Knops - The volume button for your ears

Shipping all remaining pre-orders!
over 5 years ago – Fri, Dec 07, 2018 at 12:30:10 AM

Dear backers,

Another month, another update! In our previous update, we explained how challenging the Knops process has been. The huge success of our (Kickstarter)-campaign was overwhelming and it took us some time to get the perfect production process up and running. Now, however, we are proud to announce that we are about to send every last order out.

We have a couple of last Kickstarter orders that have to be shipped. This because of, for example, missing addresses and orders with multiple Knops. We are busy packaging 5000 Knops this week and will send them all out between 10 and 19 December, resulting in us shipping all pre-orders by the 19th of December, including these last Kickstarter orders. Hooray!

We will start shipping the orders that are furthest away from our production facility in the Netherlands first. So, to all our backers from Down Under, you’ll probably receive a track and trace next Monday! Not just our backers in Australia, obviously, you all will receive your track and trace code once your order has been shipped.

We are hoping that shipping orders to backers living further away first will result in everyone receiving their Knops before Christmas. However, experience has taught us that shipping overseas can take quite some time. The reason for this is that there are different (local) shipping partners that all have to work together in order to get your Knops to your doorstep. We apologize if your order does not reach you before Christmas but we hope that the knowledge that your Knops is underway can ease the pain! If you are still waiting for you Knops and haven't received a track and trace email after the 19th of December, please send us an email to [email protected] and we'll look into it asap.

Thank you for your continued support and patience. It has been a rollercoaster ride and one we are very proud to have been on with you, our beloved backers. Thank you for keeping us sharp and once again our apologies for the delay.

With much love,

The Knops team.

November update!
over 5 years ago – Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 11:50:12 PM

Dear backers,

We want to start with apologizing for our silence. With this update, we hope you’ll understand why we needed some time to get all our operations and Knops itself in order!

Knops has been a real rollercoaster ride. With a brilliant idea and working prototype we believed we were ready for take off. Supported by all the amazing feedback and many orders we pressed all the buttons to get into mass production asap. We have now experienced how incredibly challenging it is to manufacture a stylish piece of hardware according to the high standards we demand for our customers.

You could very well argue that the great success of Knops has been very overwhelming to us. Knops alone consists of 13 individual parts. We have overcome a lot of challenges into fitting these all together and getting the final Knops on its way. Managing these challenges has required a majority of our time. Every team member has spent many hours at our production- and packaging partners. A sad consequence was that we couldn’t be as responsive to phone calls, emails, and online communication as we want to be. This is now changing and we hope you have already witnessed this in our response time.

We are, once again, very sorry for this and the other mistakes that we have made during the setting up of Knops. We hope you guys understand how hard it is for us to set up a completely new product with such a high demand and such a small (although very competent!) team. We are the first to admit that we have made mistakes along the way and want to express our gratitude for staying with us and keeping us focussed and sharp along the way. Your help means the world to us and is the reason that Knops is still going strong right now!

Regarding the last Kickstarter orders, there are three situations why you haven’t received your order yet. The first being that a couple of orders are still waiting to be packaged at our packaging partner and ready to be shipped asap (due to Backerkit surveys that weren't filled in). The second being that some Knops have been returned to us because the local courier wasn’t able to deliver them to their rightful owner. The third being an issue with orders that include more than 1 product. We are focusing on solving all these situations first and getting your Knops to you as soon as we can!

Thank you for continued support and patience. Please know that we are working our #%^ off to ship your product asap. We once again apologize for our silence. We really needed some time to get Knops on the perfect track. We are still 100% dedicated to getting your Knops to your doorstep and in your ears!

The Knops Team.

Current status shipping
over 5 years ago – Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 12:53:39 AM

Dear backers,

Wow, what a week. Last week, we aimed at shipping out all remaining Kickstarter orders, all 1.649 of them! As you know, all Kickstarter Knops have been produced and packed, so yours is eagerly waiting for you. We try to make up for lost time and that is why we are pushing ourselves and our shipping partner to the max.

Alas, there were some issues that occurred. First, the connection between our client list and the email template of our shipping partner was suddenly broken. Because of this, no track & trace codes were sent to the receiver. However don’t worry, the items were shipped correctly and everyone will receive their track-and-trace. The issue is now fixed.

Secondly, our shipping partner had difficulty keeping up with the pace. They have to seal your Knops in an outer package fit for shipment and then add an address label, which logically costs quite some time for the amount of Knops we want them to ship. The process is shown in the video underneath:

To make up for lost time, they are all working through the weekend so we can ship the last orders Friday (31 August) and Monday (3 September). So everyone should have their Knops underway by Monday! If you haven’t received a track & trace by Tuesday (4 September), please send us an email on [email protected], as something has gone wrong.

We won’t forget you guys, you are the very first that backed our project and made Knops a reality, thank you. We want you to know how much we appreciate your help. Your feedback, understanding, and patience have been of great help to us. We hope you’ll love your Knops.

