Sewing Tin re-makenote: i recommend resizing browser window to be narrower for easier reading, couldnt do it with bbcode 
Summary: Sewing Tin’s production run (completed at the start of May) had some subtle & minor but widespread differences compared to the R2 samples / design files in terms of colour and legend sizing. While the keycaps are (IMO) still a good-looking, usable product they are different to what was sold to customers during the GB.
I noticed the issues shortly after receiving my designer copy of the set. Keyreative investigated the issues promptly and chose to completely re-make Sewing Tin at no extra cost to customers. The re-make is estimated to complete on July 30th.
Vendors are handling the situation in a few different ways: most customers will receive both the existing production run (“B-stock”) plus the re-made caps. Full details are in the last section.
BackgroundOn May 31st, I received my designer copy of Sewing Tin. The first thing I did was put it on my
Ergodox, and I was honestly thrilled with the result! (I kept looking at it and feeling that it was surreal that Sewing Tin actually exists in 3D now.)
I planned to check through all the kits while putting Sewing Tin on as many different boards as I could. After a day I realised something felt a little off with my ergodox, so I pulled out the R2 samples to do a comparison. Before going into detail, here's some overall comparison pictures:
Obligatory disclaimer: I've tried my best to capture what I'm seeing in these photos, but photos are never as accurate as seeing it in-person for colours, and some of the more subtle changes were difficult to capture in photos.There are some subtle differences between the approved R2 samples and the production run keycaps. I notified zFrontier/Keyreative immediately and then spent the following days checking through each of the kits to check which kits were affected and if there were any other issues.
I do want to emphasise they are
very subtle changes - it took me a whole day before I noticed them!
The differences1/ Colours changedTo recap: all colours from R2 were approved. The three lightest blues were re-sampled in R3 but NOT approved. The yellow and darkest blue were not re-sampled in R3.The most obvious difference is in the yellow; it's now more saturated. The two lightest blues also changed to be less purple, and are closer to the R3 samples rather than the R2 samples, but these were very slight changes. The new colours are still close to the Pantones, and they still form a nice gradient.
2/ Alpha sizing increasedEvery kit with number or letter keys was affected. The increase in sizing is small in absolute terms - letters like a are 0.5mm taller while the |\ legend is 1mm taller - but it is a noticeable difference, especially when the keys are compared directly side-by-side:
The numrow keys were the correct size in the base kits, whilst being erroneously increased in other kits.
3/ Smaller issues- Ergo kit has rectangle cookie in 2nd darkest blue instead of circle cookie
- Ortho kit has incorrect 2u keys (zigzags in 2nd darkest blue instead of 2nd lightest blue, 1x cross 1x zigzag in lightest blue instead of 2x cross)
- Text is bigger on yellow “backspace” key compared to other cursive keys (affects TKL mixed mods, TKL text mods, Mixed base)
Otherwise, the kits had the correct keys/legends, with some minor issues such as staining and slightly mis-aligned legends.
Keyreative’s responseI compiled a detailed report about the above and shared it with vendors June 5th and Keyreative June 7th. Keyreative responded with a prompt investigation into the issues.
Here is their response:
I investigated the production history of this order this afternoon. we changed production supervisors in April and the staff was very disorganized, and due to our internal management issues, several inspection steps were missing. I am very sorry for this major quality issue and I don't think this is something that can be solved by a simple after-sales service.
I just announced this decision in a quality meeting, Sweing Tin this order to re-produce. I will receive the production schedule by tomorrow morning and let you know immediately.
Again, I am very sorry for this order, which wasted a lot of your time and effort and let you down. I hope the re-produced product will give you a satisfactory result.
All the goods will be completely remade.
This order will be re-produced to standard and all issues will be resolved.
The old goods are given to the buyer or vendor as compensation and we do not recycle them.
This time it made us re-examine the production process and indeed found management gaps, thank you for your tolerance.
Additionally, I was informed that legend size changed due to a mistake zFrontier made when converting the SVG design files I produced to PDF (they were upscaled too much, and the upscaled legends were used).
Keyreative decided to completely re-produce the set at no additional cost to customers/vendors. I was very pleasantly surprised as I was not expecting a complete re-production of the set to be possible and thought we would have to accept the unintentional changes. Obviously the ideal outcome would have been for everything to turn out correctly the first time, but Keyreative has done everything they could to make things right here and I am deeply grateful to them for it.
The re-production is estimated to complete July 30th. I’ve provided updated packaging files & requested the kits be clearly labeled as “(v2)” to avoid the different production runs from being mixed up by vendors/customers.
What’s next?Each vendor has a slightly different situation (e.g. zFrontier has already fulfilled GB orders, some vendors’ shipments of the initial production run are already en-route to them, whilst other vendors’ shipments are still in China) so there are some variances in how the re-make is being handled. Each vendor’s plan is below.
To thank everyone for their support and patience, I’ve made some small gifts (sticker/postcard) that will be included with all GB orders - including preorders placed with Vala before the re-make was announced. Click
here for a sneak peek at the sticker design.
zFrontier: The already-produced keycaps have already been shipped to customers. After the re-make is complete, the re-produced keycaps will be shipped to customers (including the thank you gifts).
Zion Studios, proto[Typist], Ashkeebs, SwitchKeys: The already-produced keycaps will be held until the re-make is complete. Customers will receive both the existing keycaps and the re-made keycaps for their order (e.g. if you ordered a novelty base kit, you will receive 1 original novelty base kit and 1 re-made novelty base kit).
Vala Supply: By default, both GB and existing pre-orders will be treated the same as above (already-produced keycaps will be held until the re-make is complete and customers will receive both the original and re-made keycaps for their order).
Optionally, customers can choose to receive the already-produced/B-stock caps earlier (after they arrive with Vala Supply in early July) by paying the additional shipping costs. Their re-made caps will then be sent to them after production completes. Customers will be receiving an email from Vala Supply about the situation shortly - to choose this option, either reply to that email or contact support@vala.supply with your order number.
Pre-orders are now paused and will re-opened closer to when the re-made caps are complete.
mykeyboard.eu: Unknown. I have not received any responses from mykeyboard.eu since the set has been completed: their original kits are still with Keyreative. I suspect this is related to their
recent announcement re: cashflow issues (
discord invite link). I will continue to try to contact them.
After group buy orders are fulfilled, some vendors will be selling stock from the initial production run as discounted “B-stock” keycaps (with full disclaimers about the differences and faults in this run). Again, there will be some variances, and details will be confirmed for each vendor closer to that time (e.g. some vendors may sell the A and B stock together as a set, some may sell them separately).
ConclusionThank you for reading this far, but more importantly, to those who supported Sewing Tin: thank you so much for your support and your patience. I apologise for the additional delay in receiving your Sewing Tin caps.
I've been working closely with Keyreative and my vendors to handle the situation over the past few weeks and I'm satisfied with the outcome. While I wouldn’t have chosen for things to happen this way, I deeply appreciate Keyreative’s gracious handling of the situation after the issues were discovered - they've done everything they could to make things right here.
The already produced caps are nice and completely usable - the yellow is extra buttery and the gradient is still lovely - but I’m ultimately glad that the re-make is happening, so I can give you all the best possible version of Sewing Tin as it matches my vision. Though if you like the “B stock” version more, that’s also fair (haven't heard any complaints from folks who've already received their caps from zF!)
