Jul 07 The Pirates of China

There have been many forum and blog posts about a Chinese company claiming to be an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) of Letus products. There is a lot of mis-information being propagated by this company and by others not fully informed. We have gone back and forth on whether we should even address this as we do not want to further advertise this knock-off company. Due to their increased efforts to spread false propaganda, we felt it was important to make this post.

In attempt to to make things more clear as to what exactly is going on, I asked Hien, the owner and originator of Letus, to give me a detailed break down. Below is a paraphrased version of what he provided. For our official “corporate” release, you can view that here.

Official statement from Hien Le, owner of Letus Corporation (paraphrased by Aaron Pinto on behalf of Hien).

Letus was started out of a garage in Portland, Oregon in 2004 by engineering brothers Hien and Quyen Le. The original adapters were milled out of plastic and when we approached our CNC guy here in Portland to see if they would build aluminum casings, he said it could not be done and still be profitable. After talking to some other US based CNC shops and getting a similar response, we began looking elsewhere.

During this time, we began researching a new prism design for our 35mm adapters to use in place of the mirrors. We found a company in Baoying, China who built prisms like we needed so we asked them to produce a sample. We found that while it functioned ok, we didn’t like the quality so we asked them to change the glass material to the same Leica was using (since this company was already producing lenses for Leica at that time). We also asked them to do a proprietary multi-coating of the optics versus the simple anti-reflection coating all of our competitors used in their adapters. This produced an amazing optical component and is where Letus really started to shine.

We finalized the optical designs and sent them part specifications to produce. They shipped everything here to Oregon where Quyen and I would do all of the assembly and testing. It took us 4-8 hours per adapter (the Extreme at that time) to build. Over the next year we were seemingly constantly making design tweaks. We personally babysat the entire process to insure the Extreme far outperform it’s predecessor, the Flip Enhanced.

With the optics dialed in, we needed to find someone to build the adapter casing for us since our US based shop could not handle the sheer volume of production. This is when we started working with a company in China called Trust O&E. They said they would be able to deliver the quantity needed at the level of quality we demanded. And they did. But this was a path we would soon find to be fraught with danger.

Trust O&E was able to keep up with production demand (and quality for the most part) on our adapter casings. We sent them a few other parts to spec since our CNC shops in Portland continued to have trouble keeping up with demand. Things appeared to be going smoothly so we decided to give them a shot at production of relay lenses which we had just completed design of. After months of waiting we received our much anticipated shipment of lenses. They were awful. We cut them off completely on that front and moved the relay lens production to Japan where they were able to deliver a far superior product worthy of the Letus name.

That little relay lens venture cost us over a million dollars in R&D and almost 10 months of lost time since we had to start over. In the end we were able to deliver a quality product but it certainly learned our lesson in trusting Trust O&E with such a high end product.

It was about this time when we started getting demand from our customers for DSLR accessories. We developed an entire line of gear over a few months time (the Talon and Hawk lines). After this blitz of design work, we wanted to get it all in production as fast as possible. Our Portland shops could only handle a fraction of the work load we had so we, once again (and regrettably) turned to Trust O&E to see if they could help with the demand.

We sent them our CAD files and asked them to spec and quote everything for us. This included the entire DSLR product lineup including the then, very, very early prototype design of our much anticipated follow focus. When we saw the dramatic decrease in quality, we decided to move manufacturing to a friend of mine who runs a shop in Vietnam. When Trust O&E saw that we would not be providing them with any work, they asked if they could build and sell our products to the Chinese market. I gave them a very definite “NO” and at that point, decided to cut all ties with Trust O&E.

The company we dealt with was Trust O&E Instrument which is officially owned by a guy in US but run by John Lee, who is in China. John Lee, I believe,
went on and established the company called Trusmt. We had nothing to do with Trusmt. We did not authorize him to sell any of our products. The products Trusmt is selling are sub-par counterfeits generated from stolen prototype CAD files. They are no where near the level of quality a genuine Letus product and are considered “stolen” from us.

We do not deny the fact that some parts of Letus products were manufactured in China. Quality control and final assembly has always been maintained by the team here in Oregon. We design, test, and assemble all Letus products in our Portland office.

If you have ever seen the original Letus35a or Letus Flip Enhanced,  you know how far Letus has come since that  first batch of adapters. We have worked extremely hard to build our name and reputation and now Trusmt has stolen our designs and is making false claims to imply they are offering that same level of workmanship. Trusmt did NOT invest in R&D. They did not build personal relationships with 1,000′s of customers around the world. They did not even design the products they so blatantly market to un-suspecting customers.

I am all for co-existing with innovators and manufacturers like Zacuto, RedRock, Cinevate, Jag35, and other respectable companies of the like. To simply steal someone’s investment in R&D and market it as your own is simply wrong.

It is important to remember that the source CAD files Trusmt is using for these products are early prototype designs. First drafts that weren’t meant to go into full production. They were designed for proof-of-concept products. Trusmt is offering low prices on low quality products. Products that they spent no money on developing. They simply acquired CAD files illegally and went to town.

We are taking legal action to protect our patents. We hope that in educating potential Trusmt customers about this situation we can save them from some headaches.

Right now all of our products are machined in Portland, Oregon or at my friends shop in Vietnam (except the relay lenses which are made in Japan). The friend I work with in Vietnam shares a passion for the impoverished people of the country. Having our Letus products machined there helps fund projects to feed and clothe less privileged people in that country. A large portion of profits earned by Letus are donated to help those in need. Giving business to a a CNC shop holding the same beliefs is very important to me.

-Hien Le

This is a personal account directly from Hien. It is important to remember that Letus is a small, family owned company based here in the United States. We are not a huge corporate machine with a staff of 1,000′s and a team of lawyers waiting to pounce on those infringing on patents. When a company like Trusmt comes along and flat out steals our hard work in research and development, it hurts us as a company. Letus was founded on honesty and integrity. We are fully committed to customer satisfaction and stand behind our products 100%. We try to bring quality products to market at a price that makes sense. We have a passion for what we do and we hope that it shows in the products we offer.

We are not perfect but we certainly strive for it. If there is anything you feel we can do better, please do not hesitate to email or call us. Feedback from the end user is our most valuable resource and we appreciate everyone who takes the time to provide it.