Exclusive interview with Brian from EK

[intelli78]

Been trying not to spam with too much stuff from my blog, but I really think you guys will like this. 

http://www.keychatter.com/2015/03/13/exclusive-interview-with-brian-k-owner-of-elitekeyboards-com/

[SpAmRaY]

Maybe we need a blog subforum.

[Firebolt1914]

Maybe we need a blog subforum.

I think we need one as well.

[intelli78]

I love that idea and would certainly be open to it.  Who should I ask?

[ghostjuggernaut]

I love that idea and would certainly be open to it.  Who should I ask?

Absolutely.

[SpAmRaY]

I love that idea and would certainly be open to it.  Who should I ask?

I would say PM mkawa

[Flyersfan1]

What an awesome interview, I've really been enjoying your blog more and more, Intelli. It's reminded me of DanGWang's blog, which first got me into mechanical keyboards.  I really wish Brian had more of a presence here.

[heedpantsnow]

Only read a bit and love it!  Also seems to capture some GH history, some of which I was around for and a lot that I wasn't. Thanks for doing this!

[osi]

Interesting read - thanks!

[SpAmRaY]

What an awesome interview, I've really been enjoying your blog more and more, Intelli. It's reminded me of DanGWang's blog, which first got me into mechanical keyboards.  I really wish Brian had more of a presence here.

Must be that do it alone thing he mentioned.

[azhdar]

Loved it.
You should at least make a thread that you bump for new articles. Your blog is great but I can never remember of going on it.

[Belfong]

I have always been curious on the relationship between CC and EK. Why does EK get to sell CCs exclusively? Looks like you didn't ask or you did but no response?

[SpAmRaY]

I have always been curious on the relationship between CC and EK. Why does EK get to sell CCs exclusively? Looks like you didn't ask or you did but no response?

That would have made for an interesting question but so much mystery surrounds CC its probably top secret.

And or maybe EK was the first place to give clack a chance to sell his caps and he is loyal to them for that. OR maybe Brian is CC 

[CPTBadAss]

Great interview and like FlyersFan1 said, I'm really getting into your blog. Thanks for all the hard work .

[Belfong]

And or maybe EK was the first place to give clack a chance to sell his caps and he is loyal to them for that. OR maybe Brian is CC 

Intriguing.. there were some lost CC in post and Brian was quick to replace it, as if he had extras. You might have something there!

[intelli78]

Haha, hmm, did not ask about CC. I'm pretty sure I know who CC is. Won't say anything more than that, because he obviously does not want to share his real identity. But I don't think it's Brian 

I asked mkawa about the subforum, he is down, but sounds like it's up to the mod team, so I PMed them, will see what happens.

[aref]

Good interview. Brian has always been a gentleman in my transactions with EK.

[Special K]

Interesting.  These quotes in particular stood out to me:

but Diatec (Filco distributor) wasn’t very interested in the Western markets at the time and didn’t want to sell blue switches because they were a big support headache.

Why would Cherry MX blue switches be any bigger of a support headache than browns?  Aren't they rated for a similarly high number of presses (tens of millions)?

Regarding Diatec/Filco:

Unfortunately, unresolved quality issues we reported to Diatec went unaddressed, and my focus on quality started to weigh too heavily under the increased sales. I was repairing new Filcos before they went out the door to make sure the product was consistent and polished enough to maintain the reputation needed to demand its high price.

and

They had a very solid product, and even by today’s standards, the Majestouch would still be a competitive product. But there were a number of things in the design that were causing a pretty consistent number of failures, and this was really not in line with the price point of the keyboard. It felt like, something that cost this much needed to live up to the mechanical promise of being able to achieve 50 million keystrokes.

I had no idea Filcos were considered unreliable.  I bought mine from EK in 2009 and have been using it as my daily driver almost ever since without any issues.  I realize that's only a single data point, but my impression was that Filco was a solid, reliable keyboard.

[azhdar]

Interesting.  These quotes in particular stood out to me:

but Diatec (Filco distributor) wasn’t very interested in the Western markets at the time and didn’t want to sell blue switches because they were a big support headache.

Why would Cherry MX blue switches be any bigger of a support headache than browns?  Aren't they rated for a similarly high number of presses (tens of millions)?

I've heard some batches of cherry mx blue aren't clicky.

[intelli78]

From what I gathered during the interview, MX Blues at one point had a reputation problem in the forum / among manufacturers. Not sure if it was warranted or not, also I could be completely wrong, we didn't explicitly discuss the issue, he just made a couple remarks in passing that gave me this impression. Any of the veteran users know anything about it?

