subspaceto:

Torture Garden Toronto 2012 

EGO-ASSASSIN / KINK ENGINEERING

The sleek, subversive high-style of ego assassin and the unbounded creativity of Kink Engineering combine to bring you into the world of futuristic underground bloodsport; where the anonymous super-elite stake fortunes on the lives of post-apocalyptic gladiators.

www.torturegardentoronto.com

Oh yeah… We’re working on this too…

(via archeanuniverse)

OoooOOOoooohhh!  Nice.  Visit FDL Latex’s store on Etsy here.

fdllatex:

New Unisex Latex Shirt Collar.

Available on Etsy.

I know… it’s not latex… but it IS AWESOME!!!

Check out Artifice Clothing if you want wicked PVC.

(via Nude PVC with pale green glowing trim pushup by ArtificeClothing)

MORE PRIZES FOR OUR PARTY!

Vital Vein Fashion sent us a $50 gift card to give away at the party!  Archean is modelling some Vital Vein Accessories in the photo… great stuff!

We are giving away a bunch of gift certificates to Kink Engineering/Sheetlatex.com and there are some other prizes from toronto’s latex scene.   Above and beyond that, it’ll be a wicked fun party!!!

Reminder, the party is only 2 days away (Feb 19th - Sunday night of a long weekend here in Toronto).  Tickets on sale online until Saturday at Midnight for $25.  After that you can buy them at the door for $30.

Adala latex fashion show was AMAZING!!!

Here’s our steam punk latex pasties!  Finally on the store.  I’ll have more designs coming soon, and a nipple shield version of the gear pasties too!

Steampunk Gear Overlay Latex Pasties (Pair) - $35

knockoffknockdown:

Kübler-Ross model of Liars and Thieves

If you are going to spend time on the internet searching out intelectual property and design theves (like we do here at Knockoff Knockdown) it’s worth knowing what you will be facing once you find one and post something about them or open up disputes with their providers (Ebay, Paypal, etc)

Stage 1: Denial  

• “I’m innocent” 
• “I didn’t know”  
• “My distributor gave me the photo” 
• “I don’t make the products, I just re-sell them”

To be fair, the person COULD be telling the truth here.  They may actually have been unknowingly using a photo without permission, or their supplier may not have informed them that they produce knock-off products.

I make it a policy to give people an out at this point.  You can’t let someone off the hook for naivete but you do have an opportunity to get hold of a supplier who has ripped you off.  

Anyone who legitimately has been duped by their supplier or a 3rd party will 1) Apologize 2) Stop the offending behavior and most importantly 3) Give you information about the offending supplier… because you have an issue with the supplier, not the re-seller at this point.   If they do that - no problem for them, and you’ve got a better blog post to replace the one you’ll take down.

Things you can do as the person posting/dealing with the transgressor:  Be polite, give them ample opportunity to get out of trouble by removing offending material and giving you information about where the material came from.  But don’t let them off scot free.

However, it is very seldom that anyone says “Oh my god! I didn’t realize… I’m so sorry and it’ll never happen again”  They are much more likely to speed on to…

Stage 2: Anger

• “How dare you imply that I am a thief!”
• “You are ruining my livelihood!” 
• “You are slandering my name!”

So… no further information comes out about this mythical 3rd party that was the actual wrongdoer. At this point they try to shift the conversation away from that issue by going on the moral offensive.  They will try to make you feel bad about telling the truth about what’s going on.

It is important again to stay calm and be polite.  Don’t engage in name calling, or get into a heated debate.  Simply state that you are sorry if the person’s theft of your property has negatively impacted their reputation or business.  Keep in mind that they brought this upon themselves, and that if they are not to blame, they should pass on information about the person who is.

Usually, again, no more information will come forward about the mythical 3rd party, instead they will move on to…

Stage 3: Aggression

• “I will sue you for defamation of character” or more amusingly “deformation[sic] of character”
• “I have contacted the police”
• “I have contacted Ebay/Paypal/Etc and will have YOU shut down”
• “I have contacted my lawyer”

In the wonderful words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic!

This is a very common approach.  Instead of admitting any wrong-doing or giving up, people will often open a can of crazy at this point and try to scare you into going away.   These threats are idle 99.8% of the time.   No sane person will A) Expose themselves to law enforcement if they have done something wrong in the first place B) Let things go this far if they have not actually done something wrong or C) Take on the financial drain of any sort of legal persuit over what is usually a small thing.

