Falcon 1: World's Best Fitting Sunglasses

Mon Mar 12 '18 Announcement
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 12:17:02 PM

Hello everyone! First of all, I have to bare the bad news that we are delayed for an additional 2 - 3  months due to several circumstances which I will explain in details below. The good news is, we are getting really really close to shipping the sunglasses out to you!

Let’s get started.

1. Casing & Packaging

The packages are currently in the middle of the ocean on route to Boston from China, and are expected to arrive at our warehouse on April 13th.

This is the exact current location of the ship right now (March 12th, 2018).

It was initially expected to arrive towards the end of February, but we unfortunately ran into the factory and freight forwarder's Chinese New Year schedule. We couldn't get it onto a ship before the factory and the port closed for the holidays, so there was a 6 weeks delay on this shipment. The good news is that they are of top notch quality and look fantastic!

Here are some pictures from the factory.

2. Lenses

It’s been a pain in the butt to get the lenses from the suppliers. Since we switched from Poly-Carbonate to NXT, we found out that there’s only one authentic supplier in the world for the lenses with over 5000 skus. Because our order is relatively small compared with other more established brands, the company did not prioritize our requests. We went through months of back and forth to get the samples, and finally managed to get the order through. The lens shipment is expected to arrive in 4 weeks, and it will take an additional 2 - 3 weeks to cut, which puts us towards the end of April. But I must say that it was well worth the wait, because the quality of these lenses is absolutely incredible, you won't be disappointed.

3. Coating

This is the most exciting part of the update yet. After many many attempts and prototypes, we finalized the coating technology and process for the frames 4 weeks ago. All frames are now coated with Cerakote - an ultra thin layer (0.001 mm) of ceramic coating that’s UV proof, sweat proof, erosion proof, paint-crack proof, and best of all, 150 colors to choose from! We are now narrowing the colors down to 5 for the initial production, as the cost of labor would be too much of a burden for us at this stage, since each color needs to be applied separately. We are hoping to offer a broader rage of colors and patterns in the next year or so.

Here are some initial color samples, please message us and let us know if you have a strong preference towards a particular color, it’d be really helpful to us to determine what colors to offer.

You will receive another questionnaire before we go into full production on the color of your choice for the frame.

4. 3D Scan Process

We paused the scanning process for 2 months since we ran into 2 big bugs that were previously not detected. Partly because the scanner provider made updates to their developer software, coupled with the latest iOS update, causing upload failures for our app, and sometimes causing the screen to freeze in the middle of the scan process. We have submitted the latest update to the app store and it should be published in several days, and we will resume the scanning process right away. We still have roughly 20 customers in the US to complete, then move onto international backers.

Based on the current information and timeline, the first batch of orders should be going out during the first week of May. We really apologize for delaying the shipping, it was a much larger and more complex system with no precedents to refer to. Aside from perfecting the quality of the product, we spent a lot of time building the database, the software, and the production management system. All these parts are very time consuming, but absolutely crucial for our customers and us as a company in the long run.

As always, thank you for your patience and understanding. Your continued support means the world to us.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. We are always here.

Best regards,

Team Skelmet

Fri Dec 1 '17 Announcement
about 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 01, 2017 at 01:28:35 PM

Hi everyone! We’ve got a lot of update you on.

Please forgive us for taking so long for this update, we had been waiting on several key events in order to send out a comprehensive update.

Scan App

Our scan app is now finally available to download on the iOS App Store. We went back and forth with Apple and Occipital (the company behind the scanner we use) several times to get our app optimized and approved. With the successful launch of the app, we can finally begin collecting 3D head scans.

As mentioned in the last update, we will be shipping the scan box to you with all of the necessary equipments. You will also receive an email with specific login credentials and your unique QR ID.

The scanning process can get complicated and confusing, please follow this tutorial closely. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. We’d be happy to hop on the phone or Skype to guide you through the process.

Production

To our surprise, the most time consuming part during production is the case and packaging. We have been working to get the order for the past 2 months, but unfortunately, with tooling, manufacturing, de-odoring, shipping, together with the upcoming holidays in the US and in China, it seems like we still have to wait for another 2 months or so to receive the shipment. We sincerely apologize for the delay, this was entirely a miscalculation on our part.

We did finally manage to get the case to match our exact expectations. The case now features waterproof zippers, semi-hard EVA shell with protective velvet inner lining.

Lens Supply

We went through rigorous optical and physical tests for several lens materials and manufacturers and have decided to switch from PC (Poly-Carbonate) to NXT. NXT lens is the best sports lens on the market today that provides outstanding polarization, optical clarity, and impact resistance. It is made with Trivex material, a polymer derived from chemistry originally developed for the US military. It is amazingly lightweight with outstanding visual and physical performance. Although the price for NXT lens is higher, it was an easy decision after we saw the quality.

Forbes 30 Under 30

Our co-founder James and Rain were selected amongst other industry leaders for the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2018. We are thrilled for this incredible recognition, and motivated to produce better products, services and experiences to our customers.

