Kickstarter

Recently we have had a few people express their disappointment in the delayed timeline based on the original estimated delivery date.  We really get your frustration as we are right there with you.  This is our main focus in life right now and each day it is delay has a huge impact on us as people.  When we posted the project we had a very optimistic timeline from our engineers, and if all had went according to plan, we would have been in production and shipping products before Christmas.  As the old saying goes: "the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry."  That is to say, the most carefully prepared plans often go wrong.  In hindsight, it would have worked to have add a few months to the production schedule in the event of potential delays.  In this case our tooling drawings were complete and we were already meeting with the vendor before our Kickstarter project completed.  Upon inspection the vendor was concerned about some of the small sliders in the tool cavity.  There was a lot of back and forth communication...  Essentially the factory was unwilling to cut final tooling until it was proven that the tooling concept would be workable for mass production.  This meant we had to create a prototype tooling to prove our concept for mass production.  Prototype tooling is a lot less expensive but ultimately takes just as long to create as normal tooling (approximately 45 days).  After the proto-tool was complete, it then took several weeks to test inject parts to ensure the tool concept's reliability.  This was a major delay that we could not have foreseen.  Often there are challenges when dealing with a factory's internal tool engineers and their experience of what is or is not feasible.  The prototype tooling worked just as Kaspar and Stefan had intended, and as a bonus we learned a lot about general problems with flow marks, venting and filling that we could address before we made the final tooling.  Our second key delay was in the over mold tooling as we realized we could adjust a few small parts that would dramatically improve sound quality for making normal phone calls.  We felt this was a very important improvement.  Along the way we have also encountered a few small setbacks that were unforeseen, such as sourcing the super thin membranes that do not require us to make a minimum purchase order of 500 kilos or more.  Our sound membranes are tiny and 500 kilograms of this material would serve to create billions of membranes.  Not to worry, we have that sorted as well.  One important point to note is that we are a tiny start up company, and even though our factory likes us and our product, we are not a big priority when they have orders from other clients that turn over hundreds of thousand of units.  Lastly, communication between adjustments and refinement with the factory simply takes time so making changes is sometimes longer than we've planned for.

CES was an unbelievably intense, amazing, inspiring and exhausting event.  For 4 days straight we were overwhelmed with people who were interested in our product - the press, individual buyers and wholesale distributors world wide.  We even had one individual fly from Japan just to meet us at the show.  (Toshi you ROCK!)  We received our T2 samples which were sent straight from the factory just in time to demonstrate them at the show...  We have to say they are beautiful. They withstood being immersed in a fish bowl for 9 hours each day during the show.  We're happy to report that based upon the quality of the T2 samples, we got a lot of interested customers, retailers and distributors that we need to follow up with.  Our priority to is get the product made and in your hands, and it looks like soon after that... the EscapeCapsule will be out in stores. Our biggest challenge is to figure out how to make enough for the demand. At the show people were consistently complimenting us on our design.  They are initially impressed by how well the touch screen works through the case.  Also, as they put it, our case is interesting because it bridges the gap between a fashion case and a fully covered rugged case.  I.E. they really thought it looked cool.  Ohhh! and we got to meet Seth Green, which was super cool.  

Hi Everyone,

Merry Christmas!  Santa brought us a great gift this year: some awesome first production samples of the EscapeCapsule!  We wanted to do a quick update to show you some pictures of the first shots of the over-molding on the main housing.  There are a few areas that need some adjustment in the tooling to prevent "flash" from occurring.  You can see this around the over-molding for the lock button on the images below.  Otherwise, we are really seriously pleased with how the over-mold and housing look and feel.  Even without the final polishing on the tool the plastic housing is already looking nice and shiny!  We are very excited and simply wanted to share this with you.  They are now making some tooling adjustments and we hope to have second round shots on all parts within the next few weeks.  We will then work to assemble and test the first working units of the EscapeCapsule!  :-D   

We hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and is gearing up for a rocking New Years celebration.  Today actually so happens to be Josh's Birthday as well, so we have lots to celebrate.  Wishing everyone the best in the new year!

Lots of Love,

Josh & June

note: The color of the over-molding is not indicative of any color we will use on the product.  When making first shots it is common for the factory to use recycled material from other production runs.  These materials may have yellowed or have impurities that do not represent the final material colors or quality.  We have made a request that we do the next shots in stealth black.  ;-) 

Hello Everyone,

We want to update you on the development of the EscapeCapsule.  This past Friday, we spent the day with our engineers in China to review the "first product shots" made off of the production tooling.  First off, we want to let you know that the timeline for delivery of the EscapeCapsule has changed. We discovered some unworkable elements in the over-molding tool which has required us to re-tool a few of the small sliding elements that create the inner details within the part cavity.  These changes will improve the durability and functionality for sound quality.  This results in a delay in the tooling for the over-molding.  Ultimately, this will delay production to February and delivery until March.

To specifically update you on all of the parts in detail, we describe the breakdown of how each part is coming along below.

The front housing looks good, although the tool is not polished yet so it does not look as shiny as the back plate. Polishing makes the parts look shiny so that they are crystal clear. The sliders produce some witness lines (faint lines on the surface of the plastic where two edges of the tooling meet) that need to be reduced.  Once we fine tune the tooling, this will be barely visible.  We are now going to use this part to start installing and testing the bonding method for the sound membranes for durability and feasibility in the production assembly process. 

