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Designers Spend Months Making Custom Keycaps, Then the Counterfeits Arrive 131

An anonymous reader shares a report: Briggs [anecdote in the story] is part of a growing movement of artists and designers who produce alternatives to the stock keycaps sold with most mechanical keyboards. The small plastic blocks are easy to detach from their switches using simple pulling tools, and changing them can give a keyboard a radically different look, feel, and sound -- not to mention turn a generic computer accessory into something much more personal. Swapping out keycaps for aftermarket alternatives has become so commonplace that it's not uncommon to see premium keyboards sold without keycaps in the box. But as designer keycaps have become more popular, so have cheaper knockoffs. These keysets use the same color schemes and often even the same names, in an apparent attempt to piggyback off the popularity of original designs. To a casual observer it's rarely obvious that they're produced by an unrelated company, without any input from the designer, and may be capturing sales that could have supported the original creator.
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Designers Spend Months Making Custom Keycaps, Then the Counterfeits Arrive

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  • keyboard barbie (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Rockoon ( 1252108 )
    Why would you play barbie with your keyboard?
  • by hjf ( 703092 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @10:06AM (#62249327) Homepage

    About as useful as Facebook, but more expensive.

  • by RogueWarrior65 ( 678876 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @10:08AM (#62249341)

    A simple solution is to make them yourself. By outsourcing them (to a Chinese injection molder), you're essentially saying "copy the sh*t out of this". One way to combat it is to make them yourself but small scale injection molding isn't very practical. It could be though. One can put together a pretty decently equipped machine shop for not a lot of money. Laser cutters, lathes, mills, press brakes, production-quality 3D printing can all be had for $3000-$5000 (per machine). Injection molding equipment for a few thousand dollars isn't really a thing though.

    • by TheMESMERIC ( 766636 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @10:55AM (#62249545)

      You can find a HackSpace in your city. They usually supply all the equipment and material for free - or at little cost. I never been to one. But there is one in London, UK [hackspace.org.uk]

      • by RogueWarrior65 ( 678876 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @11:18AM (#62249645)

        Sadly, maker spaces aren't as ubiquitous as you'd like. What I find counterintuitive is that universities with engineering schools don't allow students into machine shops. How else are you going to learn the capabilities and limitations of the tools? You can design anything you want in CAD but you either can't make it or it's too expensive to make the way you designed it. Talking to machinists and working with the tools is the only way you learn that stuff.

        • by taustin ( 171655 )

          That is one of biggest the advantages of an apprenticeship program over an academic education. (The other being, of course, that the money flows in the other direction.)

        • Um. Bollocks. I spent many happy hours machining and welding in the engineering department workshops at a far better uni than you went to.

        • What I find counterintuitive is that universities with engineering schools don't allow students into machine shops.

          If you find it counterintuitive, I deduce that you've never had to deal with the insurance claims for when an unauthorised person gets injured in a workplace. No organisation wants to go through that a second time. Well, no rational organisation.

          How else are you going to learn the capabilities and limitations of the tools?

          Null. By the time the putative student has completed their course and gon

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @11:15AM (#62249623)

      There's nothing magic about injection moulding. Of the things you mentioned, it's the simplest. You can buy one for a few thousand, get a pretty fancy one for 30k, or roll your own for a hundred bucks following instructions on YouTube. You can get an acceptable CNC to make a small number of dies for under a thousand too.

      If you want to make big stuff or churn out a million pieces a day it's going to cost you, but if you're a startup making designer keycaps you can probably get going for less than your first year's rent.

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        The problem is keycaps aren't easy.

        You could go cheap with rubber stamped keycaps - just buy the keycaps from China in bulk and then print them with a rubber stamp - this is extremely cheap but non-durable (the rubber stamp is reusable, the pattern comes from the silkscreen which are extremely cheap to make).

        The problem with injection molding is your cheap injection molding thing you can get at a hackerspace or something, isn't suited to doing the 60-120 keys you need individually (from 60% to full size and

        • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          Take a look at the article. The keycaps in question are bog standard except for the colour of the plastic.

      • The problem is the cheap knock offs break. Use crappy plastic and the little tabs that hold the keys in place break off. Then you try to get the original mfg to replace the ones you bought from a knock off. :( Amazon is no help, they tell the Chinese what is selling so they can get into that business. You have an original idea, have NEVER ON AMAZON in your ads, or expect the knock offs to overwhelm you just as you become profitable.
        • by Megane ( 129182 )

          They can fall off too. I have a Logitech G610 where if it falls an inch, a dozen key caps fly off. Once I squirted a drop of Elmer's Glue in a few and put them back, maybe it helped with those keys, but it's a pain in the ass that I don't want to do for a whole keyboard. If a big company like Logitech has trouble with the QC to make the key cap stem hole tight enough to not fall off, imagine how bad knock-offs can be.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      That's not what is happening here and doing it in-house won't help.

      The issue is that making key-caps requires expensive set-up for the machinery, so making small batches is uneconomical. Because of that they do a pre-order, where they show what the keycaps will look like and ask people to pay in advance, with an order submitted once enough people have paid to make it feasible.