It’s also worth a good read of Libel/Slander and Defamation law (wiki link - check your country’s particular laws to be sure of regional details).   The most important part of most libel/slander law is that you cannot Libel or Slander someone with words, images or ideas that are TRUE.  If you have a screen capture of the person’s site showing that they are using unauthorized photos - you are merely reporting on their business practices (poor) and providing valuable consumer advice (avoid them).   Any adverse effects of your reporting are actually caused by their business practice (or lack of proper research into who they are being supplied by) not by your blog post, article or tweet.

They may also, in a fit of masochistic moral outrage, remove their own store (probably because your readers have noticed them and are starting to re-blog, email questions to them and otherwise notice their bad business practices) and claim that this is somehow your fault.  So they add damages and loss of income to their list of lawsuit fodder.   Sometimes they will go as far as to claim emotional damages, medical costs (?) and a host of other interesting and unique mumbo-jumbo.

If people could be sued for writing the truth about things that are unpalatable than every movie critic and political journalist would be behind bars.  

Things you can do: Politely ask them to have law enforcement contact you directly.  DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION - you can wait for the real police to give you a call/email… I assure you that if it gets to the police they’ll contact you, and be reasonable, thoughtful and (most likely) on your side.  Your personal details can be found by the police without the need for you to give your info to a person who is behaving badly.   Giving personal information to an angry and arguably less than morally motivated individual is just asking for a load of harassment.

Also keep in mind that law enforcement is a busy job.  In the 0.2% of cases that actually get brought to them by the people you exposed, 99% of those will simply be laughed at by police/lawyers and told to go home.

If police or a (legitimate) lawyer contacts you that’s probably the time to give in and remove your blog post.  Just double check that the lawyer actually exists.  There have been cases of angry and offended parties going as far as to create straw man (fake) lawyers.  Why not?  Lies begat lies.

At this point you should also cut off all communications with this person as they have proved themselves to be willing to go the distance in terms of trying to push your buttons.  They are angry and the only thing that will calm them down is to stop answering their emails.  Like a fly battering against a window, they’ll eventually tire themselves out and stop.  It’s an annoying noise for a while, but not forever.  

I recommend that you set their email to be re-directed to a folder in your email that you don’t check.   Keep them for evidence if legal action is required - they have probably threatened you and otherwise behaved badly enough to seriously damage any sort of case they try to drum up.  Stop replying, stop reading and send one last email back explaining your lack of further response.  State that you will only speak to law enforcement/lawyer at this point and NEVER SPEAK DIRECTLY TO THEM AGAIN.

With no meansleft to contact/annoy you they may be truly angry enough to ramble on to…

Stage 4: Desperation (Flailing around the internet)

• Posting B.S. about you
• Contacting re-bloggers of your post and claiming that they are in danger of legal action
• Seeking ways to “get back at you”
• Spitting fury in all directions

This is certainly an annoying, but usually short lived last gasp at the whole process.  You’ll probably have some people who re-blogged your article freak out and delete their post when they get a message/email from a very angry person implying that they are somehow at risk of legal action.  

If you get emails from your re-bloggers freaking out, please feel free to direct them to this article so they can see what is going on.   Note that they are not in the path of ANY legal action… should it even exist… which it will not.

If they start putting up unfounded negative reviews of your products or business practices, you’ll most likely have lots of your actual fans come to your defence and you’ll get 10:1 good reviews (and probably a lot of “what’s wrong with this guy” comments).  This is a really good reason for having an open policy of good customer service, quality products and generally moral behaviour.

Keep in mind that the openness of the internet tends to let truth shine through.  So if you have been acting in a morally respectable way, you’re going to be more respected at large.  As much as the internet seems to be a place full of trolls and madmen, there are MORE sane, reasonable and level headed people out there and some of them will come to your defence if people are spouting B.S. about you.

It’s also worth pointing out that at this point the offending party ARE committing acts of libel.  They are spreading falsehoods about you/your business.  So for starters that negates any legal action they wanted to take, and if you have the resources, opens themselves up to actual legal action. (Further, had they contacted a lawyer as some claim to do, they would have been advised to sever communications with you long ago)

Finally they’ll get tired of spending all their time attacking you and anyone they can find and realize that they are not working at earning an income (it’s emotionally tolling, unpaid labour attacking all the time) and they’ll move on to…

Stage 5: Fizzle

Finally they’ll go away.   They’ll likely just go back to exactly what they were doing before (ripping people off, stealing photos, knocking off designs and otherwise being reprehensible) but now with a lot more google hits for “their site + knock-off”.   So they’re going to have a harder time duping informed consumers. Mission accomplished.

