The wait is over. Switch, the ultimate modular pocketknife, is ready!

If you placed a preorder, check your email now to confirm your order and verify your shipping and billing information. Shipping is first come, first served, so you don’t want to delay.

Plus, if you ordered this product in Presale and confirm your order in the next two weeks, you’ll earn yourself a share of influence, which translates to royalties from every product sold. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask us.

Congrats to everyone involved in this product’s development, especially to ideator James Robinson. It’s been a long ride, and we’re bey0nd excited to get this product out there!

Jordan and Nikki give the latest update on Switch, Quirky’s brand-new customizable multi-tool. The tool itself was awesome, but the box could use a bit more work. Watch the video, then check out how far we’ve come by checking out the previous Production Reports here.

Highlights:

- Production is going a little slower than we hoped.

- The factory was supposed to deliver a T1 sample on November 30, but the date has been delayed until December 23. This factory still offers the best quality, so we’re sticking with it.

- We’ve finalized the design for the tool box — it will be a cool, smoky translucent plastic with the logo on top.

- We’re hoping to ship no later than January 10, and we’ve asked the factory to pay a penalty if they don’t meet that deadline.

Previous production updates: Production Report #1, Production Report #2

Now that we’ve finalized the toughest part of this project, it’s on to the carrying case.

What we’ve been up to:

We didn’t want to spare any expense when it came to the quality of Switch’s metal attachments, so our goal for the box was to create something that could package the whole set, while maintaining as low a price point as possible.

In our original renders, we had a hinged box with a sliding lock, meaning we’d have to tool at least 3 new parts for the box. Our new design is all one piece, with a living hinge. The lid has clasps on the front part that lock onto the bottom part. The bottom part is molded with a spot to hold each part of the Switch set.

One of the design challenges is creating the perfect layout to maximize space. We printed out several iterations on Bertha before finding a super efficient layout (pictured below). Now we’re working on sourcing a good plastics factory to produce it.

What will happen in the next month:

We’re expecting to see T1 samples of all the tools on November 30th. Our engineering squad has made sure the box is optimized for production, so as soon as we find the right plastics factory we’ll be ready to rock it into production.

What’s happened over the last 3 weeks (and then some!)

It took us a while to find some good factories for Switch. When we first began our search over the summer, we fell in love with one manufacturer. The work they had done in the past impressed us, and we began moving forward working with them. Unfortunately, the longer we stayed with them, the more difficult they became… and the more they tried to put off our project. We had to move on.

There are a lot of generic pocket knife manufacturers out there, but after a long search, our staff in China found two factories that do quality work for us to choose from. When we requested quotes on pricing and timeline from both, they came back far too high for us to keep Switch priced under $80. Over the past three weeks, we’ve been editing and revising to drive the unit price down.

The first change we had to make was dropping the USB memory stick as one of the tools. The price for that one tool was about 25% of the entire unit cost. It was a tough choice to make, but after we asked Switch ideator Jim Robinson, and he gave us his approval, we did what had to be done.

Another change we’ve made is simplifying the box. The original intent was to have a blow-molded box with a sliding lock. Last week we revised it to one injection molded piece that will use a living hinge along its spine and on its clasps. This change takes three parts down to one, and uses a simpler (and cheaper) production method.

Now the two factories are requoting based on those changes as well as a few slight material changes. Where some pieces are expensive to machine out of metal, they are much cheaper to inject with a rigid plastic (like glass-filled nylon, or polyester). Obviously we would never sacrifice the functionality of Switch, or its beauty with these changes, so don’t worry. We should have the quotes back any day, and we’ll be picking a factory next week.

What we expect over the next 3 weeks

We’ve sent the Switch prototype over to China, and next week when we choose a factory, the Q-Asia sourcing and engineering teams will bring it to the factory to discuss it with them. Both factories originally wanted to prototype Switch before kicking off production to see if it actually worked, but since we already have a prototype that works, they’ll be able to skip that process. We know that Switch production has been a long process (too long) but next week we’ll be finalizing a purchase order with a factory, and since we’ve already got the working prototype finished, we’re hoping to kick off production within the next two weeks.

Switch is available in the Quirky store for $79.

