Making original work is the first challenge. Making sure it survives in a market flooded with copies is the second, and it's one no studio can handle alone.
We've been a long-term member of Be Original Americas for a reason. Not because membership is a badge, but because the fight against knockoff culture is real, constant, and genuinely damaging to every studio that invests in designing something from scratch.
What Be Original Americas Actually Does
Be Original Americas is a non-profit advocacy organization committed to educating designers, architects, manufacturers, and consumers about the economic, ethical, and environmental value of authentic design. In practice that means educational programs, CEU-accredited courses for architects and designers, and direct work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop counterfeit furniture at the port before it enters the market.
That last part matters more than most people realize. When a knockoff manufacturer reproduces a design without doing the years of original work behind it, the damage isn't just commercial. It undermines the entire argument that design has intrinsic value, that the time, judgment, and craft that go into an original piece are worth something beyond the materials it's made from. Be Original Americas makes that argument, loudly and consistently, in rooms where it needs to be made.
The Story We Shared at Gensler
Earlier this year, Bend Goods was invited to present at Gensler's Los Angeles office as part of a Be Original Americas member spotlight. The talk, "Where Ideas Actually Come From," used the history of the Eames and Bertoia wire chairs to make the case for why borrowing an idea and copying a piece are two completely different things.
The short version: Charles Eames borrowed a wire-fabrication technique already perfected by basket and rat trap factories. Harry Bertoia borrowed the same insight, separately developed his own geometry over two years, and shipped a genuinely different chair. Both chairs are now in museum collections. Neither is a knockoff of the other, because both men did the real, independent work between borrowing an idea and calling it theirs.
That distinction, between the work that earns the right to call something original and the shortcut that skips it entirely, is what Be Original Americas exists to defend. You can read the full version of that story on their blog: Where Ideas Actually Come From.
[ALT: Gaurav Nanda of Bend Goods with Beth Dickstein of Be Original Americas, Phase Design, and Cerno outside Gensler Los Angeles, June 2026] Outside Gensler Los Angeles after the Be Original Americas member spotlight — with Beth Dickstein (@bethdickstein), @phasedesign, and @cerno_group. Photo: @phasedesign.
The Role of bde&co.
Behind Be Original Americas is bde&co., the PR and marketing agency founded by Beth Dickstein that co-founded the organization and continues to run its programming, events, and member communications. Beth and her team are the reason the organization functions the way it does, connecting manufacturers, designers, architects, and press into a community that actually talks to each other rather than just sharing a membership directory.
For a small studio like Bend Goods, that network is genuinely valuable. The events bde&co. organizes put our work in front of specifiers and design professionals who care about provenance and process. The CEU program gives our team a structured way to present in front of architects and designers who need continuing education credits to maintain their licenses, a real door-opener that doesn't feel like a sales call. The social and editorial opportunities, including this blog, give us a platform to talk about design thinking rather than just product.
Why This Matters for Designers and Specifiers
If you're a designer or architect specifying furniture for a project, membership in Be Original Americas and relationships with firms like bde&co. are worth knowing about. The organization is a reliable signal that a manufacturer has committed to doing the work behind their designs, not just sourcing the cheapest reproduction of a recognized form.
For Bend Goods, that commitment has been part of how we've operated since 2010. Our first chairs came out of a coat hanger factory, not a furniture factory, because we were borrowing a wire-bending technique that already existed and pointing it somewhere new. We spent years getting the proportion and the weld right before we called it ours. The Lucy Chair entered LACMA's permanent collection in 2021, not because we invented a new material, but because we did that work.
That's the standard Be Original Americas holds its members to. It's the standard we hold ourselves to. And it's the standard worth asking for when you're specifying work for a project that's meant to last.