A Tale of Four Kodaks

It was while I was passing the RadioShack stand on CES 2025 that I spotted the Kodak booth not far ahead. And that was while I was pondering the fate of those two floors – well, maybe not floor — names I’ve spied another The Kodak booth two rows up. For a company that’s been dead more than a few times, it’s certainly enjoying something of a renaissance. Look, it’s not like there have always been brands dying and being revived in pursuit of a quick buck. Especially if the price is cheap and there is some residual degree of attachment to it, but there are a hell of a lot of them out there now. Do we need four different companies selling Kodak branded products?

Perhaps the most striking example at this year’s show came from Mizari, a Los Angeles-based company that sells hardware under various names. This year it showcased a range of products under the Memorex brand, including e-bikes, scooters and golf caddies. If you’re not familiar, Memorex made recordable media in the analog era: computer and cassette tapes, VHS, CDs, and eventually DVDs. Its tagline was “Is it live or is it Memorex?” boasts superior audio quality. Does this slogan also work for electric bikes, scooters and golf caddies? This is less clear.

Company officials said the use of the Memorex name was an experiment to see how much the public had affection for the brand. They are aimed at people over the age of 40 who remember what they put in their cassettes. At the same time, they are aimed at younger generations who may feel the pull of this retro name, as we are clearly in an age where anything old is inherently praiseworthy. Mizari also holds the license for Delorean, though only to make electric bikes, scooters and go-karts for the kids, you know?

RadioShack has been passed down from owner to owner since it was originally filed Chapter 11 in 2015. In May 2023 it was purchased by Unicomer, RadioShack’s Central and South American franchisee, which is now relaunching the main brand in the US. It will act, like many of these companies, as a distributor, adding its name to various products manufactured elsewhere. Its range now includes 400 products, from gaming keyboards and mice to portable projectors and speakers. The idea, as you might guess, is to capitalize on the fact that people are likely to remember the name of this instead of some generic product they’ll find among the Amazon sludge.

The two Kodaks nearby share the Kodak name but very little else: One shows the Kodak Mini Shot (main image) made by Prinics Co. Walk 50 yards down the plush CES carpet and you’ll find another Kodak (pictured above), this one selling digital photo frames and tablets. Employees at both booths are happy to talk about what part of Kodak’s stretch license they’re paying for. Heck, Kodak’s latest booth also advertises these same products under the Thomson name, an old French electronics company that was rebranded to Thales 25 years ago.

A short walk and you’ll soon find a large RCA stand that also carries the Thomson and Blaupunkt names. All three are nothing more than names and logos on products that are supplied by different manufacturers. RCA was known for making radio equipment and other electronics before branching out into broadcasting, music and movies. So it’s also only natural that you can get an RCA-branded e-bike and scooter, cashing in on all those bikes RCA made when your pop was in diapers.

Adjacent to Mizari’s Memorex brand exhibits was the third Kodak booth that I stumbled upon, this one displaying a wide variety of products. This includes smartwatches, cameras, binoculars, mirrors with halo lighting and Bluetooth speakers, all manufactured by various licensees. And quite literally two cabins aboveit was another A Kodak booth, this time from C&A Global, which makes Kodak-branded photo printers (and the HP Sprocket), as well as projectors and scanners.

I’m not sure I should be waving my arms around trying to make some grandiose point about All This. One hand, it doesn’t matter. Many cheap products are sold to people who will not question their purchases. Given how common the practice is of buying a dead brand and slapping it on whatever you’re selling, it has to be profitable enough to justify it. But it just makes me scratch my head, wondering who would remember the tape company from the 90s and want to ride an e-bike with their logo on the side. Or who would have thought there was any credibility left in the Kodak brand given the almost homeopathic levels of dilution it has been subjected to. Perhaps the real lasting value of these companies is to serve as a reminder to all other tech brands that this is the fate that awaits them if they keep screwing up.