They may (if they are smart) kill their original store and start anew.  But then, at least you’ve knocked them back to the beginning, and they’ll have to build up their rep from scratch.  Mission accomplished.

Or maybe even finally give you that 3rd party that’s the “one armed man” of the whole adventure.  In which case there should always be an apology, post removal and a renewed investigation into who is really stealing your stuff. Mission revised.

Final Notes: Things to keep in mind when going after people who are ripping you off.

You do want to avoid inflamitory language “Get him”, “attack”, “war”, and various name calling don’t help your case.  I have to admit that it’s hard not to made this mistake.  I have certainly let my emotions get the better of me in the past.  

In this situation you are, understandibly, angry at someone who is stealing from you.  If you do make statements that are harsh, biased, or have offensive language - you should remove them if brought to your attention, or if you re-read your own post after a bit of cool down time (self edit after a cup of tea or a nap).  That’s fair.  However it is better to avoid giving people this option of saying that you were calling people to action to assault, or hate-speech.  Just stick to the facts.

Don’t be afraid.  It’s hard not to get some physical stress indicators when someone states that they are going to sick the law on you. This is especially hard the first time (I’m old hat at this now).  You’ll feel your chest tighten, heart rate will rise and you’ll want to run.  That’s normal fight/flight reaction.

Keep in mind that law enforcement agents are not in the job of hunting down people involved in internet squabbles and jailing/fining them. Especially when you have not broken any laws.  If they contact you they will be polite, educated, and will listen to your side of the story.   In the end they will probably ask you to take down your post to just settle the issue - which at that point you should.   As always, be polite, calm and factual.  Remember to keep hold of those screen captures of the offence that started this whole ball of wax rolling.

A good metaphor for this is a car thief trying to hire a lawyer to prosecute you for removal of their source of income because you parked your car inside your garrage and thus removed their access to steal it.  A lawyer will politely tell them to go away, and the police will politely ask them to step into a cell.

So far we have had 3 different sites taken down/shut down - and several people go through this whole agressive jumble.  Once you know what to expect - it becomes just another topic of convesation in the workshop while we go about our day, building a buisiness that cares about our customers and the quality of our products.

Thanks again to all of you out there who have helped to report knock-off retailers.   We’re super happy that this blog is starting to get traction and actually get some results.  There are a lot of people out there who are trying the old bait and switch sales technique, and it’s just plain wrong.

Cheers,
Matt - Knockoff Knockdown/Kink Engineering 

For reference: The Kübler-Ross model is commonly known as The Five Stages of Grief - The stages are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

Photo Credit: http://www.motifake.com <— a great source of de-motivational posters.

A custom Latex Zentai Hood we made for www.kinkystyle.net - Featuring a circuit board pattern etched into the silver latex.

Reminder: Our latex party is Feb 19th in Toronto - Get tickets now and you could win our door prize (A VACBED!)

FEATURE ARTICLE ON ARCHEAN - MISS RUBBER WORLD 2011

From www.scene-mag.com - NOTE: Photo gallery of Archean in some AWESOME latex included in the article, so do click through to the original website.

Scene-Mag.com: Archean is Miss Rubber World 2011. She’s one of the co-founders of Kink Engineering, a latex bondage device company most famous for vacbeds, and Sheetlatex.com – their affiliate latex sheeting company.  She’s been working full-time in the latex industry for two years. Apart from her involvement in Kink Engineering, Archean dabbles in modeling, blogging and event organization. Her second annual all-latex event – WET  – will be held in Toronto on February 19th.  She’s a nerd at heart, with a master’s degree in Engineering and a not-so-secret desire to run around in a cape and tights.

SM: What is The Miss Rubber World Contest?
A: The Miss Rubber World competition is an annual event that takes place in New York City every winter (Miss Rubber World 2012 is March 24th).  It’s essentially a showcase of some of the best and most up and coming talent the fetish industry has to offer. Past contestants and winners have included Jean Bardot, Jade Vixen and Dawnamatrix. There are three legs of the competition – an introduction and walk-off, where contestants aim to have the most impressive outfits, a question/answer period which allows contestants to vocalize their passion for rubber and a 5-minute “fantasy scene” which can be any number of things, but should highlight what you love most about rubber. My fantasy performance used an upright vacbed as a prop for a magic trick, and symbolized my foray into the world of latex fetishism.