Thank you for your continued support and patience. We are deeply sorry about missing the previously promised shipping deadline. Rest assured, we are not going anywhere, please feel free to reach out at any time. We will be in close contact with each backer during the 3D scanning process.

Warmest regards,

Team Skelmet

Tue Aug 22 '17 Announcement
over 7 years ago – Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 11:22:15 AM

August Update

Hi Y’all! Hope you are having a great summer!

Sorry for taking a little longer than usual, it’s been quite busy at Skelmet-land.

Delivery

We got the packaging and case mostly figured out, some small changes need to be added as details matter a lot to us. We want to present the best possible quality product to you in every aspect. 

Credit Card Charge

As we are going into full production next week, we will be processing your Backerkit purchases on September 1st.

3D Printing

We decided to use Polyjet 3D printers instead of SLS. Same material but different printing technology. Products produced with Polyjet are a lot stronger, the downside is that the sunglasses get slightly heavier (3-5 grams), but we think it’s a tradeoff worth taking.

Safety Tests

We’ve been doing a lot of stress tests to make sure your sunglasses are as safe as they can be, we are making little changes as we receive results from stress testing, and quickly increase the strain and strength through design modifications.

3D Scanning

The scan app is slightly delayed. We were not happy with the previous version and hired a new team to redo the entire app in order to get better front-end experience and more enhanced 3D scanning quality. We are currently testing the user experience to make sure anyone can pick it up and produce an accurate scan. The beta version should be available to download during the first or second week of September.

In terms of the 3D scanning process. We were originally designing the app to be compatible with a single camera cellphone or tablet. It turned out to be very hard to use, and given that iPhone 7 Plus has the dual camera system, and the next generations of iPhone and Android phones will have scanners built in, we decided to develop the scan technology with the new iOS 11 Depth API release so that it will be applicable for the next years to come. Therefore during the meantime, the current solution is for us to ship you a small scan box that contains a Structure Sensor 3D scanner, a scan cap, and all of the required instructions and accessories. We will schedule for FedEx to come pick up the box after you are done with scanning. If you have any questions or concerns with the scan, we can get on Skype or a call with you to walk you through. It’s a simple, fun process that won’t take more than 5 minutes. We will be communicating with you individually to finalize the logistics. Thank you so much for your patience!

That's all for now <3

Sincerely,

Team Skelmet

Mon Jul 10 '17 Announcement
over 7 years ago – Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 05:58:35 AM

July Updates

Time flies! We’ve had a couple of super eventful months, so there’s a lot to update you on.

We finished the accelerator program at HAX in San Francisco - what a crazy and rewarding experience. We learned so much throughout the process, and got most of the logistics figured out with the help of industry experts. We also got to meet most of the backers in the Bay Area during our time there, thank you all for taking the time to meet with us, we really appreciate your support!

We finalized the lens hooking design - they need to be easy to swap out but still secure when they encounter impacts. Check out the final version:

We also went through a bunch of tests for the prescription lenses, more work needs to be done as we are not entirely happy with the aesthetics. It’s costly to go back and forth on the small details, but definitely worth it!

We went through 3 iterations of the nose and temple silicon pieces, they had to be molded so that took some time, but we are pretty happy with the quality of the latest version, so there'll just be a few small design modifications, and we’re all set!

We completed the case and packaging design - we don’t want to spoil the surprise yet, but we think you’d like it. 

A minor setback: the 3D printing facility we were working with didn't meet our manufacturing requirements, the last 2 orders were delayed and they didn't follow our specific instructions for the print parameters, so we are now testing with 2 other manufacturers in the U.S. We are in the process of finalizing the contract, as soon as we set up the account, we will be on track for full production.

The Skelmet scan app was recently approved by Apple for beta testing, we’ll be running some more tests before making it publicly available to you all. We’ve managed to scan 30% of the backers in person as many of you are in Massachusetts or California. We’ll be reaching out to you individually with regards to the details for scanning once the app is fully ready.

One great news, we got into one of the most prominent accelerators in the world - Mass Challenge in Boston, we were amongst the top 8% startups that beat out thousands of competitors to receive a spot in this year’s cohort. We are super excited to take our company and our products to the next level with this program.

One last thing, Our co-founder Rain gave an awesome talk at Idea City a few weeks ago in Toronto. Check it out!

Hope you are having a great summer, let us know if you have any questions!

- Team Skelmet

Fri May 12 '17 Announcement
over 7 years ago – Fri, May 12, 2017 at 11:04:24 AM

Survey Is Closing Out Soon

Hi y'all, we are closing out the surveys next Friday (May 19th). 95% of the backers have filled out the personalization survey, but we are still waiting on 30% of the prescription backers to fill out the prescription survey. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Our founders James and Rain are currently in San Francisco attending HAX - the world's largest and most influential hardware accelerator. With the support and help HAX provides, we are looking forward to accelerate the growth of Skelmet. 

Again, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at any time.

- Team Skelmet