Hey everyone,
This is a challenging time. There’s no way around it. We’re all working to adapt to a new normal and many of our friends near home and across the globe are struggling with everyday life. Our heart goes out to those in Italy especially who are so grievously affected right now, but we’re afraid that many more of us will be facing the same reality soon. We’ll be keeping an eye towards how we can help. In the meantime, we will carry on to the best of our ability. We will do our very best to meet our obligations and shipping estimates, and we will be open about any delays or challenges as we learn of them.
In light of all the challenges we’re facing, Keycult’s potential future has been a huge source of motivation for us. We’re going to put everything we can into making things that give people joy. We believe there is a lot to look forward to, and we’d like to give you a glimpse of what’s changing for Keycult in 2020 and beyond.
Keycult No. 2/65 featuring Nautilus 2 by Zambumon
We have a new office and shop space. Since we started work on Keycult under-the-radar in 2018, we’ve been working out of Jorge’s house. We started in a small extra room before creeping out into the dining room, and then the living room… Needless to say, it became clear later in 2019 that we needed our own space. At the beginning of this year, we decided it was time. The move lets us operate more comfortable and gives us significant room to grow. We’ve just started moving in, but we’ll do a full tour once we’re more set up.
We bought a CNC machining center. The Keycult workshop is getting a massive upgrade. Along with new offices comes a new shop space and we’re filling it (at least partly) with a Brother Speedio S1000X1. Yes, Brother makes CNC machines in addition to your printer — damn good ones, in fact. We’re going to begin manufacturing some of our keyboards this year and we’re going to do our best to take you along the journey with us. Expect vastly upgraded workshop streams, videos, photos, and more. And we’re starting with something a lot of people are looking forward to: the No. 2/65.
We’d like to take a moment to thank Salvun for his friendship and guidance. He’s doing amazing work out of Belgium and without him, we wouldn’t have had the confidence to take this step.
The No. 3 is being produced by Salvun. In addition to making keyboards ourselves, we’re expanding our production partners to include Salvun, who’s already been making amazing keyboards and keycaps out of Belgium. Prototypes are nearly finished and we’re paying for a first batch of production for an in-stock release, likely followed by a preorder soon after. We’ll be ready to share more soon.
The No. 1 will be produced by our excellent partners in China as planned. Our current in-production run of No. 1/60 and No. 1/65 kits, as well as the upcoming No. 1 TKL preorder, will proceed as planned. In-house production and our work with Salvun will supplement the production capacity of our partners in China so that we’ll be able to release more keyboards than ever.
There’s a big question we haven’t answered yet: when is all this happening? Given the current situation, the answer is unclear. But please rest assured that we’re doing everything we can to bring these projects to fruition as quickly as we can. We hope the No. 1 TKL preorder will be ready next month. We’re working with Salvun to schedule No. 3 production as soon as possible. And our Speedio delivers Monday (3/23) and is being installed on Tuesday — expect to see a lot of pictures and video on our various socials: Discord, Instagram, YouTube.
Last Call: Wrist Rests and Apparel
Today is the final day to join our Wrist Rest and Apparel preorders. These orders will be submitted next week and we'll be sending out updates on production status to participants every other week.
Stay safe and stay well.
Yours,
Zach & Jorge