Production Progress
about 5 years ago – Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 02:37:24 AM

Hey all,

Production of your bandicoots is well and truly underway! The units are looking spectacular and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on them.

As part of the pre-production process, we worked closely with the factory to understand how long the manufacturing process would take. We had forecast an output of 600 units per day, which had us finishing production at the end of March.

However, to ensure the factories maintain their high standard for every bandicoot unit they create, production is taking longer than we had anticipated.

What this means is that the delivery date has been pushed back again, which we’re really sorry about. We are now aiming to have completed the Kickstarter Bandicoot production in late April. This will mean that we will be starting shipping at the end of April. 

Again, we’re really sorry for the delays, but promise that the final product will be well worth the wait.

Love,

Knog

We're almost there!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Feb 27, 2019 at 01:46:44 AM

Hey everyone,

PRE-PRODUCTION

Knog’s owners Hugo and Mal were at our China factory last week overseeing the moulding of pre-production silicone bodies. The tooling modifications that recommenced after Chinese New Year provided excellent results and these parts were approved. We’re sorry that these final modifications took longer than anticipated, but we’re really happy with the outcome.

Now these changes are complete, production jigs and fixtures for assembly are being finalised! Field testing is nearly complete and all the feedback from our testers suggests the electronics are solid and performing as designed. Other feedback from field testers regarding usability, comfort, weight, light output and  optics are all very positive.  We still have final waterproof testing to conduct – but preliminary testing suggests we should have no issues.  So all in all - we are glad to confirm that even with all these balls in the air, everything we have planned still remains on track to start shipping the Bandicoots out to you in March.

They say a picture tells a thousand words, so this video from the factory must be an entire book!

DOWN UNDER

We’ve been just as busy on the Melbourne home front. Our Logistics team have been finalising the last minute shipping details with fulfilment centres in America, the EU and Australia, so as soon as production of the Bandicoots is finished they’ll be on their way to you. We’ve also just finished filmed a little Bandicooot ‘how to’ so you’ll know exactly how to handle your Bandicoot once it arrives.

SHIPPING ADDRESS

For those of you who have changed address in the last few months, please send us a DM on Kickstarter ASAP and we will unlock your Shipping Address in Backerkit for you to amend. Once production starts in the next week or so, we will no longer be able to make any further changes to addresses.

We’re all getting really excited to be so close to getting the Bandicoots out to you all! Again, apologies for the delays we have experienced in the project, but a huge thank you to all of you for your support of the Bandicoot. We know you’re going to love it!
 

Love,

Knog

Silicone Success!
about 5 years ago – Fri, Feb 08, 2019 at 12:42:00 AM

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update for you all on our progress.

Right before Chinese New Year, we received silicone components off the updated tooling that were very impressive!  We are confident now that the quality and appearance of the Bandicoot body and strap have finally met our high standard of quality, geometric integrity and accuracy.

There are some final modifications that need to be made, and the factory ran out of time to do these before closing for Chinese New Year. The factory will be back up and working on 14th Feb, and we estimate that those modifications will take about a week.

If everything goes to plan, we will then be able to approve all parts of the Bandicoot for production, and able to start shipping in March!

We’re nearly there folks, thanks so much for your patience.

Love,

Knog

China Factory Visit
over 5 years ago – Fri, Jan 18, 2019 at 01:44:51 AM

Hey everyone,     

The visit to the China factories is going really well. It’s a great opportunity for us to see the parts coming straight off the tool and give feedback straight away, rather than having to wait for them to be sent to Australia for review.    

The silicone colours have all been finalised and approved against the master samples that we provided the factories with. The colours are looking great and are going to look even better on all of your heads. In addition, we also had the specialist colour mixing team working hard to ensure the plastic components on the Bandicoot perfectly matched the silicone colour. The plastic colours were mixed many times, and have now been approved.    

We are perfectionists here at Knog. We still weren’t 100% happy with how the silicone components were coming off the tool. So we are making a few tweaks and changes with the factory around the tooling to make sure the Bandicoot meets our (and your!) high standards. 

As many of you have identified, our quest for perfection has moved our pre-production activities into the Chinese New Year period. So in order to minimise any delays, we sent some of the Knog team over to China. Our plan is to have the tooling signed off before our factory stops for Chinese New Year, then move into full production of the Bandicoot straight after CNY. With everything else ready, and final testing of production jigs and fixtures nearly complete, we are confident that we’ll have perfect Bandicoots ready to ship to you from the start of March.   

Right, we’ll get back to it!     

Love,

Knog

New Year, New Update
over 5 years ago – Thu, Jan 10, 2019 at 01:03:57 AM

Hey everyone,

Hope you’re all having a great start to 2019.

Just a quick little note to let you know that we sent another Knog team member back over to China last night to meet with the factories. He will be meeting with the toolmakers to ensure that all the tooling modifications and improvements that we specified during our last visit have been implemented exactly to the standards we expect.

We’re aiming to get a full update out to you all next week (plus hopefully some more photos!) once we’ve met with the factories.

It is looking like we might be shipping out a touch later than January - but we don’t want to communicate any changed shipping dates until we have all the information. So we’ll update you on this ASAP.

Thanks again for everyone’s support and patience, we can’t wait to get this Bandicoot out to you all.

Love Knog