Blue statement
We at Blue Microphones would like to make a statement regarding the ongoing speculation over the original design of Blue’s product line and Blue’s current business dealings. We have not commented on these subjects until now simply because our legal advisors have specifically recommended that we not participate in the rumor mill. However, we now believe that the amount of time and misguided speculation that has been invested on these subjects by forum visitors requires a response.
This statement is intended to set the record straight and will be the one and only comment offered by Blue Microphones. Skipper Wise, Martins Saulespurens, and all of the dedicated and hard-working people at Blue sincerely appreciate those who have supported us throughout the years and those who will continue to support Blue Microphones in the future.
First, the design issue:
At the onset of Blue’s incorporation, we hired a Latvian medical manufacturer called Scruples to manufacture certain metals parts and perform the final assembly of certain microphones. Scruples, which is owned in part by Juris Zarins, signed a non-compete agreement with Blue and used their manufacturing expertise to construct our product.
As the Blue line caught on, our relationship with Mr. Zarins became strained as he fought for a bigger piece of the pie. Mr. Zarins began attempting to leverage our manufacturing relationship with Scruples to assert claims to our products. Mr. Zarins attempted to circumvent Blue by creating a company called ParaBlue that would sell Blue products directly to customers. In conjunction with these activities, Scruples became less and less interested in cooperating with Blue’s efforts to manage production flow and quality control. Since Scruples would not continue to meet our needs, we found new manufacturers – right here in America – who could.
After Blue terminated all business relations with Scruples in October of 2004, Scruples violated our non-compete agreement by supplying microphones to a new company of Mr. Zarins,’ Violet Designs, whose trademark infringes on Blue's trademark. Mr. Zarins began creating unauthorized duplications of our products under the name JZ Equipment, which was in clear violation of both our intellectual property rights and the non-compete agreement. Mr. Zarins has also made a deceptive attempt to register Blue’s microphone designs with the European Union.
So, did Scruples make choices in what techniques and technologies should be used to manufacture Blue’s products? Of course, that’s what they were hired and paid to do. Did Scruples or Mr. Zarins somehow establish a vision and actually design the Blue product line? Absolutely not, which is why we’ve already begun legal action in the European Union, Latvia, and soon in the U.S.
Some other matters of interest:
As stated above, Blue has moved the manufacturing operations for most of its core product line to the United States – specifically Southern California, where we are headquartered – and whatever is not made here is made in Latvia. None of our microphones are made in China. We do, however, source some of our non-critical parts, such as shock-mounts and cables, from Chinese manufacturers. This enables us to cost-effectively increase the value of our product line by including free shock-mounts with each of our mics.
Make no mistake, it was a huge challenge to move manufacturing to facilities that would allow us to maintain the same quality craftsmanship recordists have come to expect from Blue over the last decade. After an intense search and a couple false starts, we settled on hiring a milling company from the U.S. military contracting world, a finishing company from the aerospace industry, and an assembly house skilled in hi-fidelity audio...all located close to home in California, all highly capable of meeting our ultra-high
standards.
Keep in mind that all our ball-shaped microphones are still made in Latvia. Our circuit boards are also still made in Latvia. Our capsule assembly and tuning is still done in Latvia, and our Bottle mic is still made entirely in Latvia. All these aspects of Blue production, as well as most of our research and development, are still managed by Martins Saulespurens in Latvia. Most importantly, all our products are still Blue's unique designs.
Finally, Juris Zarins and Scruples had nothing to do with Blue’s restoration service. Our restoration service particularly inhibited the production output of our Bottle microphone; we therefore discontinued the service in order to fully concentrate on the Bottle and other Blue products. We can only guess that JZ Equipment says they offer restoration services because that’s what Blue had done.
We hope this information has proven helpful, and would like to thank you all very much for your interest in what the future holds for Blue Microphones. For our part, we are very proud to have served this industry for ten years now, and can’t wait to bring even better solutions to the recording industry for another ten years – and beyond!
