Tooling Complete + Status of Gold and Silver Napier Jiggers
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 11:01:31 PM

Hi Backers,

We had an extremely busy beginning to the year. It included a lot of back and forth correspondence with our manufacturing team to try to make big progress before lunar new year - which we did!

Jigger Tooling

We received a status update from our team that included photos of the tooling for the jigger, and the good news is that tooling is complete!  As soon as the factory re-opens in March, they'll begin making production samples.

Here is a photo of the die tool that will be used to stamp and stretch the main body of the jigger:

The manufacturing process involves forming a piece of flat sheet metal into a three-dimensional part by using a die and a punch.  The die has a cavity (shaped like the outside of the jigger) that is precisely fitted to the punch (shaped like the inside of the jigger), and together they stretch and press the sheet metal into form.  

Gold and Silver Plating

We've got good news and bad news.  The good news is, our factory found a supplier for authentic gold and silver plating. The bad news is that the cost to include real gold and silver plating is WAY higher than we expected. 

We based our pricing for these items on an initial quote that we believed was real precious metal finishing (but actually was not - if you missed our last update, we discuss this hurdle in more detail). Since the original quote was based on an alloy finish (imitation gold and silver) we knew that the new quote (for authentic finishes) would increase, but we didn't anticipate them to be so high.

What does this mean for the project?  Well, if we use 24 karat gold and real silver plating, the retail prices go way up.  The silver jigger increases from $27 to $40+, and the gold jigger from $35 to $50. 

As much as we'd love to cover the cost increase ourselves, it is much too large for us to assume in our Kickstarter budget. We have a few options:

What Should We Do?

1) Don't use real gold and silver plating. This isn't actually a terrible idea.  In hindsight, if you look at most gold and silver barware, they are ALL plated with alloy metals (not authentic previous metal). Ours will be titanium alloys, food grade (so, food-safe), and will also receive an extra-thick plating process and protective coating so they won't easily scratch or wear.

If you have gold barware in your collection, and the place you purchased it from didn't specify "24 karat gold," then they've used the world "gold" as an appearance/color descriptor, and it's plated with an imitation alloy. It's actually really, really hard to find barware that specified 24k gold, and when you do - you'll see that the price reflects why.

2) Increase funding to allow for 24 karat gold and real silver plating. We can still manufacture with the real stuff, but it will cost.  Since we aren't able to bear that cost (it's WAY beyond the margin we've built into the Kickstarter prices), this would mean that those of you that really really want real gold or silver would need to help us get there by increasing your pledge for those items.  We haven't worked out all the details yet, but it would be something like + $8.00 for silver and + $12 for 24k gold.  If we go with this approach, we will still make the more economical version, so if we add another two finishes, it increases the number of SKU's we manufacture, and adds some administrative burden - but we could do it.

Here's a photo we received from our manufacturing team, as an example of the difference in finish between 24k gold and the alloy finish (it's a food-grade titanium metal alloy that is used for both the silver and gold imitation finishes):

Backers, we need your input!

We know there are some of you that don't care so much about the authenticity of the color, and this may come as good news, because imitation alloys are much easier to care for than those with real precious metal plating (there's the silver lining... and yes, that pun was intended!)

But we also know that there are some of you who probably were really excited about getting a true precious-metal plated jigger, and this might be a stressful update for you (it is for me).

So, it's time for a survey!  This is a big decision to make all by ourselves, and we need your feedback. Help us decide what to do:

SURVEY: GOLD & SILVER FINISH OPTIONS.

Thanks for your feedback - it's always really important to us. 

What's Next?

The factory workers are still all on holiday, and begin returning to work end of February, with factories getting back into full swing during the beginning of March.  Our factory will begin producing samples, and we'll have to make a decision about whether to add two new finishes for the real gold and silver plating processes. We've also got the big task of finishing packaging design, which is what we'll be tackling next. 

We'll post an update in a few weeks with responses from the Gold/Silver Survey, and with some more information about what we'll be doing going forward. 

Best,

Rachel Eva & Shawn Michael

Happy New Year + Production Update
about 7 years ago – Tue, Jan 02, 2018 at 08:20:03 PM

Hi Backers,

We just got back from a little holiday, but have lots of things to report, so here goes:

We have placed our order with the factory for the jigger.

