Anyone else annoyed with how 1. Expensive GMK sets are and
For what they are, I think the sets are priced very well. Many people have the assumption that we pump these sets out one at a time in rapid succession on some assembly line, this is simply not the case. We currently only have 3 machines that make a few caps at most at a time (~30 seconds for 3-4 caps). Each of these is monitored for quality control by a person during production. After production each set is sorted and boxed by hand, during which quality inspection of all the caps happens again. All caps are made entirely in Germany, packaged in Germany, and shipped from Germany, where working rates are also much higher than CN. Signature Plastics caps are also quite expensive, much for the same reasons. They put a lot of manual labor into their caps as well (and it also shows in quality!), it is definitely not close to as automated as many people assume! When you put quality first, there isn't a way to get around such a manual process!
2. How many keys you get that you really don’t need?
This is all up to the designers. Outside of the Q:01 kit, we have not designed any sets in house to sell. Having a full "base kit" is something that the designer choses to do, and generally speaking the community really seems to like this approach. While it is different than making a set with SP, this way of running sets does make it cheaper for what you get, and also is what helps people resell the sets later if they want, as most kits will cover
mostly any keyboard you have or get in the future. We are just the manufacturer, not the designers of the community sets, so we really don't have any control over what keys are included in any given set at all. We do not force anyone to design sets this way.
3. That instead of the manufacturer working to meet the needs of customers.... customers are going out of their way to meet the needs of a company.... this seems backwards to capitalism (whether or not you agree with capitalism doesn’t matter).
I think we work really hard to meet the needs of the customers. Unlike other manufacturers we have invested heavily in packaging. After we invested in the trays we invested in the banderoles, which we essentially eat the cost of to have custom printed for the sets, because we think it really adds a personalized element to the overall package. When the trays initially didn't work as planned we immediately invested more to fix it before the issue could arise again (Triumph Adler anyone?). We currently are finishing up creating the entire sizing of spacebar keys for the bottom row, including may obscure size keys that will only support a few boards, just so they are there for the community to use (finishing 3u, 1.25u, 1.75u now). Again, these were created thanks to the direct feedback from community members and vendors.
Lead time are also incredibly important to us. With the influx of current orders we have currently placed an order for a new machine to raise our capabilities by 25%, as well as doing third shifts. We can't always predict community requirements, but we can certainly react quickly to make sure we can deliver good products within a reasonable time. I am not sure if any other manufacturers have invested in new machinery just for the community (as it isn't cheap at all!).
We have open, direct, transparent lines of communication up with all of our vendors, and take all the feedback we can take from them in chats, and people on here. Obviously we are never perfect, but we are always striving to interact with the community on a deeper level (like designing a keyboard directly with community members) or listening to our vendors for how we can better help them when they are selling/shipping our sets, or with members individually. We are always open to suggestions on how we can improve still.
Not to mention, there is still time this year even to announce new things we have been working on
We simply never rush any product, once we know the quality is there and that we can replicate it to scale, then we announce, but we are always working with community members directly even during design processes for new products because we really do love working with and supporting the community.