This while walking into the RadioShack booth at CES 2025 that I noticed the Kodak stand not far ahead. And this while thinking about the fate of both stories – okay maybe not story — names that I have observed other Kodak booth two rows up. For a company that has died more than a few times, it sure is enjoying a renaissance. Look, it’s not like there aren’t always brands that die and come back to life in search of a quick buck. Especially if the price is cheap and there’s any remaining level of affection for it, but still there’s a hell of a lot going on right now. Do we need four different companies selling Kodak-branded merchandise?

Perhaps the most egregious example of this year’s show comes from Mizari, an LA-based company that sells hardware under various names. This year, it presents a lineup 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: computers and cassette tapes, VHS, CDs and eventually DVDs. Its slogan is “Is it alive, or is it Memorex?” boasts the best audio quality. Will that slogan also work for e-bikes, scooters and golf caddies? That is not very clear.

Company representatives say that using the Memorex name is an experiment to see how much the public loves the brand. They target people over the age of 40 who remember what they beat on their tape decks. At the same time, they target the younger generation who may feel the pull of that retro name, because we are apparently in a time where anything old is inherently admirable. Mizari also holds the license for Delorean, though only makes e-bikes, scooters and go-karts, for kids, you know?

RadioShack has been passed from owner to owner since its first filing Chapter 11 back in 2015. In May 2023, it was bought by Unicomer, a RadioShack franchisee from Central and South America that is now relaunching the parent brand in the US. It acts, like many of these companies, as a distributor, adding its name to various products produced elsewhere. Its lineup is now 400 products strong, from gaming keyboards and mice to portable projectors and speakers. The idea, as you might have guessed, is to cash in on the fact that people are likely to remember its name on some generic product they find among the Amazon dregs.

Two Kodaks nearby share the Kodak name, but only slightly: One features the Kodak Mini Shot (lead image), made by Prinics Co. Walk 50 yards further under the plush CES carpet and you’ll find another Kodak (pictured. above), this one selling digital photo frames and tablets. The staff at both booths were happy to discuss which part of the extensive Kodak license they were paying for. Hell, the late Kodak stand also advertised the same products under the Thomson name, an old French electronics company that rebranded as Thales 25 years ago.

A little walk and you will soon find a large stand from RCA, which also has the names Thomson and Blaupunkt. All three are nothing more than names and logos slapped on products shipped from different manufacturers. RCA was famous for making radio equipment and other electronics before branching out into broadcasting, music and movies. So it’s natural, too, that you can choose an RCA-branded e-bike and scooter, cashing in on all the bikes RCA makes when your pop pop is in diapers.

Next to Mizari’s Memorex-branded exhibit was the third Kodak booth I found, this one displaying a wide variety of products. These include smartwatches, cameras, binoculars, mirrors with halo lights and Bluetooth speakers, all made by various licensees. And, quite literally two booths aboveIS other The Kodak stand, 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 wave my hands and try to make some kind of important point about All of It. One hand, it doesn’t matter. Many cheap products are sold to people who do not question their purchases. Given how common the practice is of buying a dead brand and slapping it on whatever you’re selling, it should be profitable enough to justify doing so. But it just left me scratching my head, wondering who would remember the tape company from the ’90s and want to ride an e-bike with its logo on the side. Or who would have thought there was any confidence left in the Kodak brand given the near-homeopathic level of dilution it was 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 continue to mess up.