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Vendor Tesla Shields: Our Humble Beginnings

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Two friends on a never-ending quest to provide the highest quality and best fitting mats on the market for your model 3 and Y, all while offering the best and most personable customer support answered by our co-founders.

Hello, My name is Jason and I handle all the day-to-day activities and also our marketing and outreach. My partner Sebastien, handles design, manufacturing, and logistics. We started this company almost three years ago while I was a sophomore in college. 

Our first product was our all-in-one door sill protection kit. This kit had everything you need to install a door sill protector and included a clear door sill protector. Having no funds and starting this on our own, we took out credit cards (not recommended) to buy materials and including our own vinyl cutting machine! We were making our own door sill protectors and fulfilling orders all from my grandmother’s garage. At first, things were going great and sales were strong. However, One day, I was left alone with the machine and was not sure how to properly operate it and had over 300 orders crinkled up! I wanted to conserve our product and not let them go to waste so I brought them home and used an iron to make our sills look brand new. I sent them out hoping for the best, but then I started to see the consequences of this soon-to-be mistake. An unprecedented amount of people were returning their product and giving us negative reviews. I learned an extremely important lesson: do not ship out orders until you are certain that the product is perfect!

Some time has passed and a family member of mine who has a model 3 was raving about their car, but was confused on why their car did not come with floor mats and was completely unsatisfied with the all-weather ones that were purchased. Her complaints consisted of a bulky logo, not enough coverage on the dead pedal, and lackluster customer service with representatives not in the United States and lacking complete knowledge of their own product. We decided that we are going to make a difference and stand in the face of these huge Chinese conglomerate companies not putting their customers first. We came to the decision that we were going to offer 24/7 customer support that is accessible by phone, email, text, and even on various websites and blogs that we have a presence on. Not only that but we custom-molded our mats to make sure we had at least 25% more coverage than what’s out on the market and a seamless design to ensure that our mats blend into the floors and have the least amount of gaps possible.

We started out with our 2017-2019 model 3 floor mats and we were an instant success and sold out within a few weeks! We then came to you guys at Tesla Motor Club and announced our expansion onto other mats and was overall successful. We have experienced some growing pains but now we are stronger than ever! Our second batch of orders has been a huge success! We have already started on our third batch and will now include options for our model y 7 seater folks. We have just launched our product repertoire on Amazon and Walmart in addition to our online store! If you would like to reach out to me personally I have my direct line available here: 786-838-6897

Jason

PS. We have added the 2021 model 3 and Y floor mats and their respective frunk and trunk mats back on our website. Although they are on back order, we are offering a special. For this month only, if you buy on our website, you get 30% off your order! Enter: “backorder2021” at checkout to redeem!

www.Teslashields.com

 
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So are these mats made entirely in the US with US only sourced materials?
As much as we would like to, they aren’t. The reason being is that China is the only place that has the machinery to produce the our mats at the highest quality possoble and at the mass scale we require. If we were somehow able to produce our mats here in the US and at the same quality and similar quantity, they would be close to $500 a set and most of our customers would not be happy with that. They are however, designed by my partner @TShieldDesigns and custom molded in Papa Elon’s basement in Miami, FL.
 
You can’t be serious?
Yes I am serious. I ask this rhetorical question because on their website they say...

"Our competitors are Chinese companies that have warehouses in US to make it look like a US company but it’s not!"

I think this line is disingenuous. It casts the aspersion that the Chinese product is inferior because it's Chinese. As their products are manufactured in China and rave about the quality, that seems a little naïve.
 
Yes I am serious. I ask this rhetorical question because on their website they say...

"Our competitors are Chinese companies that have warehouses in US to make it look like a US company but it’s not!"

I think this line is disingenuous. It casts the aspersion that the Chinese product is inferior because it's Chinese. As their products are manufactured in China and rave about the quality, that seems a little naïve.
Of course they are made in China. I received my mats earlier this month after ordering them in April.
Due to Covid and numerous other delays it took 4 months to get to me.
However, I will say they are quite good and I am pleased with them.
 
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Do you not worry about the Chinese manufacturing facility to steal your design and release similar products?

Btw, I ordered a set for my upcoming delivery.
We own the molds so other manufacturers cannot have the same mats as us. It’s similar to creating a custom formula in cosmetics. Sure, it may come from the same factory as other brands but they do not have the same formula. Plus ours has a lifetime guarantee. Meaning that our mats are guaranteed to last the lifetime of your car and in the event they get overly worn, holes, or whatever might arise send us a picture and we will give you a free replacement for the lifetime of your car.
 
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We own the molds so other manufacturers cannot have the same mats as us. It’s similar to creating a custom formula in cosmetics. Sure, it may come from the same factory as other brands but they do not have the same formula. Plus ours has a lifetime guarantee. Meaning that our mats are guaranteed to last the lifetime of your car and in the event they get overly worn, holes, or whatever might arise send us a picture and we will give you a free replacement for the lifetime of your car.
That's great. I just suggest you remove the denigrating comment about Chinese from your website. It comes across as a cheap attack. Your product will stand up from customer reviews. Good luck
 
Do you not worry about the Chinese manufacturing facility to steal your design and release similar products?

Btw, I ordered a set for my upcoming delivery.
Its not that I am commenting on...its the comment on their website regarding the Chinese that I think cheapens the appeal...at least to me. I wish them success but I think it should come on the shoulders of their product over bashing Chinese businesses
 
Yes I am serious. I ask this rhetorical question because on their website they say...

