low prices run rampant (and full disclosure, I’ve been using a pair of Scarpa mountaineering boots since I was a kid, a brand BD imported for years, so I am a fan of the Salt Lake-based outfit). Companies are enticed by the massive volume Walmart orders, but the reality of lower margins have nearly put some mid-level companies out of business. Not to mention the lovely Walmart clickbait imagery crawling across the net that you don’t need to be directed to.
Black Diamond was not happy its imagery showed up on Walmart’s site. Photo: Screenshot
But I would be remiss to remind our readers (and myself, I suppose), that hypocrisy runs amok in all of us: neither can you blame people for wanting to find gear that allows them to recreate in the great blue yonder without completely emptying the bank account. And lest we forget that Black Dimond’s parent company, Clarus, also owns Sierra Bullets, maker of high-quality ammunition, always a touchy point in today’s America, where mass shootings have become the norm. So nobody’s living in a perfectly-aligned world of flowers, sunshine and easily-climbed skin trails.
But that didn’t stop Black Diamond from responding enforce. “We did not see or approve the statement which Walmart released Monday and have never sold to Walmart,” said John Walbrecht, Black Diamond’s president in a press release. “Black Diamond remains committed to our specialty retail partners and we do not plan on deviating from this strategy.”
The cease and desist letter was direct, of course, demanding the store immediately stop using the brand’s logo which would “confuse consumers,” who might believe Black Diamond would possibly stoop so low, and cease from using copyrighted images that belong to BD.
