Wind-Blox Business Practices

Wind-Blox (E&M Enterprises, LLC) 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 made a number of questionable claims and / or representations.  Examples are documented below: 

Fabricated Claim

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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

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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, and / 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 '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

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Numerous friends / family / employee product reviews.  Several examples are below:

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

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

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"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 (relative)

After getting caught, many prohibited reviews were removed from Amazon.

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 Health Foundation

After getting caught, W~B amended the misleading HHF endorsement claim.

Misleading 'Velcro®' Brand Trademark Use

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

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Velcro® protects its trademark when a company uses a non Velcro® product.

After getting caught, W~B removed the misleading 'Velcro®' brand 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.

Problematic Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel Testing Claim

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Wind-Blox originally implied that they performed aero-acoustic wind tunnel testing.

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

Unfortunately, the fan noise produced by the small Flotek wind tunnel is excessive for acoustic testing.

• Performing aeroacoustic 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 / helmet (blockage effect).

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

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

• An understanding of aero-acoustic noise is absolutely critical for interpreting any fluid flow imagery.

While wind tunnel testing sounds impressive, the W~B testing and conclusions are problematic.

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

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