Megamax vs Sunkiss Masterpiece

[PadPhilosopher]

So, I’m curious, NS rep didn’t really comment on whether sunkiss is a “knockoff” version, or their perspective of the 2 diapers… with moving production to US, one thought would be that they are trying to get away from China copying their products, but since they say the China version isn’t going anywhere, that doesn’t seem to support that hypothesis, necessarily… so, wondering if there is any feedback from @NorthShoreAdam to better understand the difference in these products or if they are an attempted copy or not… understand if there may be legal reasons not to say, but if they also if they are an unapproved copy than I’m significantly more likely to not try them and encourage others not to support that either…

He said the Chinese version isn't going anywhere for awhile. But, if the US version is a hit, maybe the Chinese version will end sooner. Scaling up production of a new manufacturing line to meet demand for product can take time, so availability of the US made product will necessarily be a factor in the length of time the Chinese MegaMax continues to be available.

Chinese copying of products is a big problem, and if the product is already being made in China, it's that much easier for them. Adam is in a position where I expect he won't comment on the Sunkiss, because there's nothing he could say that wouldn't be demagogued by someone, somewhere. I think the available evidence says it is a copy, but moving production to the US was likely driven by other considerations, not the least of which was supporting the manufacturing community of the country he loves.

 

[qwertyqwerty]

Well well…. Don’t choke on your words my friends. Secrets are never public. Your biggest fears may become a reality

 

[NorthShoreAdam]

So, I’m curious, NS rep didn’t really comment on whether sunkiss is a “knockoff” version, or their perspective of the 2 diapers… with moving production to US, one thought would be that they are trying to get away from China copying their products, but since they say the China version isn’t going anywhere, that doesn’t seem to support that hypothesis, necessarily… so, wondering if there is any feedback from @NorthShoreAdam to better understand the difference in these products or if they are an attempted copy or not… understand if there may be legal reasons not to say, but if they also if they are an unapproved copy than I’m significantly more likely to not try them and encourage others not to support that either…

Sorry, nothing legal between Sunkiss and NorthShore going on. Just can't comment on Sunkiss because I have no information. You guys know much more about it than we do. It's different company, different factory, different brand. To us, it's no different than any other competing brand. As long as they don't use our trademarks or patents, they can do whatever they want. If Sunkiss provides some added value such as reduced price, better performance, etc... that's just the way the market works. We're really not interested in spending the time and money to reverse engineer Sunkiss or any other brand to see exactly what materials they use, etc... If they are using NorthShore as their target spec, then they will always be 2 or 3 years behind us. I blame Amazon more than the Chinese factory behind Sunkiss for the extra competition. Amazon has a huge team in China and they go to every factory helping them bring all these "knockoffs" onto Amazon.com to try and get lower prices on everything on Amazon.

Regarding the China vs USA question...of course, all else being equal, we'd prefer everything be made in USA. Options are very limited though for high quality diaper manufacturing in the USA. The pandemic was a huge challenge for all brands, and it showed everyone that producing everything overseas is too risky and can be much more costly sometimes too. Throw in the politics of trade wars, tariffs, real wars, climate change, etc... and now producing in North America becomes more attractive for the whole supply chain. We're just getting started with our USA production, so it could take many years to move over all our production to the USA which is why I said the Chinese versions aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Unless there's another crisis or spike in tariffs or other costs, we'd prefer to launch some new features as we scale up production instead of spending all our time and money relaunching every diaper that is already made in China. The good news is that after 3 long years of planning, we now have more options than before to keep our brand growing by listening to the needs of our customers...which is what will always make us different than brands like Sunkiss.

 

[PadPhilosopher]

Sorry, nothing legal between Sunkiss and NorthShore going on. Just can't comment on Sunkiss because I have no information. You guys know much more about it than we do. It's different company, different factory, different brand. To us, it's no different than any other competing brand. As long as they don't use our trademarks or patents, they can do whatever they want. If Sunkiss provides some added value such as reduced price, better performance, etc... that's just the way the market works. We're really not interested in spending the time and money to reverse engineer Sunkiss or any other brand to see exactly what materials they use, etc... If they are using NorthShore as their target spec, then they will always be 2 or 3 years behind us. I blame Amazon more than the Chinese factory behind Sunkiss for the extra competition. Amazon has a huge team in China and they go to every factory helping them bring all these "knockoffs" onto Amazon.com to try and get lower prices on everything on Amazon.

Regarding the China vs USA question...of course, all else being equal, we'd prefer everything be made in USA. Options are very limited though for high quality diaper manufacturing in the USA. The pandemic was a huge challenge for all brands, and it showed everyone that producing everything overseas is too risky and can be much more costly sometimes too. Throw in the politics of trade wars, tariffs, real wars, climate change, etc... and now producing in North America becomes more attractive for the whole supply chain. We're just getting started with our USA production, so it could take many years to move over all our production to the USA which is why I said the Chinese versions aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Unless there's another crisis or spike in tariffs or other costs, we'd prefer to launch some new features as we scale up production instead of spending all our time and money relaunching every diaper that is already made in China. The good news is that after 3 long years of planning, we now have more options than before to keep our brand growing by listening to the needs of our customers...which is what will always make us different than brands like Sunkiss.

Well said, and great to hear! Thank you for reinforcing my decision years ago to not give scAmazon any money ever. It's so nice to hear the graciousness and foresight you show.