[Dihedral]

It's strange thinking what it must have been like in the 'old days'. Us newbies have had it easy!

[dustinhxc]

Wow! Very long with many important questions! Thanks for taking the time for that!
I had no idea the Leopold partnare was such a bad business partner. That's too bad!

[hwood34]

From what I gathered during the interview, MX Blues at one point had a reputation problem in the forum / among manufacturers. Not sure if it was warranted or not, also I could be completely wrong, we didn't explicitly discuss the issue, he just made a couple remarks in passing that gave me this impression. Any of the veteran users know anything about it?

I just remember the thing that was posted on reddit IIRC about Cherry workers hating to manufacture blues because they were a huge PITA, can't remember why though

[intelli78]

the Leopold partnare

[dustinhxc]

the Leopold partnare

Show Image

Howwdy partnare'   ^-^

[intelli78]

It's strange thinking what it must have been like in the 'old days'. Us newbies have had it easy!

Very true, we have access to a crazy selection of stuff compared to a few years ago. I hope the upward trend continues for a long time.

[yomammary]

I love keychatter, congrats on the great work intelli78!

[jacobolus]

Great interview, Aaron!

It’s interesting to wonder what the world would look like with no Geekhack. Was some similar site inevitable, or would keyboard fans in the West still be totally fragmented without GH as a catalyst? One way or another, it’s an amazing bunch of shared knowledge and community everyone has built here.

Do you have any more interviews lined up?

[derezzed]

That interview is legit.  Thanks intelli78 and Brian Kreps for taking the time to do that.  I haven't dealt with EK yet, though I might have bought a keyboard from them if they'd had the KUL ES-87 with MX Clears in stock when I was looking for a TKL board.  As consumers, we rarely get to know the businesses with whom we deal so personally, and it was great to get insight into the industry and the history of the hobby, too. 

As an added bonus, that interview raised awareness about the mystery of clickclack, an issue that I was not aware of. 

Who could he be? 

Clark Kent?


Shin Hayata? 


Or you? Or you? Or YOU? 


The truth is out there!

[heedpantsnow]

Didn't click clack invent Bitcoin?

[strict]

Excellent read, I actually learned a lot from that 

[davkol]

Maybe we need a blog subforum.

Meh. The forum format is already weird.

planet.geekhack.org would be neat though.

[fuzzyx3000]

lol i'm pretty sure this was the picture that "doubled" his sales overnight oh how I've missed FruitDealer and the old gsl days

[Smasher816]

Thanks for the good read.

Brian is a pretty cool dude. Drove up from SOCAL to NORCAL before the start of school and made sure to visit his shop. Was very nice and even gave me suggestions for dinner and hotels Ohh and playing with 55g topre was cool, as even at meetups you don't see it too much.

[yomammary]

Show Image

lol i'm pretty sure this was the picture that "doubled" his sales overnight :P oh how I've missed FruitDealer and the old gsl days :(

The good old days  :'(

[intelli78]

Great interview, Aaron!

It’s interesting to wonder what the world would look like with no Geekhack. Was some similar site inevitable, or would keyboard fans in the West still be totally fragmented without GH as a catalyst? One way or another, it’s an amazing bunch of shared knowledge and community everyone has built here.

Do you have any more interviews lined up?

Sorry I missed this. I do! I've got interviews coming up with Jesse from keyboard.io and the VP of Sales at Kinesis.

Any requests?

[CPTBadAss]

Aaron could you do an interview with Matias and someone from Mechanicalkeyboards.com? Perhaps one of the Ducky reps too? The Ducky people on Facebook have been very friendly.

[ApocalypseMaow]

Awesome job INT!

Maybe we need a blog subforum.

I miss sth 

[SpAmRaY]

Awesome job INT!

Maybe we need a blog subforum.

I miss sth 

He can be found on DT.

[dante]

Maybe we need a blog subforum.

intelli78 deserves a subforum just for him.

[SpAmRaY]

Maybe we need a blog subforum.

intelli78 deserves a subforum just for him.

Don't get too carried away.

[Dihedral]

Maybe we need a blog subforum.

intelli78 deserves a subforum just for him.

Don't get too carried away.

Agreed with spamray, too many subforums makes it harder, not easier, to find interesting content.

[intelli78]

Aaron could you do an interview with Matias and someone from Mechanicalkeyboards.com? Perhaps one of the Ducky reps too? The Ducky people on Facebook have been very friendly.

Good ideas. Let me see what I can do!