Cyclists boycotting these brands...

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Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby ultraslacker » Fri Feb 23, 2018 1:50 am

apparently a bunch of cyclists are now boycotting Camelbak, Giro, and Bell because their parent companies make firearms and support the NRA: https://singletrackworld.com/2018/02/wo ... eady-have/
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby La » Fri Feb 23, 2018 9:00 am

I saw that on Twitter yesterday (and re-tweeted it). I had no idea! It will inform my purchasing decisions, but if I already own any of their products it doesn't make sense to stop using them. I have an old Giro helmet that I don't use anymore. Good thing there are alternative brands for all those things.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby MrBond » Tue Feb 27, 2018 10:52 am

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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby La » Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:43 am

MrBond wrote:http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mec-guns-vista-boycott-1.4552325

This part was very interesting:
Tim Southam, public affairs manager at MEC, said ownership patterns in the outdoor industry are changing as more large players have come into the space and bought up what were formerly independent brands.

"Camelbak, for example, our relationship goes back to 2009 before Vista Outdoors even existed as a company," Southam added. "These are relationships with individual brands that in some cases go back many years.

As a consumer, it's very hard to know the affiliations and ownership of the brands we buy.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby Jwolf » Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:18 pm

MEC is being very open with the public about their process in making the decisions whether to stop selling these brands. They are getting a lot of push-back from hunters who shop at MEC who don't feel that MEC has to stop buying from companies simply because they sell guns. But my question is: why does a company that sells/makes hunting rifles have to support the NRA? The NRA may have started as a group for hunters but it has turned into a political lobbying group which has had a HUGE negative effect on the gun culture in the US. The NRA does not stand for human rights. Maybe it should be the companies that make hunting rifles that disavow themselves from the NRA. Hunters who truly believe in human rights and conservation need to find an organization that actually stands for these principles. The NRA only stands for the manufacturers of firearms.

You can be anti-NRA without being anti-hunting.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby ultraslacker » Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:21 pm

I was reading a lot of the comments yesterday and the pushback MEC is getting is from the people who don't understand the difference between selling hunting gear and supporting the NRA. It's a massive distinction that's being overlooked by a bunch of people in kneejerk reactions.

As well, a lot of people don't understand that the idea of corporate responsibility is very common nowadays. Sure, MEC is a co-op, not a corp, but they are as responsible to their members as a corp is to their shareholders. This is not unlike a corp looking at the human rights standards of their supply chain, or their environmental standards, or the various other things that shareholders are increasingly expecting from corporations today. This is nothing new... it's just that the NRA/hunting/gun issue is a hot and controversial topic today.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby Jwolf » Wed Feb 28, 2018 3:04 pm

Dick's Sporting Goods will no longer sell semi-automatic weapons at all and will stop selling any guns to people under 21.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/dick-s- ... -1.4555170

Nothing about whether or not they will stop selling products from companies that make the weapons, though.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby Jwolf » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:51 am

Wow- they did it! Gun-enthusiasts and hunters will probably still say it was a "knee-jerk reaction", but it seems it was far from that.

https://www.mec.ca/en/explore/open-lett ... -labistour

Some parts of the letter:

AN OPEN LETTER TO MEC MEMBERS FROM CEO DAVID LABISTOUR

...

After careful consideration, we have decided to:

-Effective immediately, suspend any further orders with the five brands owned by Vista Outdoor which we carry (Bollé, Bushnell, CamelBak, Camp Chef, Jimmy Styks). Existing inventory will remain on our shelves until it has sold through.
-Continue to engage with these brands as well our peers in the outdoor industry in North America in ways that are consistent with our mission and values. We welcome opportunities to engage with other organizations to help build consensus around the potential for constructive social impact related to purchasing.
-Lean in further on the question of what corporate social responsibility means for MEC, widening our scope beyond environmental footprint and responsible sourcing to consider ownership structures.

...

On a very personal note, many of us come from parts of the world where we have witnessed the use and impact of guns first-hand. I include myself in that community. I have proudly served in the military and grew up in a rural area where hunting was commonplace. I can readily identify with our members who are on all sides of this debate. At the same time, my personal experience has taught me about the power of engagement. I believe that engagement is the path to change, as tough as it might be.

So, the questions before us are: what can a Canadian retail co-operative with more than five million members, a business that exists to get people active outdoors, do to effect positive change while continuing to ensure that we serve our members’ needs? At the same time, how do we act as a catalyst for this important debate while we maintain the integrity of our Co-op?