This is a big project milestone, and it took us longer to arrive at this place than we anticipated. However, we feel really secure about the work we did over the last two months, which will help us avoid potentially upsetting surprises and delays during future mass production and quality assurance processes.

What We've Done:

• We worked out some very detailed, fastidiously measured 3-D design files
• We expanded our original manufacturing quote request to a 10-page product specification document to help guide the manufacturing process
• We wrote our quality control standards and prepped the overseas team on every detail and expectation for quality inspections
• We did a LOT of budgeting to adjust for a larger manufacturing run and to add the Metric jigger.
• We selected and have set up operations with our 3rd Party fulfillment partner, which means we'll ship out to you all REALLY fast once we receive the jiggers.

Discoveries:

During this process, we made a few discoveries. (Once you start getting into the details with the factory, this tends to happen). Because we value transparency, here are some things we have to share:

1) The tooling and manufacturing timeline are longer than originally estimated.

Partly this is because we've added the metric jigger to our original product scope. We considered working on two separate timelines, to ensure we will deliver the Imperial jigger on time, as originally promised, but this is greatly inefficient, and it makes much more sense to develop the two jiggers at the same time.  So, fair warning in advance, we've lost some of the cushion that we originally built into our timeline.

Another reason for the longer timeline is because we are working with a different factory than the one that originally quoted us our timelines (more on that below).

2) Our new factory has not yet sourced a supplier for gold and silver plating.

New Factory?  Yep - we are working with a different factory than the one that originally quoted us.

Why? Well, the original factory that quoted us for the work (pricing AND timelines) was discovered to be not as reliable during the initiation phase post-Kickstarter. One of the things we discovered is that the original quote for the gold and silver jiggers was for imitation gold and silver alloys, not authentic gold and silver plating. This was a complete surprise to us (as of a few weeks ago), as the original quote did not disclose this.

The good news is that we were able to identify this discrepancy in advance, and because of this (and a few other factors), we are now working with a factory that is very clear on what we want, and what they can deliver.  We are working with them to find suppliers who can apply authentic gold and silver finishes. 

We are moving forward with tooling, molds, and sample making. The sample timeline is 40 days, and we should be able to find gold and silver suppliers during this time. We'll keep you updated, of course!

3) This project will take a little longer than anticipated

Between the time it took to get the specs right this last month, changing factories, the increased manufacturing timeline, unknown suppliers for gold and silver finishes, and Lunar New Year (where factories close down for nearly all of February), we may be delivering a little late. Probably not later than a month or two, and definitely in the first half of 2018.  I've got my sights set on May, but that would be assuming the samples we receive are perfect and require no revisions, and nothing else comes up.

We will always keep you updated with the latest developments and delivery estimates.

Design Clarifications

1) Metric Measurement Markings

If you'll recall, the stepped measurements on the metric jigger correspond to 15 ml, 30 ml, 45 ml, and 60 ml.  These are the measurements that are closest to the original stepped design of the jigger.

We had a LOT of feedback from our international Backers about what internal markings you'd like to see on the metric jigger (these are internal lines that provide a guide for commonly used measurements in-between the stepped measurements). Based on your responses, we'll be adding markings at 10 ml, 20 ml, 40 ml, and 50 ml. Forgive the crude illustration: 

It may seem like overkill, but with so many different practices of drink-making around the world, we wanted to give you plenty of options. The beauty of the straight-sided jigger is that if you ever need an in-between size (say, 22.5 oz), it'll be very easy to estimate half-way between two lines.

2) Top-of Jigger Measurements

The vintage jiggers we based our design on had a top-of-jigger volume measurement that wasn't standard; it was a bit in-between 2.25 and 2.5 oz.  When we launched the Kickstarter, we anticipated increasing that volume to reach a full 2.5 oz.  However, once we got it into the 3-D model, it looked really top-heavy and threw off the aesthetic.

We considered both the visual appearance and the practical implications of a wider lip, more volume, and handling when making drinks, and decided to return to a more conservative measurement of 2.25 oz for the imperial jigger, and 67.5 ml for the metric version. 

