When Melbourne-based rider Andy was looking for a front rack for his bike a few years ago, choices were limited. For his needs, most of the options on the market were non-starters in some way: they required a hole in the crown of the fork, or eyelets on the side of it, or rim brakes, or they were heavy and made the front end of the bike flop back and forth. Nothing was quite right.
So when, in October 2021, a little universal-fit rack called Jack the Bike Rack popped up on Kickstarter, it seemed like a no-brainer.
Some months later, the Jack the Bike Rack arrived in the mail and has lugged Andy's stuff on the daily commute ever since. Over the years, the bike rack market has expanded, with some brands – like Specialized and Ortlieb – developing handlebar-mounted options, in part a response to the bikepacking boom. But compared to Jack the Bike Rack, these all require installation of a bracket and are less universal in their application; they all solve a similar problem, but in a different way.
Until now. If Andy was to repeat his search today, he might be surprised at what he finds on Kickstarter: a new project launched in May 2025 called the CargoMate, that at a glance is near-indistinguishable from Jack the Bike Rack.
The developers behind both products seem fairly entrenched in their views – one that their design has been blatantly ripped off, and the other that they’ve done nothing wrong. In the middle, perhaps, lies the broader question of how design works: whether it requires a moment of blinding innovation, or whether it can come about through iteration of existing products.
Can both be true?
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