"Our competitors are Chinese companies that have warehouses in US to make it look like a US company but it’s not!"

I think this line is disingenuous. It casts the aspersion that the Chinese product is inferior because it's Chinese. As their products are manufactured in China and rave about the quality, that seems a little naïve.
I understand what you are coming from and your point is completely valid. One of the reasons why I started this company is because I also ordered a mat from this particular company and when I had some issues, I was connected via email to the company in China and they were using a translator and it was difficult to get anything across. The company (at the time not sure if it is still done) advertised that they were an American company but after doing some research I found out that was not the case and they just merely had a small warehouse in California. Now I’m not hating on Chinese products and they do have some amazing quality products and I will admit that our products probably does come from the same factory as this brand but the difference is that we design everything in sunny Miami Beach, FL and even have our own molds and our entire operations is based in the US. This is very similar to apple, they are designed in California but use the same factory (Foxconn) that many of their competing brands use such as Samsung, Toshiba, dell, and Microsoft products such as Xbox. We stand out because we have the best possible customer service that I can give, (everything answered by me the co-founder and available 24/7) we have good prices, and most importantly all of our products come with a lifetime guarantee, meaning that our products are guaranteed to last the lifetime of your car and in the event that they become overly worn, faculty, or whatever life brings it we WILL REPLACE THAT PRODUCT FOR AS LONG AS YOU HAVE YOUR CAR.
 
I understand what you are coming from and your point is completely valid. One of the reasons why I started this company is because I also ordered a mat from this particular company and when I had some issues, I was connected via email to the company in China and they were using a translator and it was difficult to get anything across. The company (at the time not sure if it is still done) advertised that they were an American company but after doing some research I found out that was not the case and they just merely had a small warehouse in California. Now I’m not hating on Chinese products and they do have some amazing quality products and I will admit that our products probably does come from the same factory as this brand but the difference is that we design everything in sunny Miami Beach, FL and even have our own molds and our entire operations is based in the US. This is very similar to apple, they are designed in California but use the same factory (Foxconn) that many of their competing brands use such as Samsung, Toshiba, dell, and Microsoft products such as Xbox. We stand out because we have the best possible customer service that I can give, (everything answered by me the co-founder and available 24/7) we have good prices, and most importantly all of our products come with a lifetime guarantee, meaning that our products are guaranteed to last the lifetime of your car and in the event that they become overly worn, faculty, or whatever life brings it we WILL REPLACE THAT PRODUCT FOR AS LONG AS YOU HAVE YOUR CAR.
I appreciate your comments but still believe you should remove that line about the Chinese...you should just say something like "whereas most of our competitors are not US based and in different time zones, we are right here in the US so we can offer you the industry's best levels of service"...just a thought...
 
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Perfect timing with your story about your company. I was just going to order the 3d xpider mats but like that these don't have a logo and look like they will be a great fit. Price is also much better. Bought weather techs in the past but notice they don't fit like they used to so looking forward to getting these.
 
We own the molds so other manufacturers cannot have the same mats as us. It’s similar to creating a custom formula in cosmetics. Sure, it may come from the same factory as other brands but they do not have the same formula. Plus ours has a lifetime guarantee. Meaning that our mats are guaranteed to last the lifetime of your car and in the event they get overly worn, holes, or whatever might arise send us a picture and we will give you a free replacement for the lifetime of your car.

Because it is impossible to copy the mold. Or - even more unfathomable - for the factory to use your mold to make "off schedule" production runs.
Never happened before. Would be awful if this were to happen.

LOL.
 
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I understand what you are coming from and your point is completely valid. One of the reasons why I started this company is because I also ordered a mat from this particular company and when I had some issues, I was connected via email to the company in China and they were using a translator and it was difficult to get anything across. The company (at the time not sure if it is still done) advertised that they were an American company but after doing some research I found out that was not the case and they just merely had a small warehouse in California. Now I’m not hating on Chinese products and they do have some amazing quality products and I will admit that our products probably does come from the same factory as this brand but the difference is that we design everything in sunny Miami Beach, FL and even have our own molds and our entire operations is based in the US. This is very similar to apple, they are designed in California but use the same factory (Foxconn) that many of their competing brands use such as Samsung, Toshiba, dell, and Microsoft products such as Xbox. We stand out because we have the best possible customer service that I can give, (everything answered by me the co-founder and available 24/7) we have good prices, and most importantly all of our products come with a lifetime guarantee, meaning that our products are guaranteed to last the lifetime of your car and in the event that they become overly worn, faculty, or whatever life brings it we WILL REPLACE THAT PRODUCT FOR AS LONG AS YOU HAVE YOUR CAR.


You both manufacture in China.
You both have a presence in US (warehouse, office, whatever).

The difference is you sketched the product in sunny Florida, and that makes it better than a product sketched in Shenzhen?

What are the price differences between them? Free replacement guarantee usually implies the original product was sold at 100% margin ;)
 
You both manufacture in China.
You both have a presence in US (warehouse, office, whatever).

The difference is you sketched the product in sunny Florida, and that makes it better than a product sketched in Shenzhen?

What are the price differences between them? Free replacement guarantee usually implies the original product was sold at 100% margin ;)
Difference is if you have a problem you are going to be able to get a hold of Tesla Shields and they will take care of it. You are also giving more money to an American running a business and not sending it all to China. Maybe if he does well enough at some point it would be worth it for him to get his own manufacturing equipment and make the mats here. Guy has to start someplace.