Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI DEEP DIVE: Bauer Hockey vs. TikTok's Pavvy The Goalie

Transcript

MINI DEEP DIVE: Bauer Hockey vs. TikTok's Pavvy The Goalie · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:04
  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
• 0:07
  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
• 0:10
  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays like today.
• 0:13
  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the Australian
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  youth digital media brand Centennial World.
• 0:21
  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
• 0:23
  OK, I'm actually excited because today it's not actually mini
• 0:25
  scroll. I should have changed the sign.
• 0:26
  It's actually a mini deep dive. So it's like Mini Scroll but one
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  big story. And we've done a couple of
• 0:33
  these, but I don't think I've done one in like maybe a year.
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  And this story is so mini scroll coded.
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  I was like, this needs to be the whole episode.
• 0:42
  So before I get into it, Please remember to rate, review, and
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  subscribe. We're trying to get to 1000
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  Spotify star ratings. It helps us so much.
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  It helps us grow and sign up to our Patreon.
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  If you guys want some extra content, some behind the scenes,
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  some more like personal parasocial stuff, that's what we
• 0:57
  post there. All right, let's get into the
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  story. So today we are covering the
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  controversy going on between a TikTok hockey creator named Pavi
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  and Bauer the brand. So this story hits both sides of
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  our audience, The side that loves the drama, loves intranet
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  culture, and then the side of our audience that are in this
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  industry. So in social media, in
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  marketing, working for brands and who listen to the pod
• 1:25
  because it helps them with their job.
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  So this actually is a lesson for all of us.
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  So Bauer, the hockey gear brand, has found itself at the center
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  of a major controversy where their social media comments are
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  being flooded with outcry and long time customers are saying
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  they're switching hockey gear brands.
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  All because of a video that a TikTok creator posted promoting
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  some of their new products and how the brand responded to that
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  initial video. I'm going to be saying allegedly
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  a lot here because I really want to cover this story, but I am
• 1:58
  kind of scared as it seems Bauer may be slightly litigious.
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  OK so who is involved in this? Bauer the hockey gear brand as I
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  mentioned, allegedly an employee named Brandon who works for
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  Bauer and a TikTok creator named Pavi.
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  So Pavi is a hockey creator, she's a goalie and a
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  self-proclaimed quote gear nerd. So the majority of her content
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  is based around hockey drills, hockey plays, reviewing hockey
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  gear, showing off her new gear, and also showing people how to
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  use hockey gear in various ways to protect yourself.
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  At the time of recording she has 9500 followers and this has
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  blown up over the past week, so I don't actually know what her
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  follower account was before this, but regardless, she's
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  still under 10K so she's still quite a niche creator.
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  So Pavi made a video showcasing the 2026 Bower hockey gear
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  catalog. This is a free catalog that you
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  can find online to download and I believe hers was sent to her
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  in the mail. In this video she was showing
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  parts of the catalog explaining she's excited for, you know, new
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  pieces of gear that's coming and she even said in a follow up
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  video that she he's been quote using Bauer since she was a kid
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  and her whole goalie setup is Bauer.
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  OK, so as a Canadian who grew up immersed in hockey culture
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  myself, my brother played hockey his whole life.
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  All all my boyfriends played hockey, tons of my friends
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  played hockey. And it's like if you're a
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  Canadian, you understand the chokehold that hockey has on
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  suburban white culture. Something you need to understand
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  about this story and with that context is that it's kind of a
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  thing for hockey players to have like 1 brand that they are loyal
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  to. And so for Pavi, that was
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  apparently Bauer. Also, I feel like hockey is
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  having such a moment right now, which is partly why this is
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  blown up so much. And also, I was looking at
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  myself before I started recording.
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  So you guys know, I'm on like a hair growing journey.
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  And she's really, she's really struggling.
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  But you know, I'm at that in between phase, OK, where I'm
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  trying not to put heat on it. She's looking a little bit wispy
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  at the end because we're trying not to cut it as often either.
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  So we can just like grow and then we can do a proper chop.
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  Anyways, I was looking at myself before I started recording and I
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  was like, I look like a hockey bro.