Here's a diagram to illustrate the decision.  The yellow form represents the final design. You can see the larger iteration behind and above it (we decided against this taller, wider extension):

Surveys, Add-Ons & Address Updates

Just a quick reminder that you can update your survey at anytime from now until we lock them down (about 1 month prior to shipping, probably in April).

If you need to update your address or add-on items, you can go to https://napierjigger.backerkit.com/ and sign in with the email address you use for Kickstarter.

Also, a reminder that any funds you added in Backerkit will not be charged to your card until we lock down surveys (April-ish), so you can also update your payment method at anytime.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well, I did it again - set out to write a quick update and just kept going!

We do try to share as much of our process as possible, for those that want to dig a little deeper with us.

Cheers,

Rachel Eva and Shawn Michael

Aero Spoon Surprise + Mini Production Update
about 7 years ago – Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 02:47:32 PM

Hi Friends!

Happy Small Business Saturday, especially to all our backers who are also small business owners or workers.  

We just celebrated Thanksgiving here in the US, and it was a much needed break for Shawn Michael and I. We are celebrating having moved all of our products to a 3rd party fulfillment service, so now when you order from standardspoon.com, you'll receive faster shipping and returns service.  If you place an order by 10AM Pacific time, your order ships the SAME DAY!

This also means we won't be packing and shipping all of our outbound orders, which leaves more time for product development - yes!

Aero Cocktail Spoons for Sale NOW

So while I was preparing our barware to ship to the fulfillment center, I found a box of Aero Spoons that we didn't know we had - it was like finding GOLD!  I wanted to let our backers know first.  

We have a limited number of Aero Spoons for sale on our website beginning today.

 

For those of you who added the Aero spoon on Backerkit but want it early, you can cancel your add-on, and purchase the Aero from our store (they make great Christmas gifts!)

If you leave your order as-is, you'll still receive the Aero Spoon with your Kickstarter Rewards in the spring once we have the new batch manufactured.

Production Update

We've delivered all of our digital files, a detailed product specification document, and plenty of instructions to our manufacturer for the Napier Jigger.  I'll post some more final details once we finish our initial correspondence, but here's a pretty picture from our 3D files that shows the jigger design and logo on the bottom:

It took us a little longer to get our 3D files completed, because we were VERY meticulous about measuring, double-checking, and considering all the possible translation issues between our desired design and the practical way that items are manufactured. 

We had the design 3D printed as well, but determined that the printed model was not as accurate to the digital design as we would have liked, so it wasn't very useful for checking liquid measurements (but it is kind of pretty). This gives you a good idea of what the Industry Jigger will look like, without the handle (and envision it in shiny stainless steel, not grey plastic):

Holiday Thanks

We have been having conversations this past week on gratitude, and want to say thank you again to all of you. Thanks for taking the time and effort to be involved directly with creators on Kickstarter - it makes a huge difference to those of us carving out a business in a competitive world. 

Kickstarter Backer Special Thanks: use the coupon code GRATITUDE10 to get $10 off your order when you spend $50 at our store, now through December 31st. 

If you're ready to do some holiday shopping, we encourage you to consider what small businesses you could support. Of course we would love your patronage, but there are many other small business owners and creators in your hometown that are working hard to do beautiful things. 

If you happen to live in San Diego (our hometown), today is the first day that Collins & Coupe, a new specialty barware store opens. Yes, they carry our products, including both cocktail spoons and the Hammered Mixing Glass.  You can find our other retail partners here: Find Standard Spoon Barware

Cheers,

Rachel Eva & Shawn Michael

Survey Update + Option to Split Industry 2-Pack + $20 Shirts
over 7 years ago – Mon, Nov 06, 2017 at 10:16:23 PM

Hi Backers!

This is just a very short update to let you know that surveys were sent out Thursday and Friday (Nov 2-3). Over 85% of you have answered them already - BRAVO!  Thank you so much for being prompt; it is really going to help with our estimations.

We asked for surveys to be completed by this Wednesday Nov 8th. This is to help us get an accurate idea of how many Metric/Imperial jiggers to order, and what the distribution of Industry/Silver/Copper/Gold will be.  We've got a lot of different SKUs for this manufacturing order, and actual numbers are crucial for us. 

