The new Sitpack ZEN is the world’s most compact, and functional one-legged chair. It's designed to improve your posture, and lets you relax when you need it, whether you’re indoors or outdoors. Made with either carbon or alu tubes, and a ballistic nylon seat, it's the toughest, most advanced and lightest portable seat on the market.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Dear All.
Hope you are well. The new design is underway and preparation for production will soon start.
The seat has increased in size and will sport a quilted foam top and a recycled plastic inlay for support. We will add either a Zip-pouch or rubber bands (or both) below the seat for storage. (samples for this are on the way. The new seat is compatible with the previous Sitpack and will be sold separately as well.
Also, I would like to draw your attention to the campaign that a friend of mine just launched today - there are some great launch offers!
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Check it HERE
Dear All
Below is a summary of the past year's hurdles - should have been 20 pages, but I have tried my best to confine it... Check it out, hope it will answer some questions, leading to increased trust and understanding between us. We want to do right by you, as much as we are able to, and hope that this shines through in the below.
If you’re not keen on reading the lengthy explanation below here’s a short(er) summary.
In 2020 we canceled the contract with our DK manufacturing partner B2B Link China due to a consistent lack of quality control. It was not taken well by the factory, which would not accept any of the claims that lead to the cancelation.
The long version:
Under Pressure
Sitpack Zen production has been under tremendous pressure in 2019 and in 2020. As some of you have noticed/experienced is that our initial design of the wings can be bent at the joints, if too much weight was applied to one side. This would happen if the ring used to tightening the straps weren’t pushed up thoroughly causing unstable weight distribution. We are sincerely sorry for anyone who had experienced this. Also, the Carbon Sitpack Zen had issues with the internal locking mechanism. Getting the right tolerance of the weaved carbon tube with a small enough variance was, compared to extruded aluminum, very difficult. These tiny variances do that the locking inserts don't fit 100% resulting in a small part in the plastic has a risk of breaking. Sitpack has absorbed the cost of replacing and shipping products to backers' first wing design. Having re-shipped close to replacements, it´s safe to say that it's been a gut punch, for both backers and Sitpack. Another substantial issue was that the first impression of the Sitpack Zen was that the foot would just fall out when unfolding Zen. Not something you want to experience with a high-end product. A claim that we put forward to the factory, but they would not recognize that it was a flaw in their production line. The snap-fit in the foot was broken off, and it's unable to attach. This is an issue with the molding and assembly process. We were not able to replicate this issue in any way. The factory, B2B Link China, told us that it was a design flaw, and it broke due to the cold during air transport. We tried to freeze the foot at -20° Celsius, performed the assembly, and banging them hard on the floor, to replicate the issue - but we couldn't. We shipped out replacement feet, which were mounted by you guys - with no issues, nothing breaking - the exact same foot as B2B somehow broke during assembly. We took the hit online with complaints and negative comments. During Q4 2018 until Q3 in 2019 they did not want to produce replacement feet although there were so many issues in the production line, making it impossible for us to solve this particular issue in a timely fashion during this period.
B2B Link China has completely failed to deliver the expected quality and the Danish management at the factory, even after we admitted to the shortcomings in the design, have been unwilling to admit to the flaws and QC issues apparent at the factory - neither were they willing to work with us to find an amicable solution to the long-standing issues, and we were met with hostility and aggression from the Danish management in China. Naturally, B2B Link China has felt an economic impact, and spend much more time and effort than they expected - and will probably have a different perception about the content of this update - naturally, we can back up our arguments with emails and other documentation.