      So the actual issue they have is that they aren't reaching a big enough market. The people making the clones sell them world-wide. Ob

    • "This country is so weakened that if you want to avoid sending your design to a thieving communist dictatorship (committing literal genocide as we speak) to do basic injection molding that we used to do for decades, who is then allowed to turn around and sell your own design without any import tariffs or other financial punishment, you need to buy a personal 3D printer and live with inferior results."

      • by tomhath ( 637240 )
        It doesn't matter where the first production run was made. If it's popular, the design will be pirated in China; it's just shrewd business to them.
    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @12:33PM (#62249937)

      You jump straight on injection moulding while missing the key part: That is the lowest cost, fastest, and least complicated part of the keypad production process. The issue is one of manual labour for custom patterns. Look down, see all those keys that are the same shape? Yet they all are unique. Not even the two Ctrl keys on my keyboard are identical with each having the word Ctrl printed in a different location.

      When you become your own manufacturer of labour intensive custom equipment then you're competing with people on a labour cost basis. That's not a game you have a remote chance in hell of winning.

  • A whole industry ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tx ( 96709 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @10:10AM (#62249357) Journal

    A whole industry that I didn't know existed until yesterday, much less that it was big enough to be worth significant counterfeiting.

  • Unlike who? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @10:14AM (#62249377)

    But as designer keycaps have become more popular, so have cheaper knockoffs

    I mean one could literally change out "keycap" for pretty much any designer item and this would remain a true statement. I know shocking development, but some people exist to ride the coattails of others, news at eleven.

    To a casual observer it's rarely obvious that they're produced by an unrelated company

    Yes, something is niche, the people who buy are pretty much in the know. When it becomes mainstream, you have people who are just jumping in late game just trying to look like their part of the crew, and thus they don't know where to go and so they just buy knock-off shit. Eventually enough knock-off gets sold you've got people who bought knock-offs talking to people who bought knock-offs, and poof a trend is born.

    I mean seriously y'all this can't be people's first rodeo with this nonsense.

    without any input from the designer, and may be capturing sales that could have supported the original creator

    If you're that serious to give your money to someone, get the fuck off Amazon and go email/tweet/whatever the designer and ask them directly. However, the vast majority of folks don't give a fuck. If it looks close enough to the original then it's good enough. All us peons are fucking broke, the vast majority of people just want the trend for $ bucks. Only a few who are hardcore about the "whatever it is" care enough to spend $$$$ bucks.

    This applies for ALL KINDS OF THINGS. This isn't something unique to keycaps. Moral of the story should be, "stop buying stupid trendy shit just because it's trendy." If you're honestly into the whole thing, then you know where to buy the shit. Everything about the linked story applies only to fuckers who are trying to be "cool."

    • I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of the situation. Thank you kindly for such a succinctly stated Slashdot comment.
    • But as designer keycaps have become more popular, so have cheaper knockoffs

      I mean one could literally change out "keycap" for pretty much any designer item and this would remain a true statement. I know shocking development, but some people exist to ride the coattails of others, news at eleven.

      I do see your point, but there is a significant difference in putting another wheel out on the market, and counterfeiting.

      And if counterfeiting is what is actually going on here, then I have no idea why TFS makes that about as clear as mud. Just say it already instead of sounding like you're being paid not to say it.

      • Just say it already instead of sounding like you're being paid not to say it

        That's modern journalism in a nutshell.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They should look to the fashion industry for hints. Clones of popular styles are extremely common in fashion. So are out-right knock-offs with trademark protected logos on them, but not as common as clothing that just copies the style of others.

      The main way they deal with it is by making their brands desirable. They know they aren't going to sell everyone a Gucci handbag or an expensive suit*, so clones at the cheap end of the market aren't really an issue.

      * Okay I admit I don't own any suits and don't know

      • One cannot just buy the top end handbags or clothing. You have to be a long term customer, developing a relationship with the brand. Then and only then will they deign to sell you the super high end Hermes bag for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

        The only reason they can sell them for that much is because of how hard it is to buy them. It's not about the cost to make, or even the money. They care more about the strength and exclusivity of their brand than anything else.

        Note, the upside of this is th

  • by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @10:21AM (#62249405) Homepage
    If you are taking this long timescale to work with an overseas manufacturer, what is to stop them from running off a few thousand pre-production units and selling them locally hoping but not really caring if you find out. Those locals then sell them on Amazon as a third party. The local might even work for the manufacturer.

    Only way would be to work with a local shop that has morals. And since they are local there would be legal protections for your design.

    On the other hand if you have to pre-sell your product before it can be manufactured then you have already lost the game.
    • I think you absolutely spelled out a pretty common tactic. Seems like if you have the volume needed to justfy outsourcing into China and are really worried about this you need some local law representation to cover yourself (and it's admittedly tricky in China with their nebulous IP law, a lot seems to happen on a handshake basis) and probably spend the money to visit the factory as well and get face to face.

      This is a bit of a cake-and-eat-it-too situation, you have an easily reproducible product (the real

  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @10:27AM (#62249437)

    We hate things like DRM, Copyrights, patents... All those legal big government things that keep the little man down, and prevents innovation. Until you find it is your product being copied, and done for cheap, because you did all the R&D and sales effort to make it popular, so one could invest confidently in mass production equipment as it is now a popular product, and you can justify the cheaper build in bulk design.