That being said, if you end up needing to make changes to your survey or add extra items after November 8th, please feel free to do that; we'll have some wiggle room in our unit count to accommodate changes.  Surveys won't actually close down until about 1 month before we ship items (April 2018).

Important Updates:

1) You Can Now Split the Industry 2-Pack

During the Kickstarter, several backers asked if they could split the Industry 2-pack to receive 1 metric and 1 imperial jigger.  Back then, we didn't even know if we'd be making a metric jigger, and we were hesitant to add that option due to our experience with how complicated fulfillment can get.

HOWEVER, the people have spoken, and you can now split the Industry 2-pack to receive one of each measuring system.

Part of this decision is because we have made a lot of progress in the last two weeks with our fulfillment design, and we don't think it's going to be as big of a hitch as we originally thought.  Thanks to all of you who shared with us that this is important to you.

For those of you who have already completed your survey, but want to make the change, you can do that (remember, surveys are open for changes until April 2018). Just go back and select the option under your Industry 2 Pack for "Split pack: 1 with oz / 1 with ml"

2) Gold Napier Shirts are now $20

That's the short story, and this is why:

Remember when we posted Update #4 introducing a new reward add-on?  We were 4 days away from the end of the campaign, and still needed $3,500 to hit our stretch goal and make the metric jigger. We knew we would probably get to $50,000, but didn't want to just sit back and wait for it - we wanted to do all in our power to help us get there. So we added this gold Napier Jigger shirt you could add to your pledge.

One of our backers had some criticisms over the price of the shirt ($25), and we explained that it was priced that way because it was a fundraising effort. We're not out here trying to be competitive in the apparel category, but we could use the shirt to help raise funds for the metric jigger, and the margins would have to be sized right to make it worth the work of making and managing a non-barware item.

We had a lot of backers add shirts, so it worked!  We also added a lot more backers buying Jiggers, and we flew past our stretch goal during the last two days, ending the Kickstarter with almost $58K. Now we can make the metric jigger. (yes!)

Ok - so why the long story? Well, because we like to be transparent with our Backers.  We don't really need to sell the shirt for $25 anymore. We usually price t-shirts at $20 when we sell them at events (like our USBG Benefit shirt). So we're dropping the price for t-shirt Add Ons to $20.  

We want to thank those of you who DID support us during Kickstarter at the $25 price point (it really was a team effort to get to $50K). So any of you who added a shirt to your Kickstarter pledge will have a $5 credit (per shirt) when you complete your survey. You can use the credit toward other Add On items. If you decide not to redeem it, you can drop it in the virtual tip jar, or just leave it as-is, and we might surprise you with a little something later on as thanks ;)

and the moral of the story is...

• If you haven't answered your survey, please do that now.
• If you can't find your survey link, check your spam box. If you still can't find it, you can sign in to your survey using the email address associated with your Kickstarter account here: Backer Survey Recovery.  If you still can't get to it, send us a message with the email address you want the survey sent to, and we'll update our records and send it out.
• You all are amazing

We'll be back soon after we get more responses with some fun Backer Stats, and more on our production progress.

Cheers,

Rachel Eva & Shawn Michael

Surveys, Add-Ons, and Production Update
over 7 years ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 09:06:21 PM

Hey Backers!

THANK YOU AGAIN for bringing this product to market!

It's been two weeks since we hosted our Live Kickstarter Countdown and watched the project end. We toasted the final moments with over 40 of our backers - thanks for celebrating with us! (if you missed it and want to see us drink some amazing drinks and chat barware and have too much fun, click here)

As I mentioned in a comment last week, the days following a Kickstarter project is about 10% celebrating, 40% working like crazy to get post-Kickstarter tasks started, and 50% catching our breath and doing regular life stuff that gets neglected during a project like this. So thanks for your patience as we did all that.

Here's the important stuff you need to know:

BackerKit Surveys

Your surveys are being sent out this week!  

It is very important that you answer your survey right away, because we need the survey information to place our manufacturing order.  We need to know how many Imperial v. Metric jiggers to make, and how to split the order between different styles and finishes. The surveys will tell us that.

You will receive an email with a link to your survey (you do not have to create a Backerkit account - just click on the link). The link will be sent to the email address that you use for your Kickstarter account.   