SM: How did you get involved in this organization?
A: I originally heard about the competition in 2008 when I was interning at Ego Assassin – a Toronto-based latex designer. They were designing a catsuit for Dawnamatrix (who came in 2nd that year to Jean Bardot) and one of the designers started telling me about the competition. I was definitely intrigued and very tempted by the prize pool! The original plan was to run in 2010, but I was finishing up school at the time, so I put the competition on hold until 2011. I actually started preparing for the event five months in advance, and I think I pretty much came out of left field. I didn’t know anyone involved in the competition, save Dawnamatrix who I had met a few months prior at the Montreal Fetish Weekend. I guess the hard work paid off, since I took the crown in 2011!

SM: IF you could only have three things in your purse at a time what would they be and why?
A:  That’s tough because my purse is really large and tends to attract a lot of junk. I’m a fairly practical person though, so I’d say my wallet, my phone and a pair of sunglasses in the summer or a pair of gloves in the winter. At the heart of it, I’m a sucker for comfort!

SM: Before you became Miss Rubber World, what was the most exciting thing you had done?
A:  I’ve been really fortunate to have traveled quite a bit in my teenage years, and I used to be really into skydiving. I’d say the most exciting thing I had done before this year would have been a particular skydive called a “rodeo” where I rode on a friend’s back during freefall, like you would ride a horse, for about 7,000 feet. I’ve since given up skydiving due to a lack of time, but have replaced it with fun and exciting things like trips to House of Gord – where I got turned into a weather vane on his roof, and tied upside-down to the front of his truck. Funny thing is, I really wouldn’t describe myself as a thrill seeker. Just an opportunist, I guess.

SM: What are the 5 most important things you would include in your things-to-do list?
A: Go to Kink In the Caribbean. Get something made out of leopard print latex. Buckle down on the business and grow Kink Engineering as much as possible. Blog more. Grow the Toronto latex community.

SM: What is your favorite breakfast?
A:  Waffles! But I’m celiac, so I can’t really eat them without getting sick. (Still haven’t found a good gluten-free recipe, despite my best efforts)

SM: Is there anything that you wanted to do in your life but never actually did? If yes, what?
A: I’ve always wanted to teach English in a foreign country – Japan or Thailand are at the top of my list. Unfortunately I just can’t see myself finding the time to do it. I was planning on leaving after finishing my graduate degree, but the unexpected success of Kink Engineering kept me in Toronto working on the business full time. Ultimately I’m better off staying here – I love my job, especially the ability to work from home with my boyfriend and two cats! Hopefully I’ll get to Japan and Thailand some day, but it will likely just be as a tourist instead of a teacher.

SM: If you were to change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
A:  Apart from hitting the gym all the time to get in better shape, I’m working on not getting so stressed out all the time. I take work a little too seriously and can get a bit neurotic and obsessive trying to make sure that orders get done on time!

SM: If you were to get an opportunity to live anywhere in the world, which part of the world would you choose?
A: Paris.  No question. I fell in love with the city when I was ten. I’m fluent in french and fashion obsessed. I love the food, and the culture, and have some family in France so it wouldn’t be too difficult a transition. I also love New York City, but wouldn’t want to live in the US. I’m a Canadian snob through and through – I love my free healthcare!

SM: What do you appreciate most about being Miss Rubber World?
A:  Being Miss Rubber World is what I make of it. The general guidelines were “promote the latex community”… and that was all. My take on that has been to launch a latex fashion-advice website called “The Latex Closet“, which focuses on empowering latex lovers. I’ve noticed that the typical response to latex clothing has been “I wish I could wear something like that!”. Fact is, most people can pull off latex really well… they just don’t see any examples of full-bodied models wearing latex gear.  I aim to provide those examples, as well as tips on what garments work best for certain body types. I’m also working on promoting latex at my home-base in Toronto. Each year we throw a big all-latex party – this year’s party is called WET and will be a mid-winter pool party happening on February 19th (heated pools, of course!).

SM: Where do you see yourself in 15 years?
A:  Still working for Kink Engineering, although in a less hands-on way. I’d like to grow the business enough to be able to travel and promote about half of the time and oversee production the other half. Right now it’s a small business, so it’s still mostly my boyfriend and I (and a few employees) doing all of the admin and production.

