✴️Breaking News: T-minus 7 days. Series 00 IC2 launch imminent.

02/13/2021: Breaking News

Yes, you heard it. After this many months, we are finally launching Series 00 IC2. Within the next seven days.

Manufacturing

• We have just received our final Series 00 Review Units and have been doing final prep including taking product photos and preparing the shipment out to reviewers. Can you guess who we are shipping them out to?

• We are very pleased with the quality, especially the hand polishing of the stainless steel and brass. The laser quality is also exceptional with clean and precise legends.

Pricing

• We are partnering with Mechs & Co, Desk Hero, and Candy Keys as our initial batch of launch vendors. Pricing is as follows.

• Foundry Edition is a discounted bundle of all five Series 00 + something extra on the side that you can find out when you get it :).

• Depending on IC2 demand for SEA, CN, and OCE, we will further announce vendors for those.
  

Website

• Over the next couple days, you will find product photo updates across the website. If you look a little deeper, you will see that we are already using the product photos for the Series 00 product page!

Series 00 IC2

• Yes — we will launch Series 00 IC2 within the next few days! If you haven’t already joined our Discord or Instagram, you can do so now to be the first to know about the launch. Otherwise, we will be shooting out an e-mail otherwise for all the locations that we will go live on.

• We will launch on Geekhack, Reddit (/r/mkb & /r/mm), Instagram, and more.

Content

• Want to know how well Series 00 fits on your favorite switch? Look no further than the Series 00 Switch Fit Test chart.

Instagram AMA and Giveaway

• We hit 700 followers on Instagram a few days ago.. We’re actually almost about to hit 800 which is crazy to think about. As a result, we did a 700 followers AMA and sticker pack giveaway. If you want some insight on our inspo for Series 00, how we run esc lab, and more, check out our AMA here.

Thank you for your patience and support of esc lab and our team. We deeply appreciate your kindness. I am looking forward to our first product launch!

// loop, Cubic, and Isshin.

Series 00 EU and UK Pricing Announced

Hello cool cats

I am happy to announce our EU and UK pricing with Candy Keys. This has been months in the making so I am stoked to finally get to announce this!

The EU and UK pricing uses the US pricing as baseline with an added 19% VAT that’s mandatory to the EU region. Thank you David from Candy Keys for making this pricing work so our customers can get the absolute best value — nothing more, nothing less!

Foundry Edition is a discounted bundle that includes all five Series 00 and a little something extra that you can find out when you receive the package.

We will announce our Canadian vendor and the associate pricing very soon — stay tuned!

- loop

01/21/2021 — So close I can taste it

Hello all!

First, I'd like to welcome all the new people that have joined over the past two weeks. Despite Series 00's IC2 not going officially life yet across the wire, the response has been incredible. I'm blown away by all the positive comments as well as all the feedback we've been getting. Keep up the comments - we see and read every single one even if we may not have the bandwidth to respond to each.

Vendors & Pricing

• If you have missed out the news the past two weeks, we have announced our US and EU vendors

• We are honored to be working with @CoolMike @Psyoshi @savageastr0naut @Chris of Mechs & Co. to be our US vendor. Our pricing for US can be found below. Note that this pricing does not include taxes, shipping, and handling!

• We are also super stoked to work with David P. of Candy Keys as our EU vendor. We will be announcing pricing shortly.

• Our CA (Canada) vendor will also be announced very soon.

• The jist is, in our IC2, we will announce everything including all starting regions and its respective pricing.

• Our pricing across all regions will be using the US pricing as a baseline. That said, each region will differ slightly in pricing due to regional taxes, shipping, and other international hoopla. We can promise that we will do in our best ability to provide the most reasonable pricing so that if you want a Series 00, you can get one.

Design Showcase

• Over the past two weeks, you may have seen a sneak peek of various collaborations we've shown with some of the raddest coolest designers in the community right now.

• The intent of these collaborations are to showcase the best of what the community offers, and show what are good pairings of Series 00 and other designs

Interest Check 2

• Everything is still going according to plan for IC2 to go live in ~2-3 weeks.

• Our R5 production units for Series 00 that we will be using to take product photos of + ship off to reviewers is in production right now and if my estimation is correct, it will take them about one more week to complete production before shipping off to Cubic, Isshin, and I.

• Due to geography, Cubic will get them first. As soon as he gets them, we'll immediately start taking final product pictures and ship the IC2 to Geekhack, Reddit, Keebtalk, and zFrontier.

• Thank you for your patience on this. We want to make sure we get all the details correct instead of rushing. One thing we want to keep consistent with our product launches is to always show a real physical product before heading into IC and GB.

• Nothing is worse than getting into an IC or GB, get the product, and what you get is nothing like what you saw in the marketing.

Community

• WOW! esc lab's community has really blown up the past two weeks!

• Instagram: We hit 560 followers just this week, and it seems like there is no signs of stopping. Geon of Geonworks has followed us! :simpgeon:

• Reddit: Our Reddit activity has been very healthy. Have you seen our latest post?

• Discord: We're about to hit 400 people in our Discord. That is bonkers to us considering we only started this channel four months ago. To everyone old and new - welcome and enjoy your ~~permanent~~ stay

• Website: Our website activity has blown up also. Over 100+ pindividuals have visited our site every single day the past few days.

Okay that is all from me I believe.

Thank you all for the incredibly positive response to esc lab. And if you have feedback on our product, IC, GB, anything - you know where we are. We're always all-ears on how to further improve!