    • by stooo ( 2202012 )

      THIS.
      Don't invest in DRM and moot patents.
      Invest in cheaper manufacturing, lower cost product, while sales your numbers go up.
      If you stick to premium price, while popularity goes up, don't expect competition to keep the price high.

    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      Eh, I'm pretty sure for a lot of slashdotters their problem with copyright or patents is not with the protections themselves, it's that they go on too long nowadays.

    • Honestly I still hate DRM, copyrights, patents even then.

      I'm also giving away essentially all of my "creative" work for free. Why shouldn't I? I don't depend on it for a living.

      Now I assume your argument is going to be "but others do depend on it!", to which I'll reply: then let's change that. Forcing someone to live off artificial scarcity of pure information is not a sustainable strategy of a species whose biggest asset and evolutionary advantage is the ability to process information.

  • by chill ( 34294 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @10:37AM (#62249483) Journal

    So the examples they show, Olivia and Olive, are just different colored plastic. Considering the keycaps have to physically conform to fairly tight specs or they won't fit or work, how much "design" is put into these? Color combinations?

    This [tomshardware.com] is much more creative, and considering it is metal probably harder to clone.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      To be fair keyboard nerds will see the differences. The use of outline arrows on the shift keys. The position of the legends, the font used.

      The best way to compete is probably to offer a better product. The cheap keycaps are printed/etched on, the more expensive ones are double shot meaning. The difference is that double shot legends never wear off because they go right through the keycap, where as printed/etched are only on the surface and will be worn away eventually.

      Looking at the examples, the originals

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Hey dude, it took serious design effort to rip off a rose gold and black colour scheme from every fashion watch maker ever.

    • are just different colored plastic.

      Not just colour. Look closer and you'll find the design elements. The keys are pretty much standard and not at all what the article is about.

  • Custom key caps. Seriously?
    • Custom key caps. Seriously?

      I wonder what thing in life you like that we could make fun of? I mean how can it bother you so much that people have different areas of interest?

  • by OpenSourced ( 323149 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @11:15AM (#62249625) Journal

    Now I won't be surprised when I see a keyboard without keys...

    • by Megane ( 129182 )

      Have you heard of the Das Keyboard with all blank keys? I got one cheap a while back that had been abused, probably someone spilled soda on it, because a whole swath of keys (about 20-25% of the keyboard!) were sticky. I had to de-solder, disassemble, clean, reassemble, and re-solder all the sticky keys. Then it was time to put the key caps back on. They're all blank, so easy, right?

      Each row had a different profile. I had to look for the mold marks (raised lettering on black plastic) to sort them by rows.

      • I never really got to "touch typing", it not being considered a useful skill when I was at school, but I learned enough typing in my own time to know that this is true :

        even though I touch type, I still need cues to get in position

        - but that is precisely what this And don't forget the F/J keys with the raised bumpsis for. (See also the bar or dot on the "5" in the middle of the numeric keypad.) My text book called them "home keys", but your language might have a different name.

        Didn't your typing text book

  • There have been knockoffs of designer hand bags and clothing since forever. What are these guys whining about?
    • by GlennC ( 96879 )

      What are these guys whining about?

      It never happened to THEM, so it's never happened before!

    • knockoffs of designer hand bags and clothing since forever.

      s/forever/"clothing or designer handbags"/

  • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @11:55AM (#62249787)

    .. sell your product under the name Tianenmen, Free Tibet or Winnie the Pooh. That would stop the Chinese knockoffs.

  • We need to build a wall around China.

  • From the article, == but you can get a similar looking knockoff delivered in two days on Amazon. ==
  • Plastic is simple to shape, simple to copy. This is also still a super niche thing. Most people don't get custom key-caps. People willing to drop serious cash on these things are probably also the ones paying obscene values for NFT's.
  • may be capturing sales that could have supported the original creator.

    Wow! This almost calls it theft — and certainly puts a negative spin on the practice...

    Quite refreshing, really, after years — nay, decades [slashdot.org] — of Slashdot arguing, Intellectual Property is not [slashdot.org], and denouncing any corporation seeking to enforce its own as "greedy".

  • by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2022 @05:39PM (#62251029)

    Silly stuff is totally fine but being naive is not fine nor excusable. Being naive is despicably foolish therefore wrong.

    If you want to make money before someone else clones your cute trifles for less money the way is as it has always been, produce your toys in-house then sell enough to make an acceptable profit then move to the next thing when that market is taken over by competition.

    Trifles have always been the lowest hanging fruit with cheap toys of other sorts flooding the eager markets of the West. It would be literally insane to expect anything different.

  • What an interesting issue that is unique to key caps. I hope this does not become a wider-spread issue that affects all of electronics.

  • So yesterday you lot were sniping at the aboriginal guy who got paid for his flag design, and today you are getting all weepy about poor misunderstood custom key cap designers. Right....

As you will see, I told them, in no uncertain terms, to see Figure one. -- Dave "First Strike" Pare

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