expertise needed! - renegade tools?

[benjamin.eby]

Hello all,
as I am sure many of you know I launched my website last week and started finally selling my Kwick Grippers (many thanks again for all the support from everyone here on GJ!) -
I have been approached by a company that is making a lot of promises - to get me into Home Depot, Lowes and find and help with distribution and all sorts of other stuff that sounds very attractive - until I looked up their current line- It's Renegade Tools, Here is their website

http://www.renegadetoolco.com/

They claim to have over 125 products on sale, but if you look close, all the pics are computer generated and for the life of me I can't find a single vendor that sells them - so my question is

Has anyone out there ever seen/bought/ used any of these Renegade tools?

Do they even exist or is someone just trying to scam me with a very elaborate scam?

Expertise would be well appreciated!

 

[water-works]

I have some experience in the area of helping companies market their products and get them into stores. Be very careful with these middle-man companies and do a lot of digging to find out if they are legit. A lot of times you'd be surprised to find that you can in fact do this yourself through some careful planning. A lot of these companies claim a lot of things. First off, none of them can 'guarantee' you anything. Secondly, what clients do they already have? You can sometimes contact those companies and ask if the company is legit? Hit up the BBB as well too.

You should start first with marketing of your products. Do you have them packaged? Brand name trademarked? Disclaimers? That sort of thing. After you do all that, and some other things, then I would consider talking to big box stores directly. Believe it or not a lot of times these days, you can find the right person to talk to that might be able to help you a long. Talk with the top level manager of your local big box store and ask him what it would take to get your product on the store shelves. Or better yet, go directly to the websites of the big box stores. Most of them outline steps involved in becoming a vendor or supplier.

Be aware that really big stores can place big orders at once which means you have to front the cash. Some stores also don't pay you until 1-3 months after initial order, and at that time they can also place yet another order before you get paid, if your products are selling well. This means the possibility you'd have to front the cash for two big orders. The bigger stores have a lot of buying power.

What is your website? I'd like to check out your products.

 

[water-works]

Also, you can dig a little on their website.

Go here and do a WHOIS lookup on their domain: renegadetoolco.com

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

Domain Name: RENEGADETOOLCO.COM

Created on..............: 2009-10-24 01:14:41 GMT

So at least you know their website has been around only since 2009. Their registration info is locked, so you can only pull the contact info for their web hosting company.

Apparently (Timothy Lemnah, Renegade Tool Company, Inc.) attended a 'Startup Maryland' entrepreneur event in Maryland in March of 2012.

http://sumdlaunch.eventbrite.com/

They don't seem to be listed on the BBB.org website.

 

[benjamin.eby]

The Website is www.ebtoolcompany.com

I actually have most of what you were mentioning done - the patents, trademarks etc are all in place and i have shelf ready tools arriving in about a month ,I even have a line of credit available if I do happen to get one of those large orders - As I am sure you know it is still pretty hard to get into the bigger stores - My contact at Renegade has indicated that they can basically make it happen right now- sounded to good to be true so I Thought I would check here to see what people think

You are very right about the "middle companies" I have already turned away a few

Thanks - Ben

 

[benjamin.eby]

Also, you can dig a little on their website.

Go here and do a WHOIS lookup on their domain: renegadetoolco.com

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

Domain Name: RENEGADETOOLCO.COM

Created on..............: 2009-10-24 01:14:41 GMT

So at least you know their website has been around only since 2009. Their registration info is locked, so you can only pull the contact info for their web hosting company.

Apparently (Timothy Lemnah, Renegade Tool Company, Inc.) attended a 'Startup Maryland' entrepreneur event in Maryland in March of 2012.

http://sumdlaunch.eventbrite.com/

They don't seem to be listed on the BBB.org website.

Thank you so much!!!!! that is great info!

 

[water-works]

Nice website and cool tool you've put together. Well done on walking through the patent, TM and all that process.

So this renegade company is not the actual company that contacted you, but is a subsidiary of the marketing company? I'm a bit confused on that. Or is it Renegade that contacted you?

Well, they have at least 4 people that work for them. Their profile says 12 employees total.

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/renegade-tool-company

^~^~^~

For LOWES:
http://www.lowes.com/webapp/wcs/sto...geView?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&faqId=46


For HOME DEPOT:
http://suppliercenter.homedepot.com/

 

[subdajj]

If you can obtain a patent, trademark and etc you do not need a middle man. I would contact HD and Lowes directly. Do some research and find how HD or Lowes buy thier tools, do they have an in house buyer or do they rely on an outside firm.

Does renegade want money up front or a percentage?

 

[Super Sport]

If your gut feeling is that they may be trying to scam you, they probably are. I've never heard of Renegade tools, and if you can't find anything on the web about them, they probably don't exist.

You sound like you're hard working and determined. Continue that hard work and do all that they are promising on your own.