{"id":262162,"date":"2025-11-05T00:05:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/262162\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T00:05:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:05:17","slug":"thats-a-paddlin-barely-rebranded-but-legally-distinct-forgebond-is-back-as-fb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/262162\/","title":{"rendered":"That’s a paddlin’: Barely rebranded but legally distinct Forge+Bond is back as F+B"},"content":{"rendered":"

When CSS, one layer of parent company to Forge+Bond wheels, disappeared in the night with nothing more than an e-mail to let its customers and partner brands know it no longer existed<\/a>, the industry was shocked. The epilogue to this story, though, is where it gets weird.<\/p>\n

One month after the surprise-closure, sympathy of the apparently-struggling CSS is fading faster than customer\u2019s hopes of their lifetime warranty\u2019s being honored. That\u2019s because a new company, F+B, barely-rebranded but legally distinct from Forge+Bond, emerged to sell\u2026. pickle ball rackets.<\/p>\n

A sudden and unexpected exit<\/p>\n

At the time of CSS\u2019s closure, there was little indication that the brand, Forge+Bond, or the OEM suppliers, CSS Composites, was in financial difficulty. Rave reviews, an expanding list of partnerships that included names like Chris King and Bontrager indicated that FusionFibre, the recyclable carbon fiber used in CSS-made rim construction, was a positive light in cycling and, in particular, U.S. manufacturing. The announcement prompted concern, for the brand, its employees, for the promising technology, for the partners it supplied rims to and, finally, for the customers that had purchased wheels in part on the expectation that the lifetime warranty would be honoured.<\/p>\n

What happens to a lifetime warranty when a carbon supplier suddenly disappears?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As reported by\u00a0Escape Collective<\/a>, though, concern for the brand and at least some of its employees may be unfounded. Customers and partner brands are still very much in the lurch, with the brands forced to find patchwork and probably expensive ways to cover its customer\u2019s lifetime warranties. The fate of Forge+Bond is more complicated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>F+B Pickleball
\nF+B rises from the ashes of \u2026 Forge+Bond<\/p>\n

As covered in Escape Collective\u2019s excellent expose, both Forge+Bond and its parent company, CSS Composites, did, in fact, cease to exist at the end of September. The newly emerged F+B is owned by Future Corp. All four are part of an extended layering of corporations and businesses operating out Gunnison, Utah. If all four existed at one time, they would be under the same umbrella of companys.<\/p>\n

The striking similarities between Forge+Bond and F+B, as well as the too-convinent timing of the one\u2019s demise and the others rise, are raising questions, though. All this could be above board, if still very questionable. Though if I were a Forge+Bond customer that was told it was no longer comercially viable to honour a lifetime warranty on a wheel, I would not be too excited about picking up a pickleball racket from F+B. Is it actually legal? I guess we\u2019ll find out eventually. Maybe. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When CSS, one layer of parent company to Forge+Bond wheels, disappeared in the night with nothing more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,121388,635,121389,121390,62722,26018,82,12798],"class_list":["post-262162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-css-composites","tag-cycling","tag-fb","tag-forgebond","tag-mtb-news","tag-pickleball","tag-sports","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}