Wind-Blox Business Practices

Wind-Blox makes a 'wind and noise blocker' product that attaches to the leading straps on a cycling helmet and, as the name suggests, the product 'blocks wind'.  Introduced a year after Cat-Ears, Wind-Blox has a long history of making false and misleading claims.  Some examples are noted below: 

• Fabricated Claims

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

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

• Fictitious Comments

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

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

• Fake Twitter Followers

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Wind-Blox purchased over 11,000 'fake' Twitter followers.  A form of social media fraud.

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

• Friends / Family Reviews

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Numerous friends and family (and re-seller) product reviews:

“The new Wind-Blox Pro is a welcome addition to my kit.” - Tyler Gilmore (family friend)

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

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Amazon Review: "Works great, not 'furry' and easy to install. Terrific, look high tech (not furry). Work fine.

Don't have to remove straps." -  Ted Finch (purported VP, Marketing for Wind-Blox)

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"The new design of the Wind-Blox Pro made riding safer and more stylish as the product became easier to use." 

- Tyler G. (another review by the same family friend)

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Amazon Review: "I have about a 12 mile ride to work that I take 2-3 times a week. I purchased these wind-blox

and put them on my helmet. Now... I can hear much better. Very helpful." - relation name withheld

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Amazon Review: "Amazing how much more I 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." - Ben L. Fajen (brother of Wind-Blox CEO)

After getting caught, it appears Amazon may have deleted some these reviews.  

• Paid Product 'Endorsements'

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 Wind-Blox: "The Hearing Health Foundation chose Wind-Blox and featured us as an 'Editor's Choice'"

According to the HH Foundation, the claimed 'endorsement' was actually a paid advertisement.

"Thank you for bringing this advertisement to our attention.  "We will reach out to Wind-Blox to ask that they remove or amend their wording as it is misleading." - Hearing Healh Foundation

After getting caught, W~B corrected the blatantly misleading endorsement claim.

• Misleading Use of the 'Velcro® Brand' Name

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Wind-Blox: "The bi-directional Velcro closure takes seconds to attach"

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Velcro® aggressively protects its brand name when a company utilizes imitation materials.

After getting caught, W~B reworded the more obvious 'Velcro®' closure references.

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

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It appears that the "Made in America" Facebook claim was intended to mislead consumers.

After getting caught, W~B deleted the 'Made in America' claim on their Facebook page.

• Fictitious Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel Testing Claim

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Wind-Blox originally claimed that they performed aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel tests.

Unfortunately, the small and loud Flotek Wind Tunnel (#1440) is not suitable for aeroacoustic testing:

• Performing aero-acoustic analysis in a test chamber with 85 dB of fan / flow noise would be difficult.  

• The 1' x 1' test section (fixed walls) is small. It would barely fit a test head or helmet (blockage effect).

• Open-jet wind tunnels are typically used for aero-acoustic testing since fixed walls can reflect sound. 

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Revised claim: "Because fan noise is significant, only the fluid flow imagery was observed in the wind tunnel". 

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• Accurate 'fluid flow imagery' observations would be difficult due to the restricted flow displacement. 

• An understanding / measurement of aeroacoustic noise is critical for interpreting fluid flow imagery.

After getting caught, W~B made a correction on their website / removed the claim on Amazon.

• Endless False / Misleading Advertising (e.g. Facebook)

In our opinion, making false / misleading claims for self enrichment is wrong.

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