- loop, Cubic, & Isshin

01/08/2021 — Welcome, Mechs & Co.

esc lab is honored to announce Mechs & Co as our US vendor

Since the beginning of esc lab, Mechs & Co’s team of Mike, Patrick, Chris, and more, has been there to assist us with the behind-the-scenes and logistics of putting a product into the market.

Group buys don’t happen just at the end of a CAD or render. 90% of the work behind a launch is never seen, and if things go smooth, you will likely never see it.

Mechs & Co’s team has been nothing but professionals in assisting us with many behind the scenes advice and assistance, and we cannot be more happy than to work with them as our U.S. vendor.

Thank you Mike, Patrick, Chris, and team, and esc lab looks forward to working together with you folks on Series 00 and beyond.

• Cubic, Isshin, and loop

01/07/2020 — Our biggest update yet.

Hello everyone

Apologies for the lack of major updates the past few weeks. We have been working hard behind the scenes to move the IC2 & GB forward. And we’re getting extremely close. Let’s get right into it.

This update is LONG, so here's a table of contents:

1. Design & Tolerances

2. Manufacturing

3. Packaging

4. Pricing

5. Vendors

6. Review Units

7. Prototype Giveaway

8. Timeline

9. TODO

Let's get right into it.

Design & Tolerances

• We have finalized the design of Series 00. There are no major changes to the physical design in terms of color, material, or finish, but lots of work has been put into making the tolerance of the stems fit the majority of switches available. Oh, some of you may not know we added Hand Polished Brass to the final GB. Woohoo!

• Here are the final Series 00 materials and finish

  • Sandblast Clear Aluminum

  • Sandblast Black Aluminum

  • Sandblast Brass

  • Hand Polished Stainless Steel

  • Hand Polished Brass

• In order to set expectations of the fitting of Series 00 on switches, we will release a chart of the level of fit for 40+ most popular switches from Cherry, Gateron, Panda family, Durock, ZealPC, and more.

• We are quite happy with the hand polishing quality with both the Polished and Stainless Steel version of Series 00. But with all hand-treated products, there may be expected imperfections.

A sample of the popular switch families we will test Series 00 on. Full list here.

Manufacturing

• We have finalized our manufacturer for both Series 00 production and packaging after a long search comparing multiple manufacturers. A total of four prototype stages were conducted, and we are finally happy the color, material, finish, tolerance, and more.

• There are still things we need to finalize with regards to manufacturing such as coordinating our manufacturer with the regional vendors, but this can be an ongoing thing as IC2 and GB runs.

Packaging

• The packaging design has been finalized and we’re about ready to receive the prototypes - the box, foam, thank you card, and other goodies. We don’t expect any issues with this, and from what we’ve seen so far, we’re satisfied with their work. We’ll tease the packaging design in the coming weeks. Maybe if you join our Discord, you’ll get a peek.

Pricing

• We know many of you are looking forward to the pricing of Series 00. We have finalized both the manufacturing price and US vendor pricing. We’ll announce official pricing as we confirm with more regional vendors.

• For a little sneak peek - Series 00 aluminum, brass, and stainless steel pricing will be extremely competitive with the pricing you expect from other m-artisan designers.

• Depending on the polish and material, the pricing of Series 00 is separated into three tiers. There will be options available for everyone that wants a keycap.

• Founder’s Edition will be a bundle of Series 00 that includes all five launch editions. You will be able to purchase the Founder’s Edition with a discount - currently this is confirmed with our US vendor. More to come on other regional vendors.

Vendors

• We have confirmed our US vendor and the pricing for each Series 00. This one will likely be the least surprising one :). We’re very excited to work with them, and they have been nothing but excellent folks.

• We’re actively beginning discussion with other regional vendors, and we’ll announce more as we get more updates.

• Due to the demand of Series 00 in certain regions, we might not initially sell through a proxy if the demand is low. But you can express your interest in our product in our upcoming IC2 on Geekhack, Reddit, zFrontier, and more.

Review Units

• This week, we will begin production of the Review Units for Series 00 to send off to vendors, Youtubers, streamers, and content creators. Before you buy Series 00, we want you to be able to get opinions from people other than us on the quality and feel of our product.

• We’re very excited to work with these awesome content creators - thank you for signing on!

Prototype Giveaway

• Last month, we participated in Existentially Yours’ charity stream. We gave away a Polished Stainless Steel Series 00, and we’re honored to contribute a little to such a great cause. Check out Existentially Yours’ Twitch channel here: https://www.twitch.tv/existentiallyyours

• So far, three Easter Egg Hunt winners have confirmed their prototype choice - P2-engraved Polished Brass, P1-engraved Polished Stainless Steel, and P0-engraved Black Anodized Aluminum.

• Do not fret, we have a lot more chances for you to win in IC2, GB, Reddit giveaway, and more!!

Timeline

• Based on current progress, we feel confident that IC2 will hit by either late January or early February.

• IC2 will last between two weeks to a month, from early Feb to early March.

• GB will happen immediately after that (early March), and last for a month to a month and a half to early April.

• Manufacturing will take 2-4 weeks, not including the shipping time to vendors.

• You can expect to receive Series 00 around May-June.

TODO

1. Confirm pricing with other regional vendors

2. Confirm other regional vendors

3. Receive Review Units + packaging prototype

4. Update website with final Series 00 photos

5. Launch IC2

If you actually read till the end - kudos to you.

Thank you again. Thank you thank you thank you for supporting our small three-man operation.

2020 marked the prologue of esc lab. Series 00 will be chapter 1, and we are beyond excited to go from here!