Wind-Blox Business Practices

Wind-Blox imports a "wind and noise blocker" product that attaches to bicycle helmet straps.

They have made questionable claims or representations. Examples are documented below:

This is a desktop document.

Fabricated Claim

Wind~Blox claims to have received the 'Most Effective Wind Noise Reduction' award.

While this claim sounds impressive, there is no such award.

Fictitious Comments

Wind~Blox used fictitious names on cycling forums to promote their products (or discredit others). Below is one of many examples. When caught, moderators closed accounts, etc. On more than one occasion, IP address searches (by the moderators) established the source of the forum comments.

We appreciated being contacted by the forum moderators regarding these comments.

After getting caught, W~B may have stopped these fictitious comments.

Fake Twitter (X) Followers

Wind~Blox 'acquired' over 11,000 'fake' Twitter followers (per audit report).

After getting caught, it appears Twitter deleted >8,000 fake W~B followers.

Family / Employee Reviews

Numerous friends / family / employee product reviews. Examples are below:

"Heard the sweetest little birds chirping on my ride to work today. Thanks Wind-Blox!" - (relative)

"Works great, not 'furry' and easy to install. Terrific, look high tech (not furry). Work fine. Don't have to remove straps." - Ted Finch (VP of Marketing)

"Amazing how much more I can hear while biking. Wind-Blox work amazingly well! I'm stunned at what a difference it makes to ride using this product. I can hear SO much more." - Fajen (relative)

"I tried these and noticed a difference right away. As the instructions mention, the noise reduction is not appreciated until one takes the wind blox off. My husband also tried them, and he liked them so much he had me order some for him..." - Adventure Cycling reviewer (identified as Wind Blox)

Amazon prohibits family / employee reviews. These reviews were removed.

Wind-Blox Are 'Made In America'... Or Are They?

It appears that this "Made in America" Facebook post was intended to mislead.

In addition, Country of Origin should be clearly marked on the product / packaging.

Claiming that products made in China / Pakistan are made in America is unethical.

Country of Origin claims / marking should be CBP compliant. This post was deleted.

Fabricated Material ('Bi-directional Velcro') Claim

Unfortunately, Velcro® does not make a 'bi-directional' hook and loop product.

Velcro® aggressively protects its brand name and highest quality product reputation.

Intentionally claiming that imitation 'hook and loop' material is authentic Velcro® is wrong.

Velcro® USA contacted Wind~Blox. Claims regarding the use of Velcro® were removed.

Problematic Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel Testing Claims

Wind-Blox claims to have performed some semblance of wind tunnel testing.

"Wind-Blox patented technology is wind-tunnel tested... blocking more than 80% of wind noise"

"Wind tunnel tests were conducted at George Fox University’s School of Mechanical Engineering"

The fan noise generated by the small GFU Flotek Wind Tunnel is excessive for aeroacoustic testing.

Wind noise analysis in a test chamber with 85 dB of fan / flow noise would be virtually impossible.
The 1' x 1' test section is extremely small. It would barely fit a test head / helmet (blockage effect).
Meaningful fluid flow imagery conclusions would be difficult given the restricted flow displacement.

While wind tunnel testing sounds impressive, it's probably another unsubstantiated claim.

Wind~Blox Claims To Be "The #1 Most Effective Wind Noise Blocker"

And more specifically, they have claimed to "stop 80.2%* (25.2 dB) of bicycling wind noise".

(*Anyone who has measured wind noise knows that tenth of a percent accuracy is nonsense)

W~B recently updated their wind noise reduction claim. Dropping the 80.2% level of accuracy..

Adventure Cycling Association: "ACA's opinion is (W~B) blocks +/- up to 50% of wind noise."
According to Amazon customers, W~B noise reduction performance is rated around 3.0 (~60%).
MATLAB analysis of the W-B website audio files calculated the wind noise reduction below 60%.
The gap between the 'purported' testing by W~B and actual road-related audio files is significant.
Other testing indicates around 60%. Performance claims are higher than real-world experience.

Accurately measuring wind noise can be challenging. Overstating performance is problematic.

For accurate measurement of cycling ear wind noise, the microphone should be placed as deeply as possible within the ear canal to minimize direct wind impingement and leverage natural sound attenuation.

Given the questionable claims / representations, Wind-Blox risks disappointing their customers and damaging others in the cycling wind noise reduction industry, including industry reputation.