Kickstarter

The delay you are experiencing right now is the ongoing challenge on the spring for the clip in the holster. We have gone through testing on more than 4 different spring variations and we are still not happy with results we are getting. As a holster the spring is acceptable, but after multiple test rides with the holster loaded in the bike mount we found the springs were yielding too much - the clip was opening - causing the holster, TAKTIK, and iPhone to fall out of the mount. We don’t need to tell you our phones were fine and protected in the rock solid case. 

In order to solve this problem we are working on two fronts.  First, our team is sourcing new springs from the US, with the plan to ship them over to our manufacturing partners for assembly once we prove out the new material and thickness. This is much more expensive than getting asian sourced parts, but we believe we will have greater control of the steel quality. We should note that our design is not a traditional coil spring that is purchased off the shelf for most holsters, but a customized tooled component suitable to be secured to a bike. We are waiting on new prototypes from our US partner to test out the spring- these should arrive next week. Lastly, we are making a modification to the bike mount itself to better contain the clip when riding. This additional security should ensure that when the holster is attached on the bike, the clip will stay locked in even if the spring yields. As you can see from the image below we've added a small extension that traps the back of the belt clip on the holster. With this change, you will need remove the holster by pushing down on this tab while lifting up on the holster. A much more secure two stage release process.  These improvements will take a couple of weeks to complete.  

We're letting you in on our challenges and we appreciate your continue supported.  As always, we will keep you posted, and if you have other questions or concerns about your current case – please drop us a line at info@lunatik.com and we will get you sorted. For those asking about a TAKTIK 5 holster, we also want to make this happen, but first we need to get our TAKTIK 4 supporters ready to ride.

- THE LUNATIK TEAM

We've been busy the past couple of weeks getting TAKTIK Extreme cases out the door to our Future Proof Backers. By now, most of you should be getting familiar with your new cases, and are hopefully agree that always using protection is invaluable for your iPhone:)

For those who supported the bike mount and holster for TAKTIK 4, let's recap. We want to take you back to the end of November when our first engineering challenge of this project appeared. That’s when we found the design of the 360 degree holster rotation on the clip was degrading the plastic.

We spent the next few weeks testing different materials and dialing in tolerances before settling on a plastic composition in January and deciding to go for a full re-engineering of this interface. Below is a photo of the old and new designs.

The new concept is tooled up, and we have seen a few revisions to the parts before and after the Chinese New Year. The fit is more secure and the rotation is much smoother, once you try it, we hope you agree this change was worth the wait. We are making one final refinement this week to remove material from the 4 hooks you see in the photo. This should allow the holster and clip to snap together more easily during assembly. This is being completed this week and we will review new parts next week.  

The last challenge is around the spring for the holster clip. We have been testing these parts in studio and found that after only a few days of use the spring wasn’t keeping its shape. Can you imagine if you car door only worked 10 times before breaking? This is unacceptable. We are working with our suppliers to dial in the thickness and material on the spring to improve the cycle time.

We know you want to get TAKTIK on your belt and on your wheels as soon as possible, so thanks again for sticking with us through this ride. We hope to dial in these last two challenges by the end of next week and then follow that with your production order.

The LUNATIK Team

(First image) Latest design (Second image) Previous design

Dear Backers,

The moment has arrived— your TAKTIK EXTREME cases have begun shipping! Cases started going out earlier this week—however due to a glitch in our fulfillment house's system, our first wave of TAKTIK backers did not receive their UPS shipping notifications. But don’t sweat it--your package is on its way to you!

For the sake of our small and very busy customer service team, if you could please give us a few days to allow for your packages to arrive. If for some reason you have not received your package by next Tuesday, February 12th, please feel free to send us an e-mail at kickstarter@lunatik.com. Thanks for your patience and we can’t wait to hear from you once you’ve got TAKTIK on your iPhone 5!

Best,

The LUNATIK Team