SM: What has been your hardest challenge to overcome either in your personal life or competing career?
A:  Definitely body image issues. I’ve got broad hips and small breasts, which makes my body look off-balance. It took me a long time to realize that I’ll never have a supermodel body, or a very successful modeling career, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling beautiful or from rocking all kinds of latex outfits!

SM: What is the greatest struggle that you have overcome and how did it help you grow?
A:  Finding the courage to jump all-in with the business. Having an engineering degree has given me the skills I needed to be a really diligent worker, but it was difficult to overcome the nagging sensation that if Kink Engineering didn’t work out, it would look really bad on a resume. Making the leap into the fetish business full-time felt like a future career killer, and any startup business is always a risk! Ultimately, I’m really glad that I took the leap. The more I look at what we’ve accomplished with Kink Engineering, the happier I am with my chosen career path. It really wasn’t until I went all-in with the business that we could start growing, or that I could even show my face online – which means I could have never won Miss Rubber World without making that commitment.

SM: What have you learned about most while having the Reign of Miss Rubber World?
A: It’s really easy to make a difference in the latex community, you just have to be willing to open up and find time for as many new people as possible. There’s also never been a better time to get into latex! The media is eating it up right now, with celebrities dressing in latex on a daily basis and seeing it on TV shows like American Horror story… it’s more accessible than ever. Not to mention the sheer amount of designers out there! I made a point this year of learning about as many new designers as possible so that I could be a resource to the community. Seems like there are new and amazing designers springing up every week!

SM: What will you miss most about being Miss Rubber World?
A: Being referred to as Her Rubbery Highness. I make everyone call me that. Okay, seriously? The amazing opportunities that the title has afforded me. Although I’ll always be Miss Rubber World 2011!

SM: The fetish fashion industry is a very competitive world, how do you stay competitive?
A: I’m really lucky to have carved out a niche for myself. Kink Engineering and Sheet Latex don’t have too many competitors, and have a pretty good reputation for quality and customer service… so when people want latex bondage devices, we’re one of a handful of reputable manufacturers. As for my other projects – I only model and blog for fun, so there’s very little pressure to generate income from my side projects. It’s a pretty good position to be in, which is funny because when we started we didn’t figured that having very little fashion pattern drafting experience would be detrimental to our business. In reality, it forced us to develop mostly bondage equipment, which is still a fairly niche market.

SM: How do you see the future when it comes to Rubber and Latex fashion?
A: I don’t think that rubber will ever be mainstream. It’s quite difficult to wear, in that it doesn’t breathe and can tear easily. It also has to be hand-crafted, so it will always be expensive. What I do see as the future of latex fashion is that it will become more acceptable to wear in public (I wear my latex dresses out to vanilla clubs all the time!), and that it will be increasingly easy for latex fetishists to find girls (or boys) who are already into latex, or easily convinced to try it.

SM: Your favorite piece of latex or Rubber in your wardrobe?
A: That’s like asking me to chose my favorite child! Honestly, it depends on what I’m in the mood for. I’ve got a serious love of animal print anything, so my Collective Chaos Zebra dress is pretty high up on the list. I also love my Ego Assassin corsets and miniskirts and Kriszta’s Latex motorcycle jacket – they’re really easy to wear out to non-fetish events. But really, it all started with my transparent black Libidex catsuit. That was the first garment I ever wore, and the first thing that ever made me feel really sexy. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a special place in my heart for it!

SM: What is kink-engineering?
A: Kink Engineering is my day job! It’s a company that my boyfriend Matt and I started about four years ago. We specialize in latex vacbeds and bondage devices. Eventually Kink Engineering lead to Sheet Latex – our own brand of latex sheeting that we supply to to companies all over North America. It’s really fun to be able to work in the latex business full-time!

SM: Did you make any new years resolutions?
A: I really want to put more work into my advice site – The Latex Closet. It made a big splash in September when I released it, and then life got in the way of too many updates. If it wasn’t family stuff, it was my photographer having family issues! This year I’m going to spend more time building the site, especially since that’s what I’d like my Miss Rubber World legacy to be.

SM: Any advice or words of wisdome, inspirations thoughts to Scene Magazine Readers?
A: Don’t be afraid of jumping in to things that you’re passionate about. Not everyone will be able to make a living doing what they love, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from doing it just for the joy of it!

Original Article has more photos!