Fri Dec 1 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Dec 01, 2017 at 07:29:23 AM
Hi backers,
A short update this time.
In the previous update, we promised to share a delivery schedule so that you know when to expect your pair of Knops. Together with our production partner, we’re still exploring options to scale the production capacity. This means that we are still working on the delivery schedule. We’ll share this schedule once we receive the required information from our production partner.
If we’re able to scale quickly, this will have a big (positive) influence on the delivery schedule. Meaning that we can ship all orders in a shorter time span. Fingers crossed!
Much love,
Team Knops
One of the founders, Koen, wearing the latest prototype of Knops.
Fri Nov 24 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Nov 24, 2017 at 08:27:40 AM
Hi backers,
December is going to be a very busy month for us. All the different aspects of launching a new product are coming together. Fulfillment, packaging, shipping, producing and testing the product. All these tasks are now in the final stage and are going to be finalized in December.
Richard and Arjen are already working closely together with our production company. The coming month they will be present at the production company, full time! Together they’re going to make sure that the fine-tuning phase runs as smooth as possible. This contains the test procedures and the assembly process. We will tell you more about this in future updates.
By the way, we interviewed Arjen and Richard about Dutch design and the production of Knops. They shared their view on design and production. You can read the first part about Dutch Design here and the second part on the production here. Part 3 is on the way and will be about the background of Arjen and Richard and the birth of Knops. We will share that interview with you in one of our coming updates.
Richard (left) and Arjen (right), after the interview.
Next week we will share a delivery schedule so that you know when to expect your pair of Knops. For now, have a nice weekend!
Much love,
Team Knops
Fri Nov 17 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Nov 17, 2017 at 06:41:06 AM
Hi backers,
We would like to share an update on our progress with Knops. We are putting a lot of work in the production of the molds right now. The molds were made in China and the process of making the molds ready for production and the actual production of Knops is happening in the Netherlands. Now there is a slight hiccup: the production of the molds in China took longer than expected. This will result in a little delay when it comes to shipping our product.
Right now it’s difficult to determine how large of a delay we’re talking about, but we’re doing all we can to minimise impact. The fact that we did a lot of pre-engineering is something which definitely helps to minimise the loss of time. We are able to get the molds ready for production much faster. However, because of this delay, we will not be able to ship by the end of this month, but we expect to ship the first orders in January. Depending on the region your shipment will be sent at the beginning or the end of January.
With a highly complex product, there are many components that have to work together in perfect symphony. Every single part and filter has to be tuned to the right size and acoustical performance. So, what is the work that is left to be done?
The mold production for first test injection is in the making and we’re working hard on the final details of the molds. We’re entering the phase of fine-tuning very soon. Let’s get into more detail. Injection molding has its own requirements and therefore needs to be further developed in order to have a mass production version of Knops that looks good and works well. This means that we have to make Knops in several parts because of the production methods and to complete this step of production we use ultrasonic welding. The inside of Knops is going to be highly polished so that there are no imperfections that affect the acoustics.
Besides production, we are also fine-tuning our test equipment, which we going to use to do quality control. Every set of Knops will be tested on their functionality and different acoustic settings. This is a very important step to be able to provide you with a high-quality product.
During the Kickstarter campaign, we introduced a stretch goal. We said that if we reached a funding of €150.000, we would include a high-end hardcover case with Knops to all our backers that helped us reach this threshold. We decided to include this stylish, useful case with every pair of Knops, for everyone! This because of the great support and we want to thank you for your patience so far! See the photo below of the latest prototype of the case. We have already done some improvements on this latest version, so the final case will be even cooler! The final version will have a better zipper and is thinner so that it fits even better in your pocket.
Because of the high demand for Knops, we are already in conversation with our production partner to explore possibilities of scaling up the production capacity. We hope to share good news about this as soon as possible.
Very soon we will share a visual planning with information about production and shipping for Knops. In this planning, we will share a delivery schedule so you will have a good indication of when you can expect your pair of Knops. From now on we’ll share a new update every week. We will also share some insights with you about the production process with photos/videos.
We’re working very closely with our skilled production partner in the Netherlands. Also, we acquired one of the best acoustic engineers in the industry to ensure a high-quality product and a smooth production process. It’s taking a bit longer than we would like, but it will be worth the wait. We’re working hard to make Knops ready for delivery as soon as possible and we hope that you will keep supporting us in our mission of creating the world’s best adjustable hearing solution.
Thanks!
With love,
Team Knops
Wed Nov 1 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Nov 01, 2017 at 02:41:07 AM
Wow, Knops has been a ride! As many of you know we went live with Knops this year April. Before this launch, we already worked for two years on our new product. Then our crowdfunding campaigns hit the web…
SECOND BATCH OF PRE-ORDERS
The crowdfunding success of Kickstarter and Indiegogo blew us away. Even though we were very confident that Knops is a great product, we didn’t know what to expect from the rest of the world. But as we know now, a lot of people are excited for Knops. Pre-orders were placed, a lot of them.
Let’s jump back to the present. More, new pre-orders are coming in every day via our own webshop and Indiegogo. This calls for new measures. Together with our production partner, we have decided to divide the pre-orders into different batches. The first batch is expected to ship by the end of November. The second batch is expected to ship from January 2018. This means that people that order from now on are part of the second batch.
We just wanted to let you know about this, so people do not get confused about the new shipping estimate on our webshop and Indiegogo page. We will share a new update about shipping and delivery later this month. As always, we’ll keep you posted. :)
With love,
Team Knops
Fri Oct 27 '17 Announcement
over 6 years ago
– Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 10:57:18 AM
Hi backers,
We have news to share regarding the planning and production of Knops.
In a previous update, we informed you that we ordered the molds which we’ll use to produce Knops. We are very happy to tell you that we’ve already started with the production of the molds and are still planning to ship the first batch of Knops at the end of November to you, our backers.
Besides production, we've also made a lot of progress with arranging every detail of shipping & fulfillment. We have found a great partner to make sure that this process comes along nice and smooth.
Whilst we were ordering the molds, a lot of pre-engineering was done. This gives us a time advantage now we are producing the molds since we can iterate quickly and get the molds ready for the actual production of the product.
That’s all for now folks. We wįll keep y'all up to speed about the production process and delivery and you will hear from us soon about the actual production of your pair of Knops.
With love,
Team Knops
