Don Lamson Leaves D2 Shoe

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djg21
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by djg21

Don Lamson Leaves D2 Shoe to Start New Premium Cycling Footwear Company.

Santa Paula, California – March 19, 2018. D2Shoe founder and renown cycling shoe designer Don Lamson has left D2Shoe to start a new premium cycling shoe company. Don has been designing and building custom cycling shoes for more than 35 years. His premium cycling shoes have been worn by professional cyclists, olympians and national champions. After being unable to reach agreement with his business partner about the direction D2Shoe would take going forward, Don sold his interest in the company to his partner, who will attempt to operate D2 without Don. Don will continue to build premium custom cycling shoes and his new company, Lamson Cycling Shoes, will become operational over the upcoming months. The website for Lamson Cycling Shoes is at https://donlamson.com, and will be updated regularly with information about the new company and its new cycling footwear designs. Don can be contacted through the website with any questions.

by Weenie


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boysa
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by boysa

What is D2 without Don? Who is his current partner? When I bought a pair of shoes from D2, back in '08, Dan and Don were the principals. Seems a long time ago...
"Deserve's got nothing to do with it." William Munny

spud
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by spud

whether intentional or not, that was a bit of a dig against Dan - "attempt" to continue D2.

BdaGhisallo
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by BdaGhisallo

spud wrote:
Tue Mar 20, 2018 12:34 pm
whether intentional or not, that was a bit of a dig against Dan - "attempt" to continue D2.
I don't think Dan has been involved with D2 for quite a few years now. Don Lamson took on a partner about three years ago after running D2 on his own for a good while.

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boysa
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by boysa

??
Yes, per my last conversation with Don, Dan bowed out quite a few years ago. I thought Don had already been going it alone, and did not know he had a new partner.

The name might have remained "D2", but afaik Don always did all of the shoemaking. Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.
"Deserve's got nothing to do with it." William Munny

djg21
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by djg21

boysa wrote:
Tue Mar 20, 2018 1:56 pm
??
Yes, per my last conversation with Don, Dan bowed out quite a few years ago. I thought Don had already been going it alone, and did not know he had a new partner.

The name might have remained "D2", but afaik Don always did all of the shoemaking. Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.
As you note, Dan has not been involved with D2 for many years now. Don has had another partner more recently, who precipitated the move to the Los Angeles area. There is a little information about the partner here: http://www.triathlete.com/2017/08/gear- ... tag_304737

The idea of the partnership initially was to expand the business beyond custom shoes, but Don and his partner never could agree on the path the business would take, and the move to LA probably was not the best thing for Don or the company. In what amounted to a divorce, the only available options were to dissolve the company, or for one partner to buy out the other. Ultimately, it made more sense for Don to relocate, buy new equipment, and start anew, rather than move D2 to a new location. So Don agreed to sell his interest in D2 to his Partner, who presumably will be keeping D2 in LA. While Don’s partner brought a valuable skill set to D2 Shoe, Don brought his knowledge of and experience in cycling, biomechanics, shoe design, custom shoe and insole fabrication, and fitting.

Don has some new ideas and design concepts that are really interesting, and his new shoes will be great. Watch the website I linked to above. Don is in Tuscon right now looking for space for his new company, and he plans on being up and running as soon as possible. If you’re looking for new shoes, have some patience and check Don’s website often. If you have questions for Don, they can be submitted via his website and he will get back to you.

maxxevv
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by maxxevv

Tucson ??

I would think some collaboration with Fairwheelbikes is in the works ...

maccpres
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Location: Atlanta

by maccpres

I was about to post about D2. I talked to Don February3 and asked about some shoes and put $300 on Feb 4. I had not received my fit kit so I emailed and got this reply:
Hi Greg,
We were out of kits for a while. I can ship yours today.
Sorry for the delay

Best Regards,
Don Lamson

I still have not received a fit kit and none of my calls or emails have been answered since. Bad timeing for me. I wonder if he or his partner will get back to me.

djg21
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by djg21

Don may not be able to contact you. He is in a difficult spot as he cannot interfere with D2’s existing contractual relations.

I would think that you should expect to hear from D2 sometime soon.

Don has always gone out of his way to take care of customers and I’m sure he will continue to do so.

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boysa
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by boysa

+1. I have had nothing but exceptional service from Don, and in all our dealings I have been extremely satisfied.

I look forward to following this, and once he gets established hopefully I can acquire a new pair of shoes. Since I retired my D2's, I've been searching... and searching... and searching for something equivalent. Unfortunately I haven't found anything remotely close.
"Deserve's got nothing to do with it." William Munny

antonioiglesius
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by antonioiglesius

Did Don lose control of his company? Did his partner become major shareholder when he came onboard? Effectively Don sold his company, yes? Strange as D2 seems to be synonymous with Don...

maccpres
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Location: Atlanta

by maccpres

I'll keep emailing and calling. Maybe I'll get his former partner or he'll contact me. I really wanted those shoes. Thanks

Master-Ti
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by Master-Ti

Any more news on what D2 plans to do without Don?

I mailed in my FitKit along with a new pair of cycling shoes for custom orthotics back in January. It's now been 8 weeks, and no replies to e-mails. Previously Don was very prompt at replying. Getting concerned that I've lost my payment for the orthotics, as well as a new pair of shoes!

spud
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by spud

that is ridiculous. They should have committed to finishing off in-process orders, and taken no new ones until production is sorted.

by Weenie


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TheKaiser
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by TheKaiser

I really hope you guys get something figured out with them. It seems like if you paid via credit card and never recieved your product, then you could call the CC company and reverse the charges.

It was a long time ago, and I'm having trouble finding an article to refresh my memory, but I seem to recall a similar batch of complaints when Don closed Lamson Designs down and started D2 close to 20yrs ago. I saw people posting on various forums saying that they'd put a deposit down with Lamson and now the company was no longer a thing. So, it's kind of funny to see history repeating itself and even with essentially the same company names, just in reverse.

I didn't realize it until just now, but Don actually had another company prior to the original incarnation of Lamson. The "history" page of the D2 site is no longer posted but you can see reference to the succession of companies here on the Wayback Machine. The succession went DONI (which was production oriented) > Lamson Designs (which was custom) > D2Shoe > (and now) Lamson Cycling Shoes:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170709050 ... istory.php

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