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  Like this is the hair that they all had when I was growing up
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  when it was final season of finals.
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  Oh my God, am I OK? Yeah, finals, hockey finals, and
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  they would all bleach their hair and half of them have like
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  really long hair. Like I look like a hockey brat
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  right now with my new hair. And I know some of you guys have
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  been hating on the hair in the comments, but this is the
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  journey that we're on right now. OK, so the brand saw Pavi's
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  video, a video again that was like organic user generated
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  social media content, the kind of content that brands dream of.
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  It was a video showing a free catalog items that were
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  reportedly published in a catalog that is publicly
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  available and accessible. And they sent her Adm they said
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  hey there, we're interested in partnering with your account.
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  Can you let us know the best e-mail address to reach out to?
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  To which she responded is this real life and capital letters So
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  cute. And then presumably sent her
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  e-mail. When I got that e-mail, I was
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  really excited. I've been using Bauer since I
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  was a kid. My whole goalie setup is Bauer.
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  However, when the brand emailed her, it was apparently not
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  actually about a partnership at all.
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  So Pavi shared screenshots of an alleged e-mail she received from
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  a person named Brandon, who works at Bauer, who claimed that
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  the content she showed in her video was their intellectual
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  property and implied they may take legal action if she didn't
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  remove the video. Pavi did take down the video in
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  question. This is what the e-mail
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  reportedly said. This is Brandon reaching out
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  from the Bauer social media team.
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  We enjoy your content and your hockey equipment reviews.
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  We appreciate the time and creativity that goes into
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  creating your content and would love to see you continue you to
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  grow your page. We want to make you aware that
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  Bauer Hockey is the author and publisher of its sales catalogs,
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  which contain copyright protected photographs, images
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  and product descriptions, as well as the copyright owner of
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  our product images online. We own exclusive rights under
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  United States and Canadian copyright law in and to the
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  images and descriptions contained in our sales catalogs
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  and product photos without authorization.
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  Your TikTok account reproduces and displays exact copies of
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  Bauer's Hockey sales catalog materials, for example, the
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  January 21, 2026 Supreme Fuse Goalie and Player Gear posts.
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  This is copyright infringement. We'd like to avoid having our
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  legal team get involved, but that would require you to remove
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  these posts immediately and stop posting reproductions of our
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  catalog or our photographs. Please let us know if you have
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  any questions about this. So Pavi reportedly responded,
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  removed the videos. You should have started out with
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  that and not that you guys wanted to partner with me.
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  If you told me just to remove it, I would have without the
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  partnering portion of it. And then the person responded.
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  We appreciate the quick action and response.
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  Community engagement and collaboration with hockey
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  content creators are highly important to us.
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  But first and foremost, it's important we ensure all activity
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  aligns to rules and regulations, especially when it relates to
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  unreleased products. I don't, I mean, I guess maybe
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  some of the products were unreleased in the catalog, but
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  like the catalog was released, it wasn't an embargoed catalog
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  as far as we know. It was all in this free
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  accessible catalog. Please feel free to reach out
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  with any product or content related questions going forward.
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  Best Brandon. OK, so as you can gather from
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  this, the brand seemingly obtained her e-mail under
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  deceptive pretenses, which in my opinion is unethical and also
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  just a horrible way to lose trust with your customers,
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  especially somebody who we know loves your brand and was
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  promoting you in her video. It's just bizarre.
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  They could have absolutely done what she said, which is just ask
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  in the DM, the initial DM to take it down.
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  They could have commented on the initial video and asked her to
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  take it down. They didn't need to kind of
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  pretend that they were going to like partner with her and then
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  sent her this e-mail. So then Patty posted her video
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  about this, showing these emails and explaining the situation.
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  On January 27th. As this got more traction, Bauer
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  then sent her a new e-mail, allegedly from the wider social
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  media team. At this time, we saw your video
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  and want to apologize. We should have approached our
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  outreach differently. Our intent was to protect our
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  intellectual property, but we recognize that our DM was
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  misleading and caused frustration when unreleased or
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  copyrighted assets are shared. It's important for us to act
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  quickly, but we should have handled the situation better.