I hope that you will see that the decision we made today is balanced and considered and positions us to inspire a wider discussion throughout our industry and North America.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby La » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:53 am

Sounds like a very well-thought out response.

I'm still unclear in what the overall goal is, though. Not just with MEC, but with people's push to boycott companies who deal with the NRA. To me, boycotting seems like a knee-jerk reaction to something, but without a lot of thought put into it.

If the change that's desired is that gun laws in the US are changed, then I guess the only way to do that is to take power away from the NRA because they are the ones funding politicians who won't then vote for stricter gun laws. I seriously doubt that much of the NRA's funding comes from memberships, it's primarily from corporate donations from gun manufacturers.

So, does boycotting a store or brand accomplish that? It's well and good for Dick's and Walmart to say they won't sell guns to people under 21, but how does that have an impact on the NRA?
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby eme » Thu Mar 01, 2018 11:47 am

I agree with La, I don't think that these brand boycotts will do much.

The real power lies with the voters, to vote out the politicians who take money from the NRA. The gun lobby/manufactures control the NRA and I believe that the actual membership has very little power to influence the actions of the NRA.

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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby Jwolf » Thu Mar 01, 2018 1:48 pm

Every little bit counts. And there are lots of companies that are withdrawing their support for the NRA. Boycotting these companies will put pressure of them to also withdraw their support.

Ultimately its the money that matters, and the NRA needs donations from supporters and corporate partnerships. And that support is gradually eroding.

This is a good article: https://www.vox.com/2018/2/27/17053246/ ... un-control

[The NRA does] depend at least to some degree on deep-pocketed donors — in 2016, the group’s political arm took in more than $124 million in contributions and grants from individuals, corporations, and other entities, including a single donation of $19.2 million, according to Mother Jones. An exodus of corporate partners could have a chilling effect on those donations.

That could affect the NRA’s influence on politics — in 2016, the group spent more than $54 million to help elect President Trump and other Republican candidates, Mother Jones reports. All but a few candidates who got support from the group won their elections. Fewer donations could mean less money to spend on future races.


So... here's hoping the cumulative effect of all these boycotts does do something.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby MrBond » Thu Mar 01, 2018 5:44 pm

Running Room just announced a boycott of all Camelback products.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby MrBond » Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:56 pm

"You're in over your head Donny..."

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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby daddy_runner » Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:15 am

Note that the MEC letter did not mention the NRA once.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby MrBond » Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:45 am

daddy_runner wrote:Note that the MEC letter did not mention the NRA once.


MEC is responding on behalf of its membership and shareholders, not making a direct political statement.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby daddy_runner » Fri Mar 09, 2018 11:13 am

MrBond wrote:
daddy_runner wrote:Note that the MEC letter did not mention the NRA once.


MEC is responding on behalf of its membership and shareholders, not making a direct political statement.


Its membership are the shareholders, whom they didn't directly consult. And they make direct political statements all the time.

I get the impression that the majority of people who emailed/facebooked/called in just are "OMG guns! Boycott Vista now because EVIL!" I definitely got that impression based on the Facebook messages.

The original petition was based on Vista donating money to the NRA. There was no investigation add to whether it was Vista itself that donated the money or its individual divisions. This actually makes a big difference.
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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby eme » Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:07 pm

daddy_runner wrote:
MrBond wrote:
daddy_runner wrote:Note that the MEC letter did not mention the NRA once.


MEC is responding on behalf of its membership and shareholders, not making a direct political statement.


Its membership are the shareholders, whom they didn't directly consult. And they make direct political statements all the time.

I get the impression that the majority of people who emailed/facebooked/called in just are "OMG guns! Boycott Vista now because EVIL!" I definitely got that impression based on the Facebook messages.

The original petition was based on Vista donating money to the NRA. There was no investigation add to whether it was Vista itself that donated the money or its individual divisions. This actually makes a big difference.


This. There was no formal polling of shareholders/members prior to the decision either.

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Re: Cyclists boycotting these brands...

Postby jonovision_man » Sun Mar 25, 2018 8:25 am

MEC had a big fuss a few years ago when a group of members put an Israeli boycott to a vote:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report- ... e26852082/

I'm kind of curious where this ends... I mean Phillip Morris owns Kraft and dozens of other food brands people consume every day. They also sell cigarettes, and lobby governments to help them sell more of them.

The list of companies that have "severed ties" with the NRA is impressively long.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_NRA_ ... s_involved

Here is the boycott list from the people fighting FOR guns:
http://www.2acheck.com/the-boycott-list/

No Costco or Starbucks!? Sounds awful.

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