From the shared trackable timelines, we can see 8-9 months of delay in the production of our injection molds. Their lack of capabilities in injection molding was completely absorbed by Sitpack, both financially (time to final product) and in terms of our reputation, making Sitpack look bad to all of you guys, and in cyberspace. Our cost for the molds was 112 000 USD - which after moving to a new production partner proved to be 55 000 USD too much comparing the quotes 1:1. This is a very large price difference for the exact same quality at Chinese manufacturers - the same was the case for the product cost price. A premium that we were willing to pay to get perfect quality. Our first batch was flawless (except for the wing, and foot issues). After having stopped production to improve wing design - production standards dropped to the floor, and apparently, not a single QC test was made after assembly before shipping out. They shipped several units to us for approval, but clearly, these were hand-picked. In good faith, we shipped out these next batches directly from the factory in large quantities, trusting that their supposedly high standards would shine through. In short, all Kickstarter and IndieGoGo units were produced and shipped, but unfortunately, had undergone the rigorous QC'ed we wanted but only examined by the assembly team, which left Sitpack neck-deep problems.
QC issues:
- Large scratches and dents
- Assembled with twisted straps
- Broken feet inserted or broken during assembly
- Screws not attached properly, fell out when opening
- Sharp edges on ring, wings, and top
and the list went on!
Canceling the Contract with B2B Link China
In the past years, we have kept these issues to ourselves and taken the blame, but in reality, there are two parties that are to blame, and as B2B Link are not having a consumer-facing brand is not being called out online-only Sitpack. B2B Link China did not have the proper experience, expertise, or subcontractors to handle this type of project, but never did they admit to it. They only transferred their frustrations to us blaming us for all of the production-related issues. We had to keep a positive mindset all the way through trusting that everything would turn out great with time, but we ended up realizing the hard and expensive way, that the cooperation could not improve. We decided to make an expensive but healthy choice, to cancel the contract. Little did we know that the Danish owner located in China - very friendly during negotiations and production - would quickly switch to a rough and rude argumentation and rhetoric, after receiving the claims. We had several advisors reading through their emails who were completely taken aback and appalled by their way of communication.
Toolnapping
The contract cancelation resulted in B2B Link China "kidnapping" our tools and our stock until we had placed another large order. This we could not agree to, due to the poor quality and that trust had been destroyed, but they would not budge.
Finally, after 6 months of back and forth, I told them that we would sue them - which got the chairman of the board to step in and enabled us to negotiate a reasonable solution. They would make products from the components that they had in stock and when delivered, their claim for producing another large order of additional units would forfeit and the tools returned to Sitpack.
Then the next problem occurred. They didn't want a 3rd party QC company to check the remaining products at first - but finally after several complaints and another long stalemate they accepted to have a 3rd party QC to check and pay for it, or nothing would have happened. The QC company rejected about 25% of this production batch.
B2B Link China never accepted the issues. Before the QC we had +1000 products that we or customers had rejected or returned - clear issues which were never accepted or reimbursed by the factory.
All products with issues that we have received from Backers have been accepted by Sitpack within our warranty, and we have shipped back thoroughly tested products to our backers. The only issue has been getting enough inventory to do the replacements, and cash flow to fund the reshipments during a time of crisis. We estimate the replacements and production issues have cost Sitpack around 150.000$ in net losses.
We´re Still Here - with an urge to create!!!
For all backers to know: Everyone that has filled out the survey has been sent their reward, for any inconvenience caused - we are very sorry. Several 100's of the packages weren't picked up by backers or lost during Covid19 and sent back, or lost their tracking during Covid19 (back in 2019 stuck in Singapore, we made an update about this) – all have been reshipped, for free, and several hundreds of Carbons have been exchanged under warranty,
We are very sorry for the lack of communication (during 2019.2020) regarding the above problems. It has been very hard to explain the complexity of the issues in short form, and the financial implication for our company has been so severe that it has been difficult to focus on anything else than correcting mistakes, re-design the Zen, improving QC, and executing our Campster campaign.
We will always remember your support and want to give you some kind of reward when we are able to do so - would probably be a massive discount on new releases or a free gift on your next purchase or something else.
