In the early hours of the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month, one of the first images of the alleged attacker Showed him wearing a Peak Design backpackRumors have surfaced in recent days that Peak Design assisted in his arrest, and the company’s CEO now officially denies this.
Guman, now allegedly Luigi Mangione, is in custody and several rumors and conspiracy theories are circulating attempting to explain some of the alleged inconsistencies in the story of his arrest. A big allegation has come to light yesterday threads And tiktok (Link through The Verge) is that Peak Design CEO Peter Derring voluntarily gave up the bag’s buyer’s information by tracing its owner through its serial number, leading to a widespread backlash against him and the brand.
“Peak Design has not provided customer information to the police and would only do so under the order of a subpoena,” Dering writes. an official statement“We cannot associate a product serial number with a customer unless that customer has voluntarily registered their product on our site. Sorting our products allows us to track product problems and in some cases segregate stock if defects are found.
Additionally, Dering says the serial numbers on the V1 Everyday Backpack – the bag the shooter appeared to be wearing – are not unique, nor are they identifiable.
“Those were lot numbers used to track batch production units. “We didn’t implement unique serial numbers until the V2 iterations of our Everyday Backpacks,” he says.
When I look at an everyday backpack I know it’s a well-designed backpack pic.twitter.com/RVury7rd6W
– Browningtons 🔜📸 NOUNSVITATIONAL (@Browningtons_) 4 December 2024
If you choose to register a Peak Design product, and it is lost or stolen, you can reach out to our customer service team and delete your registration, so the bag can no longer be returned to you.
Dering ends by saying that he and the company take it customer privacy seriously.
Peak Design has been in the news for reasons the company probably wasn’t prepared for. also talked to daring the new York Times for a story related to the shooting and said the bag appears to be a version that is no longer sold and was likely purchased between 2016 and 2019. This rumor that Deering had traced the bag’s serial number and assisted in her capture probably stems from her admission in that story that she had called the NYPD tip line to share everything she knew, even whether had to do “Whatever is possible” To identify the shooter.
Image Credit: pinnacle design