For user instructions, you can check these videos.

Another important tip from our side (no pun intended): Try the different included ear tips so that you use the one that fits best and thus also ensures a good acoustic seal, which gives you the most optimal experience of the product! And remember, you have to pinch and roll the memory foam tips before inserting for the best fit (they will expand nice and snug with your body heat).

Much love,

The Knops team.

The last Kickstarter orders
over 5 years ago – Thu, Aug 23, 2018 at 01:30:06 AM

Hi backers!

This just might be one of our last updates, as we have (finally) made it: the last Kickstarter orders are being sent out this week. It has been quite a ride, but one that is now coming to an end.

This week, we are sending out 642 Knops. Last week, a total of 1.007 Knops were delivered to our fulfillment partner. So, in total 1.649 Knops will be shipped this week. See here the stats per variation:

• Knops Original Black    613
• Knops Original White    525
• Knops Knurled White   104
• Knops Knurled Black    357
• Knops Gold Black         34
• Knops Gold White        16

As mentioned all these orders will be shipped this week. Also, outstanding orders due to for example the wrong addresses will ship this week. Once your order ship, you will receive tracking details to track your shipment.

We would like to once again stress how thankful we are for you guys. You are the ones that have made it possible to produce Knops. The last months have been tough for us and we have certainly made mistakes. However, you guys were always there to give us the right feedback and motivate us to keep on going. Thank you again for your patience and we apologize one more time for the delay. Now the wait is over, we hope that it was all worth it for you and you love your Knops.

Now, we must again stress that it can take up to a couple of weeks before you get your Knops because of the number of days it takes for an international shipment to arrive. If there are any problems with shipments, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line on [email protected].

For now, we say thank you once more and we’ll keep in touch. You can expect another update next week to tell you how our last week of delivering Knops went. Furthermore, we went into the Knops factory to show how the Knops production process goes. Here are some sneak peaks of the upcoming footage.

Much love,

The Knops team.

Transparancy!
almost 6 years ago – Sun, Aug 12, 2018 at 12:43:07 AM

Dear backers!

A new update, and so soon? Yes, because we aren't fully satisfied with how we communicated in our latest update(s) with you and want to set things right.

First, we received some feedback that people think we are unclear in our communication. Backers want to know how many Knops we have sent out and what we expect to ship in the short term as well as the long term. We can very much understand this and want to start putting your minds at ease.

Secondly, we have been very busy optimizing production. This meant having the whole Knops team at the different actors that are involved with our production cycle. These actors are our assembly department and our production facility here in Amsterdam, our packaging partner and our fulfillment partner. We cooperate on an intense level with these 3 different companies. We currently have over 12 people working fulltime in our assembly and production line producing knops during daytime and optimizing the assembly line and the machinery at night and during the weekends. We have had many hurdles that we managed to fix and now have a good thing going. Because of this intense workload on our entire staff, we had less time to react to emails, messages on Kickstarter and Indiegogo and comments on Facebook. However, we owe it to you guys that we keep answering all your questions. So now we have reallocated our resources to ensure that we can react to all your messages (swifter).

In this update, we want to tackle your questions. We are going to be transparent over the different amounts of Knops we have shipped. 

Now, here’s an overview of the Knops we have produced and shipped (of which some are still to arrive):

Knops Original Black: 700

Knops Original White: 140

Knops Knurled Black: 50

Knops Knurled White: 10

Knops Gold Black: 10

Knops Gold White: 10

This means that we still have the following Kickstarter pre-orders that have to be delivered:

Knops Original Black: 1286 (produced)

Knops Original White: 589

Knops Knurled Black: 381

Knops Knurled White: 112 (produced)

Knops Gold Black: 43 (produced)

Knops Gold White: 24

Don’t worry, though. We have been working around the clock and there are a lot of Knops ready to be shipped. Next, we’ll give you all the stats:

Knops Original Black: done

Knops Original White: 238 still to be produced

Knops Knurled Black: 252 still to be produced

Knops Knurled White: 51 still to be produced

Knops Gold Black: done

Knops Gold White: done

There are 264 sets of Knops Original Black waiting at our packaging department. These will be packaged and ready to be shipped Tuesday.

There are 650 sets of Knops Original Black ready to be shipped as we speak. Our fulfillment party is sending these out right now!

This means that we still have quite some finished products at our production facility. In the next week, we will produce the remaining Knops, send them to our packaging department and then to our fulfillment party for shipping.  As stated in our latest update, we are expecting to send out the remaining Kickstarter orders next week.

Please remember that within the Netherlands, your Knops will be delivered within one or two days. Alas, in other countries waiting times are longer. In this document, you can find how long the Dutch shipping party expects it will take to get your pair of Knops to your country.

For now, have a nice weekend!

Much love,

Team Knops