What Now
We have moved all our products (except Sitpack 2.0) to one of the largest manufacturers of outdoor gear in China. They are fantastic to work with and knows their stuff. Currently, we are making some changes to the Zen molds and we are on our way to making a better product and without the QC issues experienced with our last manufacturing partner. We are also continuously developing new products and as soon as we have the Zen 2.0 Ready and Campster delivered, we will be able to move forward with our new innovations.
Your Help is needed - again
With crowdfunding, we are able to make products that would otherwise never see the light of day. It requires perseverance from backers and creators, and in the long run, your feedback and comments push us to find a new and better way to create products that suit your needs.
If you had issues with your Zen, your trust in our product and us has suffered a great trauma - and our small team and limited resources have probably left you with a feeling of abandonment and resentment.
Hopefully, you have received a working product and a heart-felt excuse in exchange that has mitigated some of these feelings.
Sitpack has suffered a great deal as a company. The massive financial costs with production and delays, as well as bad vibes with the flawed production have echoed into our ability to market our products and delayed our work on improving Sitpack Zen, as well as creating new products.
We will continue to assist you, the best way we can, and hope that you will continue to follow us on our bumpy journey, which will end up with a suite of awesome innovative products, of great quality.
Again, sincerely thank you for reading through this and supporting us on our path to becoming the great and innovative brand that you helped us build!
Having shipped thousands of products we know that many of our backers are very happy with our products which don´t always shine through in the midst of a storm of adversity. So we would really really really appreciate a review on our webshop preferably a good one or some constructive input please click here: Sitpack Zen Published reviews will receive free shipping (10$) on their next pledge.
UPGRADED Sitpack ZEN X 2.0 (click here)
- New edgier design
- Much larger and cushioned seat.
- Wings click into place along the sides when folded
- Camera / Selfie mount
- New lighter and stronger wing design
- Easier removal of the seat making it even quicker to pack away
- Stowaway bag included
(Carbon will probably be discontinued but we are looking for solutions)
This time we'll have everything done ready and approved before the campaign, so there will be no delays. We'll send some units to some of you to test them before launching.
Due to the scale of our manufacturing partner, we will be able to supply the aluminum version to previous backers for 39$ and to others 59$ with a retail price of 79$. Depending on raw material pricing.
We are dying to know if you in any way would be interested in this upgrade could you do us a HUGE favor and click this link and leave us your answer!
Any questions or comments please redirect them to [email protected]
Again
Thank you so much for your continued support.
Sincerely, Jonas
Firstly, please note in the comments section - we are shipping replacements, and doing exchanges constantly! Your happiness is our main concern - however we are in a feud with our Zen factory as they are not willing to accept the clear quality issues that we have raised. They are making refunding the bad products difficult, and not responsive to us ordering additional feet for replacement. More on this in a separate update. We still have stock in Denmark, which is undergoing strict QC before shipping. The situation is very intense - but will NOT interfere with the Campster launch.
Secondly, We are excited to announce the launch of Campster on Indiegogo on the 30.06.2020 - As you are a Sitpack Backer we will give you an additional discount - only available to Backers and newsletter subscribers. The offer will ONLY stand for 24hrs. After that time the price will NEVER go that low again!
Your Price special price will be 69$ and include add-ons like a nice carry bag (10$), carabiner (10$), and detachable rubber feet (10$). All in the 69$ price.
Sitpack Campster will be manufactured with one of the largest camping chair producers in China. They are insanely good at what they do and have over delivered on all samples. While our first product and Sitpack Zen where funding for development and production tools + raw material.
Sitpack Campster has finished the development phase, and we have made the production tools, so we "only" need the funding for the very large order we need to put in, to get a reasonable price.
1. Stay tuned to our Kickstarter update on June 30 th.
2. Sign up for our newsletter right here: https://sitpack.com/pages/campster
3. Stay tuned your inbox and look for a Backerkit email on the 30th, everyone with a Backerkit profile will receive a notification
Meanwhile, you can be mesmerized by the GIF below.
Yours truly, Jonas and the Sitpack Team.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.