Fri Mar 20 '20 Announcement
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 01:15:08 PM
Dear Backers,
Park & Diamond continues to monitor the U.S., Asian and global impact and status on our overseas factory and suppliers.
Here is the latest Update—
Our factory continues to operate at less than half staff capacity and our suppliers (from all over the world) are also operating with a significantly reduced workforce. As a result, we have accelerated and prioritized our back-up manufacturing processes and are working on a redundant supply chain in anticipation of a longer than expected work interruption, as well as to mitigate other potential delays.
Considering the current uncertainty regarding the impact of the coronavirus on our global business operations, we have recently pushed back delivery dates for new Backers to September 2020.
It is our expectation and great desire to fulfill all current Backers prior to September, and we continue to work to that end.
Please hang in there with us, as we remain 100% committed to delivering your helmet! We hope you and your family are safe, and thank you for your continued patience and great support!
- The Park & Diamond Team
Tue Feb 18 '20 Announcement
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, Feb 18, 2020 at 06:59:03 PM
Dear Backers,
When we sent our last update (#23 on January 24th) we had no idea how widespread the Coronavirus would become as a global health crisis, and the extent of its impact on our business and our plans to begin shipping helmets.
Here are the facts (as we know them today):
• This is a global health issue and we are a small company that requires our (China-based) factory to be in full operation and our U.S. production team to be inside the factory to supervise production and shipping.
• Our team returned to the U.S. just prior to the Chinese New Year (on January 17th) and have not been allowed to return.
• Our factory has been closed during this time and as of Monday, February 10th is operating with minimal staff (20% of staffing capacity) and does not have a firm date from their government health officials on when they can safely re-open and become fully operational.
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In addition, we need both the Chinese and U.S. governments to clear air travel in/out of China and declare China a safe working environment before our U.S. production team can return to supervise production/shipping of our helmets. As of today, direct flights from the U.S. to China are projected to resume on April 24th (this date is subject to change).
Once our factory returns to full operational capacity and the P&D production team returns to the factory, we project approximately 6-8 weeks to begin shipping the first 3,000 helmets (actual timing and date, TBD).
We will continue to closely monitor this situation with our factory and with U.S. officials, and we will send another update when we have more information on this unanticipated and serious health situation. Please bear with us as we work through this unfortunate and serious situation.
We share your frustration at the delay and sincerely apologize for not being able to meet our projected timelines
We assure you, we are still highly committed to delivering your helmet!
The Park & Diamond Team
Fri Jan 24 '20 Announcement
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Jan 24, 2020 at 06:07:08 PM
Dear backers,
Thank you for continuing to support Park & Diamond as we work hard to bring everything together and make this game-changing helmet a reality.
We’re getting much closer, but we’re not there yet.
The good news:
Helmets are being manufactured and hat skins have arrived at the factory. As we continue to successfully execute extensive safety and environmental testing, we’ve also completed all tooling and component production, as well as had our suppliers deliver the materials needed for our first production batch.
The not so good news:
And this is probably no surprise, our factory in China shuts down for the Chinese New Year from January 25 - February 8. When workers return from their holiday break, we’ll ramp back up to full-speed production the week of February 10th.
We estimate the first 3,000 helmets will ship the week of March 30th.
We will send another Update before the end of next week with Indiegogo Backer Contribution #’s and more details on which helmets will begin shipping the week of March 30th.
We are continuing to work very hard to deliver your helmet as soon as possible and we’ll continue to send future updates with actual Indiegogo Contribution #s and shipping details as soon as we know them.
Thanks again for your patience and your great support!
The Park & Diamond Team
Mon Dec 23 '19 Announcement
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 10:36:21 AM
Hello Backers,
It is not lost on us that we have again disappointed our most loyal Backers and for this, we sincerely apologize.
We are committed to greater transparency and also committed to delivering your helmet, and here is our current update and the issues we’re facing—
First, some good news:
We have achieved the following safety milestones:
- We performed the environmental testing, i.e. the helmet’s resistance to high/low temperatures in and out of water. We exceeded the industry standard in each of these tests.
- We performed fatigue testing, i.e. how many times you can fold and unfold the helmet, or how long the helmet will last. We blew past our performance expectations by over 2x. This validates the engineering team’s design and manufacturing of a highly reliable product!
Our number one priority is making certain the helmet we ship meets our safety and quality promise, even if it takes a little longer. We genuinely appreciate your continued patience as we forge stronger partnerships with multiple suppliers and work through the detailed safety and environmental testing process.
Now, here are the avoidable mistakes we’ve made:
- We did not accurately manage lead time on color fabrics with suppliers, and subsequently learned (the hard way) that our contracted fabric mills require significantly longer lead times than originally projected. We are now feeling the effects of this misjudgment in our projection, resulting in another slight delay.