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  We value the hockey creator community and appreciate the
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  role you play in it. If you're interested, we'd love
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  to have you test out our new Supreme Goalie gear when it
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  launches the spring. Again, we apologize and we hope
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  to have the opportunity to collaborate in the future.
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  And then she responded saying I appreciate you acknowledging
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  that the way the situation was handled was not appropriate.
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  I wish I'd been contacted directly and asked to remove the
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  post as I would have done so immediately.
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  The approach of initially framing this as a collab and
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  then changing course was unexpected and unnecessary.
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  I create hockey content and videos purely for enjoyment.
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  I do not get paid for anything and it is something I do because
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  I genuinely love the game and the community around it.
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  Because of how this was handled, I am unsure how to respond to
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  your offer. She talks about how she's been
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  using their gear for 15 plus years and she is thoroughly
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  disappointed. I think you should be more
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  concerned about the counterfeit Bauer sticks and gear people are
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  selling online. I get that different companies
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  have different processes for copyright infringement, and I
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  understand how serious that can be, especially given we work in
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  media. Like I get it, copyright is a
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  huge problem here, like people stealing content, people taking
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  content, people using content that doesn't belong to them,
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  whatever. Like that is a genuine problem.
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  However, to use Pavi's wording here, this situation felt
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  unnecessary and definitely like a misstep.
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  So there's a lot of social media theories floating around as to
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  what actually happened here. Like marketing managers are
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  chiming in, legal for different corporations are chiming in.
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  So a lot of users are saying the only Brandon who works at the
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  company, I suppose according to LinkedIn, is some type of
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  creative director. So one of the theories that
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  users have is this person is protective of his work and went
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  rogue without, you know, the larger legal team, the larger
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  marketing team possibly knowing. Another theory is that Brandon
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  is just like an AI agent used for customer service.
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  It's not, you know, an actual person that works for the
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  company. It's one of various names that
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  they would put on, you know, their customer service emails.
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  I have seen some speculation in the comments from users who
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  claim to be in corporate law saying they don't believe that
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  Bowers legal team would have anything to do with these emails
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  and that the legal team is probably so pissed over this
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  situation. And of course, now that this is
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  blown up for Pavi, people are doubting how loyal she has
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  actually been to the brand. So like most people are on her
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  side, of course, but then there's like this subset of the
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  Internet, as there always is when anything goes viral.
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  This is not specifically about her.
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  You know, who are like, well, this brand will probably never
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  actually do this to a really loyal customer.
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  Like, do you really have that much stuff from Bauer?
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  So she actually made a video showing how much gear she has
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  purchased over the years from Bauer, as if that matters.
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  But anyways, and then Bauer allegedly reposted her video and
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  when I say allegedly, that's because Pavi responded like in
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  her own comment section and wrote no way Bauer reposted
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  this. They did not watch the whole
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  video. And then she said they UN
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  reposted it, but she had a screenshot of the repost.
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  So shortly after that situation. Then Pavi did say that warrior
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  hockey, which is another gear brand has reached out to her to
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  partner and they were also in the comments sections of a lot
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  of videos people like covering this on TikTok being like, don't
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  worry, we've got her back and stuff like that.
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  So other hockey gear brands are jumping on this opportunity.
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  Absolutely. And now the latest update is
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  that Bauer has apologized on a public YouTube video about the
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  situation. And Pavi talked about this on
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  her stories. So she brought on her TikTok
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  story. So she put a screenshot of the
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  comment section from a YouTube video that was covering this.
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  And she wrote, no way. Bauer apologized on a YouTube
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  video and couldn't even e-mail me directly.
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  Wow. So it's from Bauer Hockey.
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  And they wrote, plain and simple, we made a mistake and
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  handled this incorrectly. We're seeing the feedback and we
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  take responsibility. Supporting hockey content
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  creators is important to us and we're committed to doing better.
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  OK, this is actually crazy because Bauer commented on a
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  YouTube video about what happened apologizing, but
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  couldn't apologize to me via e-mail.