 

[Diaperman95]

Sorry, nothing legal between Sunkiss and NorthShore going on. Just can't comment on Sunkiss because I have no information. You guys know much more about it than we do. It's different company, different factory, different brand. To us, it's no different than any other competing brand. As long as they don't use our trademarks or patents, they can do whatever they want. If Sunkiss provides some added value such as reduced price, better performance, etc... that's just the way the market works. We're really not interested in spending the time and money to reverse engineer Sunkiss or any other brand to see exactly what materials they use, etc... If they are using NorthShore as their target spec, then they will always be 2 or 3 years behind us. I blame Amazon more than the Chinese factory behind Sunkiss for the extra competition. Amazon has a huge team in China and they go to every factory helping them bring all these "knockoffs" onto Amazon.com to try and get lower prices on everything on Amazon.

Regarding the China vs USA question...of course, all else being equal, we'd prefer everything be made in USA. Options are very limited though for high quality diaper manufacturing in the USA. The pandemic was a huge challenge for all brands, and it showed everyone that producing everything overseas is too risky and can be much more costly sometimes too. Throw in the politics of trade wars, tariffs, real wars, climate change, etc... and now producing in North America becomes more attractive for the whole supply chain. We're just getting started with our USA production, so it could take many years to move over all our production to the USA which is why I said the Chinese versions aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Unless there's another crisis or spike in tariffs or other costs, we'd prefer to launch some new features as we scale up production instead of spending all our time and money relaunching every diaper that is already made in China. The good news is that after 3 long years of planning, we now have more options than before to keep our brand growing by listening to the needs of our customers...which is what will always make us different than brands like Sunkiss.

Adam I am so very happy for you and your team. You guys knocked this one out of the park. I love the softer plastic. Almost as soft as the vintage Attends from the 90's. This had to been a huge undertaking to get set up and source all the products. Then you pay a decent wage to your employees and have to pay into their SS and stuff, plus shipping all your raw material in. But.. you still managed to do all of that and keep the prices comparable to China, where the average factory worker makes CNY 58k a year or equal to $8013 US Dollars!
I agree Amazon has done that to about every product made and it is wrong. People in the US had best wake up. We would be hurting pretty good in this country if supplies and money stopped coming in from China. We have ran off all of our American made and proud companies. I would much rather pay the extra ten bucks for Mega Max. Your product alone is worth every red cent!!... But your customer service is second to nobody in the incontinent industry. I have tried almost all the med supply companies out there and none of the have customer service like NorthShore. The free samples you mail to anyone that require them & the ones you stuff in peoples cases every 2 o4 3 months of other product to try. All of that is far worth more than 10 bucks a case.

I just got my samples you sent me today and I ordered a case on my monthly order. I will be contacting you and Julie in me next couple days from my personal email to give you all of my real world thoughts after sleeping in them and wearing them a few days. I will have to break one in at the bowling alley this weekend. Lol Anyway I just wanted to say thank you for all that you do for the Incontinent people in this world. You are moving mountains in changing the landscape of the industry. You are the platinum gold standard of what incontinent company should be... You are the gold standard of what American made and American pride. I see many great things in NorthShores future!

If you get around to doing new colors I would love to see a pastel blue or green. I started out on the old vintage depends before they even had leak guards. They was that light pastel green. It is always good to have white but it gets boring sometimes!

 

[mdogg]

Hoping to launch at least one new color in early 2025 an additional color and/or print about every 6 months after that.

Size Small will be ready in May 2024, but XS, 2XL and 3XL are planned for 2025-2026.

Hey NorthShoreAdam, regarding those 2xl and 3xl sizes coming, in the past its been understood that to make those 2xl sizes they have to glue on those horrible hook and loop "adapter" strap things to essentially an XL sized Megamax diaper shell. Any chance with these now being made in the USA they could increase the plastic backsheet size to be a "true" 2xl size with conventional tabs? (Like made with those amazing tapes that are on the smaller sizes)? Side sleeping sucks with those...

I guess I was burned on the first version of your 2xl tapes, and the newer version ones are a tad better but still manage to snag on things overnight, resulting in leaks, separation and such. If you cannot increase the back sheet size, can you at least find a way to add the adhesive tab portion onto the ends of those stretchy adapters? Like the Air Locks- you nailed those! (too bad they don't have the same capacity as a 12 hour megamax but boosters help). Just would love to hear some thoughts if this is possible.

Everything else is perfect about the Megamax- especially the waistbands, the leg gathers and the leak guards- so I hope the USA ones didn't mess around with those any. Thanks for being there for all types and sizes of this community!

 

[LeifErikson]

After being very satisfied with the USA MM, I decided to try the lite version. Will follow up with my experience, so far, just as pleased with this product! As always, Northshore is nailing it.

 

[Traveler]

Northshore has always been an amazing company. I've been a Megamax fan since the beginning, and am discovering their other other products work really well thanks to their commitment to samples with most purchases. I'm excited to see what they can produce domestically. Especially excited to see the new colors and visuals that Adam hinted at. If you guys are reading this, I for one would love a printed cover but with more mature patterns or imagery. I love the tie-dye but wow is it flashy!

 

[Diaperman95]

Northshore has always been an amazing company. I've been a Megamax fan since the beginning, and am discovering their other other products work really well thanks to their commitment to samples with most purchases. I'm excited to see what they can produce domestically. Especially excited to see the new colors and visuals that Adam hinted at. If you guys are reading this, I for one would love a printed cover but with more mature patterns or imagery. I love the tie-dye but wow is it flashy!

I want a pastel green and blue. Like trest has

 

[LeifErikson]

After being very satisfied with the USA MM, I decided to try the lite version. Will follow up with my experience, so far, just as pleased with this product! As always, Northshore is nailing it.

Another fantastic product! About half the bulk and capacity of the full MM as you’d expect. Will be adding these to the rotation for sure

 

[Traveler]

I want a pastel green and blue. Like trest has

That would be awesome. I can't wait to try the Lite's and I hope they get new colors. I usually wear the black Megamax and am wearing the black GoSupreme's lately too. Some day I hope to see an olive green diaper on the market.