- Most other suppliers have been very accommodating to our shifting schedule, but some have put us further back in their delivery queue. Our job is to balance the delivery and production of these pieces and we’re getting much closer and much better.
Following are additional factors we are actively dealing with:
- We now have thousands of hat skins in transit to our factory, but they’re temporarily being held at Chinese customs (which we expect cleared by early January).
- We have, on a few instances over the past month (and as we scale up preparing for mass production), received materials that did not pass our Receiving Quality Control (RQC) -- this creates two issues, one is the time lost in waiting for replacement materials, and two is increasing (both time and cost) the stringency of our incoming Incoming Quality Control (IQC) procedures. It is paramount that all incoming materials are compliant with our design specifications, and our engineering/tech team will continue to stay focused on RQC and IQC, to ensure 100% compliance.
Taking these timing speed bumps into account, plus the holidays (including Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Years’ Day and the Chinese New Year time off for our factory), our current track has us shipping the first 3,000* helmets by end of January 2020.
*Backer # and shipping details to come in a future update
P&D Helmet being environmentally tested in a water bath prior to impact testing. This government-mandated test ensures that our helmet will meet safety standards in the wettest conditions.
P&D Helmet being tested in roll-off testing. This government-mandated test ensures the stability of the helmet and strap system on the users head, to make sure it does not fall off in a crash
P&D Helmet is being put through stringent environmental freezer testing (prior to impact testing). This government-mandated test ensures the P&D Helmet will meet safety standards even in the coldest conditions.
P&D Helmet retention testing, which tests the strength of the strapping system. This government-mandated test ensures the helmet does not fall off in a crash.
We feel so fortunate and proud to have so many dedicated Backers, and we genuinely appreciate you sticking with us during this journey. We remain very committed to delivering and can’t wait to see so many new Park & Diamond helmets on our Backers’ heads during the next riding season.
We are very committed to delivering the best helmet to all Backers!
We wish all of our loyal Backers a very Happy & Healthy holiday season as we embark into the New Year. As always, we THANK YOU for your fantastic support!
The Park & Diamond Team
Mon Nov 18 '19 Announcement
about 5 years ago
– Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 03:53:43 PM
This is not an easy update, which is why I want to tell you in-person:
Link to video: https://youtu.be/DHIuoaIDhOo
Unfortunately, our supply chain struggles, as well as the developing and fine-tuning of our helmet and production process has required additional time and diligence for repeated tests and retests for our current helmet design.
We have backers in over 150 countries, and we believe it’s OUR RESPONSIBILITY to test every helmet design iteration and make sure our design surpasses the multitude of global safety standards. Fact is, during this journey, we never imagined we would experience as many vendor and material changes, which would also cause additional process and design modifications. BUT I ASSURE YOU, WE’RE ON IT!
And during this entire time, we have NEVER COMPROMISED from our SAFETY-FIRST MISSION. First and foremost, this is a safety product and we believe YOUR SAFETY is worth this extra time.
We know we haven’t been great communicating all of this, but whenever there is a vendor change, a change of materials, a design, or process change, we are obligated to thoroughly test our helmet design to the various global safety regulations (US, EU, AUS/NZ and all others) as well as our own stringent internal standards. This safety testing includes destructive impact testing, environmental testing (i.e. high/low temperatures), strap strength testing, helmet roll-off testing and additional tests (e.g. folding fatigue testing, material adhesion and stitching tests) well beyond the standard regulations This very necessary process has required we hand-produce new production samples to take on these strict battery of tests. As I mentioned, YOUR SAFETY comes first and testing is necessary, which also requires a little more time to produce new prototypes, ship to and from independent safety test labs and our HQ.
As part of our commitment to greater transparency, we want to share these critical details so you will be assured, that Park & Diamond is COMMITTED TO SAFETY FIRST. And all along the way, our helmet design has continued to pass third party independent safety testing.
Since most of you have asked, “When will I get my helmet?”, let’s discuss delivery timing…
As long as we remain on track with our current vendors and testing schedule, we expect to begin delivery (or shipping?) by the end of December. We will send the delivery process, schedule and quantity breakouts in a few weeks. But being honest, there is also a chance we could get one more slight delay because of the December holidays, New Years, and Chinese New Year, which could push delivery to the end of January. We really want to best manage your expectations from here on.
Finally, my co-founder Jordan and I want to say how much we appreciate your unwavering support and patience, and as we continue our production validation, we ask for a little more time knowing we are highly committed and focused to meet all global safety regulations and deliver you the SAFEST and MOST BREAKTHROUGH BIKE HELMET.
Thank you for this great opportunity…WE PROMISE, PARK & DIAMOND WILL DELIVER FOR YOU!
David Hall, Co-founder/President
Jordan Klein, Co-founder/CEO
