Drop + MiTo SA Godspeed Custom Keycap Set Discussions | Drop

Oct 23, 2020

Hey everyone, Time for a well overdue update. There's a lot to unpack here so I'll try to be as detailed as possible. MiTo has been working with our manufacturing team to make his packaging designs into a reality. Our experience in this area historically has been extremely straightforward. With GMK we send designs over and they more or less look after the rest of it. For our own keycaps produced in China, sending designs plus a little bit of coordination gets us a finished product. We incorrectly thought the Godspeed packaging would be of similar complexity. For what we're trying to do with the Godspeed Keycap packaging, we've run into setback after setback. In particular, the printing choices that we've made to get something as close as possible to MiTo's designs has proven problematic. Below is a photo of the designs on our standard "Craft cardboard" that we use for our standard keycaps:

These samples were done and ready to go about 6 weeks ago... But we wanted MiTo's vision to be fully realized, so getting it on a white background shouldn't be so bad right? Excuse the potato resolution, but here's what we got on round 2:

Looking good, and pretty much good to print. We were ready to approve and get going when we found this problem:

Over time the ink on the corners would show signs of cracking- so we worked with the packaging manufacturer on different inks/pigments to get us something that would be more durable and maintain its pristine look over time. A couple of final approval rounds later, and we're finally done. Note that each of these rounds takes about a week (to produce, get it to the Drop employees in SF, and then conference call MiTo in Brazil and review with him, and then provide feedback). Also the cracking problem wasn't immediately apparent, it showed up many days after receiving the samples (we almost went to production before it revealed itself). So here we are, now 2 months into the process, and we have a final approved product that is being manufactured as we speak. Once that's done, it'll be about a week to get it to Sig Plastics, another 30 days for the keycap collating, 7 days to our warehouse, and finally shipped out to you. Yes folks, sadly, that puts our revised timeline sometime around December. Hope this post gives you a little insight into the nature of these delays, and we look forward to getting you a wonderfully packaged keycap set in the near future.

DarthChrisDK

Oct 23, 2020

KevinOuch, that's rough. But I appreciate the information and effort you are making. You normally wouldn't expect something like the packaging design to be the cause of such a substantial delay. Again, thanks for the update. Please keep us posted in case anything changes in relation to the new timeline. It would be great if we could be kept in the loop as the milestones mentioned are accomplished. I can wait. :)

(Edited)

andythecao

Oct 23, 2020

KevinLooks amazing, but please, for the love of god(speed) please package them bette than they did with the hello M0110. Be a shame if all that hard work getting crisp packaging went to waste.

Vote

Oct 23, 2020

andythecaoThat's largely out of our hands... Signature plastics handles all of that part :(

andtar

Oct 26, 2020

KevinWill Signature Plastics be handling packaging and shipping to individual customer for boxed sets?

Vote

Oct 26, 2020

andtarThey box it all, then ship it to us, and we reship it to you.

Vote

Nov 2, 2020

KevinOut of curiosity, what was the reasoning behind adding another 6 weeks just to get the boxes on white cardboard instead of brown? How do you weight perfectly realizing the suggested designs versus being practical and time-efficient? Were you just figuring that people getting the boxes had already agreed to a delay, so another month+ wouldn't make a difference? (Speaking for myself, I wanted boxes over bags, but I'd have happily taken brown boxes over white ones to get them 6 weeks faster, though obviously Drop can't be expected to know that, and it might not be true of other people.) ETA: Thanks, by the way, for staying pretty proactive about these updates. It doesn't seem like it should be that much to ask to get new info (even if it's that there's no change or a further delay) on a predictable timeline, but it's something MD has been really heinously bad about in the past, so this is a pleasant change.

(Edited)

Laneware

Nov 12, 2020

KevinThe fact that you are running through the process like this now, sounds to me like there was originally never any plans or attempts to fulfill the promis on boxes and trays.

Nov 14, 2020

LanewareEvery single keycap we sell (other than through Signature Plastics) is boxed... so we're reasonably experienced with this process. Where we made a massive error is underestimating a) the complexity of MiTo's design relative to what our packaging manufacturer is used to doing, and b) the complexity of integrating Signature Plastics into our packaging supply chain. Just transporting the packaging from the factory to Signature Plastics has turned into a nightmarish pain since neither of the two companies have ever dealt with each other. For something like MT3 Susuwatari, or GMK sets, we can basically send the PDF files a week before the keycaps are done and everything is looked after. Our product team made the extreme error that this would be "slightly more complex", it turns out to be about 10x more complex and time consuming (and now costly apparently, both in terms of financial costs and lost confidence from our customers). We're seeing this boxing situation through to the very end, because the community wanted the packaging as described.

alexives

Nov 24, 2020

KevinJust wondering if there were any more updates on this, based on this timetable they should be about ready to ship them to you folks.