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  What? It's just blowing my mind that
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  they literally stuck their apology into a YouTube video
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  about what's going on with the Bauer controversy and couldn't
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  directly e-mail me and say hey sorry for what's going on like
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  whatever blah blah blah. What what?
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  I don't want an apology anymore at this point.
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  This is sorry. I just took a shower but this is
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  absolutely like, I didn't think I'd find an apology from Bauer
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  in a YouTube video that I didn't make.
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  Apologizing for what? Look no bye.
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  OK, so the sub stack silence brand covered this and here's
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  what the author Dana Castillo wrote which I think is perfect,
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  she wrote quote. The issue was not the copyright
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  claim itself, but how it was delivered and to whom.
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  Bauer responded as if Pavi were committing a serious
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  infringement rather than expressing genuine fandom.
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  In a sport where brand loyalty runs deep, this response felt
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  alienating rather than protective.
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  This was a misunderstanding of Internet culture and how fans
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  engage. And that is literally a mic
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  drop. Because if you guys have
• 13:19
  followed many and you guys follow me, you know how adamant
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  I am that brands need to have Internet culture, journalists,
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  experts, consultants involved in consumer marketing.
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  This was obviously not like a campaign that went wrong.
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  We often see that. But this kind of response is
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  exactly what Dana is saying here.
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  There is such a misunderstanding of fandom culture and Internet
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  culture and how people engage on TikTok and all of that that has
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  led to this misstep. In my opinion.
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  I'm a huge advocate for the fact that these experts and these
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  consultants, we are, some of them need to be in these rooms.
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  They need to be working much closer with brands.
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  And you know, these missteps are just it's going to keep getting
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  bigger and bigger as the Internet quickly evolves.
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  It's like think about how much has changed online in just the
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  last like 5 or 6 years. The pace of change is only
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  getting more rapid, especially with AI.
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  So to end off, I actually did reach out to Pavi for her own
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  statement and here's what she said to me.
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  Honestly this whole thing is super overwhelming.
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  I wish Bauer one just told me the straight truth of why they
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  wanted my e-mail and didn't do a bait and switch.
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  They actually half ass apologized on a YouTube video
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  recently someone made covering it and they're getting roasted
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  for it. I'm trying my best to read and
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  respond, slash acknowledge every comment and DM.
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  The support has been amazing. Unfortunately Bauer is deleting
• 14:42
  the funny comments people are making on their page.
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  I truly cannot imagine how overwhelming this whole
• 14:47
  situation would be going viral for something like this.
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  I think going viral for anything is overwhelming, but especially
• 14:52
  when people are largely on your side.
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  It's like, on one hand, a good way to go viral, but I also
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  imagine it's very, very overwhelming.
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  You feel kind of guilty possibly for putting a brand on blast
• 15:02
  like this. Like I imagine there's just a
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  lot of mixed emotions. I'm not putting words in her
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  mouth. I have no idea if she feels
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  guilty or not, but I'm just thinking there's probably so
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  many different emotions that she's feeling in this moment and
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  getting all this attention. Because I think initially this
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  video and this whole controversy really was within the hockey
• 15:19
  community. And then over the past couple of
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  days, it has really expanded beyond that.
• 15:23
  And I do think, like I said before, hockey's having its
• 15:26
  moment, right? Heated rivalry.
• 15:28
  It's having a I mean, all the smut, all the hockey smut in
• 15:32
  book talk like that was super popular before heated rivalry.
• 15:34
  So you know, hockey is part of the zeitgeist right now.
• 15:37
  And this could have been such a major opportunity for Bauer and
• 15:41
  unfortunately now it seems like a lot of their competitors are
• 15:44
  going to take that opportunity from them.
• 15:46
  Anyways, guys, that's it for our little mini deep dive today on
• 15:49
  this Friday. Thank you so much for listening.
• 15:51
  I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
• 15:57
  I might talk to you on Monday. We'll see depending on how it
• 16:00
  goes in Melbourne. Either way, I will talk to you
• 16:03
  on Tuesday. OK, bye.
• 16:05
  Centennial World Podcast Network operates on Gadigal land.
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  We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the
• 16:11
  traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to
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  elders both past and present.