There are plenty of companies that sponsor athletes by paying them or giving them free stuff to use their brand. Even some of the most reputable cycling companies sponsor athletes. I only mention this for the sake of objectivity because it sounds like you're implying unknown bikes are bad but people use use them who get paid to. I honestly don't know much about unknown bikes and kind of just wrote them off as part of the brightly colored fixie fad. but I'm curious to hear from anyone who owns one or has has experience riding/working on one.