- We will provide a date estimate only when full production has begun.

- We will send confirmation e-mails and have SKU (color/version) selection only when the product is on hand.

- We will provide a full production report on each post-threshold product every three weeks.

Stay tuned for the following post-production reports coming your way…

Wrapster: later today!

Space Bar: 9/10

MugStir: 9/14

Sling Back: 9/23

Switch: 9/30

Click n Cook: 10/4

Pivot Power: 10/5

ThinkGeek is one of the leading online retailers of “stuff for smart masses”, and they’ve expressed a fair amount of interest in our products over the past several months. This morning, they purchased Switch, Click ‘n Cook, and Cloak.

To sweeten the pot, this arrangement shakes out prettttty well for the community members who influenced these products. Why? Well, according to our new terms and conditions, Quirky shares 30 percent of revenue for direct sales and 10 percent of revenue for indirect sales with the community for products 0036 and onward. But, since Switch is product 0035, Click ‘n Cook is product 0033, and Cloak is product 0030, the old terms and conditions still apply — so we’ll be sharing 30 percent of ALL PRODUCT REVENUE, direct or indirect, with the community for these products.

That’s a lotta dough… $14,839.50 just this morning, and thousands to come. Dare we say it? Millions may not be so far off!

Everybody, get up and dance… Switch, our new modular multi-tool pocket knife, is now available in the Quirky store! This product took a little longer than usual to design and render, but it was worth the wait. Buy yours now for a special pre-sale price of $68 (MSRP: $79) and don’t forget — free shipping if you commit in pre-sales!

Looking for the perfect pocket knife? The search is over. Switch is the ultimate modular utility device, with 18 different attachments so you can mix and match your most frequently used tools. Customize your Switch’s width by swapping out the inner axles, or group your tools into different “themes” – home, office, outdoors, etc. However you choose to do it, Switch is your tool, your way.

The Switch set includes:

- Two exterior body covers, for encasing the tool attachments.

- Two slotted caps to hold the tool together, which can be removed with the twist of a quarter to disassemble the unit.

- Three interior axle assemblies – small (2-6 tools), medium (4-10 tools), and large (7-13 tools) — which can be swapped in and out depending on your desired tool width.

- 18 tool attachments: Standard Knife, Pliers, Scissors, Nail File, Tweezers, Thin Flathead Screwdriver, Phillips-Head Screwdriver, Eyeglass Philips-Head Screwdriver, Eyeglass Flathead Screwdriver, Wood Saw, Serrated Saw, Corkscrew, Combination Bottle Opener/Flathead Screwdriver, Combination Can Opener/Wire Stripper, Pen, Magnifying Glass, LED Flashlight, 1GB USB Memory Stick.

We want to take our time to make sure we get this product right, so we’ve decided to launch a second project research phase to gather more of your input. There are some things our designers want you to keep in mind as you fill out this survey.

For question 3 and 4: These questions refer to the modularity of the product. There are two different ways that the Quirky staff can see “modular” being defined. One is that the user picks which tools are in the knife, and then the knife is assembled, shipped, and stays together.  The second is that the user can easily switch out the attachments in the knife after purchasing the knife. We ask how likely you’d be to purchase the product for both these implementations.

For question 5:  The unit would be smaller if the tools nested, but that would constrain how modular it is. Here we ask which is more important to you: having a fully modular tool, so you can add and remove individual components as you please; having sets of tools arranged to be nested, with the freedom to add and remove individual components; or having tool sets that must be swapped in and out as sets, not as individual components.

For question 6: Assuming the user could switch out attachments, let’s think about we’d open the device. If you could take tools in and out without using a tool, that would probably be easiest, but the product might not be as robust. If you used a standard screwdriver (either a flathead to pry parts apart or a Phillips head to remove a screw), then you wouldn’t have to worry about losing the tool, but you would have to locate a screwdriver to take it apart. A third option would be to take the device apart with some sort of key, like an Allen wrench. The key could be attached to the device, so you’d always have it on you, though that might make the device bigger. Or, we could include the key in a carrying case used for the other attachments. Or, we could do something completely different! Which method do you prefer?

Click on over to share your two cents — and earn additional influence — now!