(Edited)

elle-elle-tee

Dec 16, 2020

alexives @Kevin sorry if this has been answered, but inside the boxes are the keycaps in trays? any chance we could see a photo of the trays? just wallowing in anticipation over here.

Vote

Jan 3, 2021

Kevin @Kevin What's the point of having a consolidated pre-order status update thread if it doesn't get updated? The last update for this GB is "(Dec 16th) Expected to arrive at Signature Plastics on 12/21." Two and a half weeks with no update—nearly two weeks of that since an expected event—is back to the old unacceptable non-communication Massdrop has become so notorious for.

DarthChrisDK

Jan 4, 2021

eponymousWhat do you mean? There's an update there. Maybe Kevin and/or other staff members have had a bit of vacation during the holidays and over new year's? (Jan 3) Our tracking shows the packaging has arrived at Signature Plastics. We're now waiting for more info from them about when they'll be done and able to ship the packaged keycaps back to us.

Vote

Zhuxi

Jan 4, 2021

KevinIs there an update? How long has this been? It has been almost a year from the beginning of 2020 to the beginning of 2021. It was delayed for so long because of a box problem. Is it a major mistake and should it be compensated?

Jan 4, 2021

DarthChrisDKI'd think it would be obvious that that update didn't exist when I commented. Perhaps it was added coincidentally; perhaps I reminded them that they'd dropped the ball. And, yes, I was making allowances for holiday time; even if literally every single person was on vacation for weeks, it's ridiculous that not one of them thought to log in for five seconds to check the status and update the post on December 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, or 30 (weekdays between the expected arrival date and now, excluding Xmas Eve and Day and New Year's Eve and Day). That's more than a business week. (If the new system depends on a single person being available, then that's bad design and a serious failure point. Customer communication should be redundant and multiply accountable.)

legosaurusrex

Jan 9, 2021

eponymousSaw this on the other update thread. I didn't know there was one until today! (Jan 8) Signature Plastics is currently packing up the sets and we're hoping they'll be done in around two weeks.

Feb 18, 2021

eponymousI get that you want your keycap set but we all do. This part of the process is basically out of their hands, a company can only throw their own weight around so much without breaking or harming company-company relationships. Also you bought a keycap set, you didn't get hired on the fulfillment team... I sincerely doubt you'd care/want to know every single little detail of the process they go through. The manufacturing industry is basically on fire and sinking into the mud worldwide...

Feb 18, 2021

KeebKollectorI've never asked Massdrop to throw their weight around—merely to give timely updates in a professional way. No one is asking them to storm Signature Plastics and force them to finish the boxing at gunpoint, simply to keep us apprised of the ETA and info about projected delays. I don't know why you're advocating for everyone to get less information (maybe you've been in the hobby so long that you've convinced yourself uncommunicated delays are a good thing), but as someone who's self-employed I can tell you that I would be deeply embarrassed to fail to communicate with my clients about project timelines the way that Massdrop frequently drops the ball with us customers. Manufacturing delays happen—especially during a global pandemic, when they're even more understandable. What's not acceptable is failing to take 30 seconds to give the people who've already paid you a brief update about what's going on, either when a projected date has been reached or once a week when things are up in the air.

Feb 18, 2021

eponymousIm not sure what assumptions you are working under or where I said less information is better. All I am trying to say is that it looks to me that DROP is giving us all the relevant updates as soon as they know. They gave literally everyone paying attention the option to literally go without the box to get them sooner and gave an educated estimate for the boxes. They opened a new line of communication in the product updates section. Past being a shareholder in the project like MITO you can't expect more than that. I mean they could just straight up NOT give any estimates at all, because in this world delays are now the norm. Any actual PM worth their salt would tell you that an estimate is just that, an educated estimate. No plan survives first contact and you can only manage/mitigate SO much risk. Not to mention that if you looked at the actual amount of keysets ordered, it should give yourself an educated estimate of your own since you seem to be familiar with the process of manufacturing a product. I get it you want your stuff, I do as well. This was supposed to be a birthday present for a family member and they're birthday already came and went again.

Feb 19, 2021

KeebKollectorAgain, more slowly this time. The problem... is not... the delays. The problem... is the poor... communication... about it... especially... when a projected date whiffs... and they don't update.

Feb 19, 2021

eponymousRead the entire first paragraph again and try to understand what I am saying, im not typing it out again. For being an editor your reading comprehension needs work.

JamieLO

Feb 22, 2021

KeebKollectorIt might be worth considering that just because someone disagrees with you... it doesn't mean that they didn't "comprehend" what you wrote. I gave Drop $450 of my hard earned money almost a year ago. I do have expectations of professionalism from companies that I give that kind of money to. So far they have slipped delivery by 8 months (with no offer of even token compensation), and recent updates have told us how frustrating it is... for them. I think that an objective person would see this as poor service, and tone-deaf communication. (seriously, throw us a bone of a 15% discount code on a future purchase, and I would feel a lot better about Drop... as it is, there is little chance of them getting any more of my business even though I would really like to buy more stuff)