The back panel is complete and looks nice and shiny.  There is a slight mold flow issue that creates a small line in the middle of the clear housing where the material joins as it flows.  It is actually almost unnoticeable.  This is normal in developing production tooling.  They will adjust the size of the "gate" which injects material into the tool to create a faster and more even mold flow.  This will solve this issue without any problems.  The back plate snaps really secure and precisely into the front housing with a very satisfying click! 

The O-ring that we saw is not quite tight enough when attached to the rim.  This is easy to modify.  We will be testing a variety of O-ring diameters and degrees of hardness (called "shore durometer") to get a snug fit and the best seal possible. 

The front membrane for the touchscreen now has an installation method that yields incredible results.  The front screen can take 115 lbs of pressure before this part fails!  As a matter of fact, the seal is so secure that when you apply force, the membrane itself breaks before the seal on the edges which ensures that it is securely watertight.  We are supremely happy with this.  These parts are now being tested in UV light, salt water, heat and cold to ensure the bond stays consistent for the lifetime of the use of the product. 

The materials for the sound membranes have also been improved.  We are keen to have great sound quality, but there is a balance we must strike between long term reliability, construction and sound quality.  Our currently reworked prototypes are close to 90% to a normal phone call with the current configuration. We are working through several options on how we will install and test these to ensure they will work without issue for the lifetime of the product. 

The lanyards are 100% complete and look and feel absolutely brilliant.  We have 5,000 units that we are currently reviewing for quality control.  We LOVE the color of the hyper yellow, and the glowing lanyards really work!

We cannot wait to start working on the master batches of color for the main housing and over molding.  Regarding quality control, we do intend to test each product that we create so that you can be sure your EscapeCapsule will work as promised.

We will keep you updated regularly as the project progresses.  We will have another meeting with the factory on December 25th when we have all of the parts and components ready for review. Yes, we will be working on Christmas, but what better gift could we get than production samples on Christmas Day?

We want to tell our supporters that we are sorry that we will not be able to deliver the EscapeCapsule in time for the holidays like many of you had hoped.  Our intention is not to disappoint you but rather our commitment is to deliver a high quality product that you will love. It is from our stand that we deliver a product of exceptional quality to you that we do not want to take any shortcuts to compromise quality for time. 

Finally, we want to let you know that your love, understanding and support being part of this journey with us is what makes it magical for us as we create our first product.  Thank you!  You are awesome and we love you all.

With great appreciation,

Josh & June

Hi everyone,

We have a lot to update you on and will be posting several updates over the next few days.  Life has been action packed for us since our last update. A few weeks ago, Josh had a fairly serious traffic accident that put him in the hospital for 6 days. The accident ruptured his spleen and he lost 30% of his blood through internal bleeding. We are very grateful that he did not require any surgical intervention and will fully recover with time.  Honestly, this Thanksgiving, Josh was simply grateful to be alive and celebrating the simple joys in life.  This incident was unexpected, and created a bit of a road bump in our communications with everyone on Facebook and Kickstarter.  We apologize and take responsibility for this.  Our commitment had been to post an update about every 3 weeks.  Please know that this did not interfere with the development of the EscapeCapsule, as the production tooling has been under the care of our engineers Kaspar and Stefan.  The only real delay has been in Josh getting the packaging design sent to the factory during this time.  We will update you all in detail about our factory visit this past Friday in a separate update. 

Last month, we had the opportunity to meet John Biggs, the editor of TechCrunch, when he was in town for a TechCrunch meet-up.  We talked with him personally and thanked him and TechCrunch for the story they wrote about our project.  John told us that he gets about 4000 emails every day and he picked ours out and passed it on to Jordan Crook to write about us.  This article was our actual Kickstart into the minds and hearts of hundreds of people who are now supporters of our project.  We're still pretty thrilled and amazed by everyone's support.  We still get daily emails from new people interested, and from distributors and retailers around the world.  Exciting times are ahead.

Also, we got an iPhone 4S in white as soon as it became available in HK to confirm that the EscapeCapsule will work perfectly with all models of the iPhone 4.  There is actually a very slight difference in thickness on the white and black iPhones, and we want to ensure that the case will work perfectly for both colors.  By slight difference, we are talking about 0.2 millimeters.  The buttons will all work perfectly even with the slight displacement due to the antenna on the 4S.  Also, the new position of the ambient light sensor on the 4S will not be a problem since our case is clear and not covered.  There was a slight change in the specs for the new front camera, and we adjusted the housing to accommodate this.  By the way, Siri is amazing!

We wanted to leave you with a little bit of inspiration to think about.  Why do something extraordinary?   Why is it that people say that execution and attention to details make a world of difference?  What difference does that make for me?  Why is this product so different? There was a recently released TED Talk by Richard Seymour who really captures and describes this in his video about "How beauty feels". To summarize, beauty is not something you think but something you feel.  The goal of the designer is to create an emotional bond between the product and you.  Form is function.  He does a brilliant job of illustrating how a millimeter here and there can completely change the beauty of an object. It can be incredibly difficult, painstaking and sometimes painful, but the end result is something that moves you and that you feel.  In our last update, we described the process of development of the EscapeCapsule and let you know that we've been working really hard to refine all of the tiny little details.  It involves a lot of little compromises, and we work in fractions of millimeters.  Most people wouldn't notice this and might not think this is important.  However, the end result is a product of exceptional quality and beauty that you can be proud to have backed on Kickstarter. 

We are grateful to be alive, and working on this project.  We are really grateful that you believe in what we are creating.

Love,

Josh & June