Mini FAQ:

• Responses Needed By: November 8th 
• Address Changes: You will be able to update your shipping address and add-ons up until one month before items ship (estimated April 2018) 
• Failed Payments: If your payment failed on Kickstarter, and you missed the window to update your payment method, you can still update it on Backerkit (it's ok, it happens!)
• Backerkit Payments: Any payments collected via Backerkit for add-ons or failed payments will be held and charged to your card one month before we ship items (estimated April 2018).
• Notice: We will send you notifications via Kickstarter before we lock down surveys, charge cards in Backerkit, and (of course) ship items.

We don't always use Backerkit, but with over 1,500 Backers, it's the smart thing to do for this project. Backerkit is a pretty amazing tool that helps us keep track of survey responses, pledges, and especially add-ons.

Add-Ons

For those of you who added items to your pledge in Kickstarter, the survey is where you will identify which items those are. It will be very easy and straightforward, I promise.  If you happened to do the math wrong on Kickstarter, don't worry - Backerkit will double check your math and either ask you for the difference, or show a credit (which you can use to get more add-ons).

Even if you sent us a message about what your extra funds were for, please answer the survey this week.  You will need to do it anyway to give us your shipping address, and it helps us keep all the information in one place.

If you missed the last day of the Kickstarter and still want to add-on items, you can do that after you answer your survey. You can add additional jiggers, t-shirts, and our existing barware to your Kickstarter pledge.  

One of the hot items right now is the Pitcher Protector ($30), a protective case for Mixing Glasses. It's designed by bartenders and made by hand in San Francisco, and when you order it along with our Hammered Mixing Glass ($35), they ship together for added protection:

Shipping for Add-Ons:

As special thanks for our Kickstarter Backers, you can add any jigger or t-shirt to your pledge for no additional shipping costs.  If you want to add any of our other tools, it will cost a little more to ship (because they are heavy and/or larger). But we know that you've already paid some shipping costs via Kickstarter, and have reduced the additional shipping rate with that in mind.

Just remember that anything you add-on to your Kickstarter pledge via Backerkit will ship out with your jigger in April. If you don't mind waiting, this is a great way to save on shipping, since we combine all items into one shipment.  

If you don't want to wait, you can buy our existing tools at standardspoon.com and they'll ship within 2 business days.  

The only item from our existing tools that you cannot buy on our website is the Aero Cocktail Spoon. We are sold out and currently manufacturing more.  You can pre-order the Aero spoon via Backerkit, or wait for our email letting you know when they're back in stock (it might be sooner than when we ship jiggers). 

Production Update

We haven't yet received the funds from Kickstarter which we need in order to place our manufacturing order. But we have been working on getting the 3D models finished. This 3D design will be extremely helpful in communicating EXACTLY what we need from our manufacturing team, and is a crucial part of the design process.

Behind-the-Scenes

We've also been spending time getting set up with a 3rd party fulfillment service, so our dining room table stops looking like this:

For the last two years we've been shipping all barware orders ourselves. It was manageable when we had only a few tools, but now it's beginning to cost a lot of our time, and we aren't able to get shipments out as quickly. We're working on getting shipping and fulfillment into the hands of the professionals, so we can focus more time on product development and business management (and Kickstarter!). 

The great news is that shipments from our website will be handled very quickly and efficiently going forward. AND - when it comes time to ship Kickstarter Rewards, we'll already be set up with the shipping pros and will get your items out quickly. 

Bonus: The service we're working with is very experienced with Kickstarter project fulfillment, and they can have all backer rewards shipped out within 2 days of receiving the items from us. We are very excited about this!

Next:

Look for your survey via email, and we'll keep you updated with everything happening on our end.  

During the waiting period between when a Kickstarter ends and when Rewards are sent, we usually try to send a Backer update once a month.  If you want to be involved with us more frequently than that, meet us on all the social channels (we are @StandardSpoon and are on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). And of course feel free to post a comment - we see and respond to them all. Usually if there hasn't been an update in a while it's because there's not much new to report - there is a lot of waiting in manufacturing. 

Thanks again everyone!

Cheers,

Rachel Eva & Shawn Michael