Kickstarter spotlight: TAKTIK
The thing about Kickstarter is that if you do a good job on one product, launching more products is a lot easier. The MINIMAL team did exactly that with its first product, the LunaTik/TikTok iPod nano watch kit. It raised nearly a million dollars, so when the company launched its second product, the Touch Pen, it already had a head start with advertisement and raised over $300,000 on that project, too. Now the team is back with its third product, the TAKTIK iPhone case, and from the looks of it, it’s going to be another winner.
The TAKTIK is a sturdy iPhone case, which is hardly a new concept, but the attention to detail here is quite astonishing. The case screws together around an iPhone 4/4S, and there are quite a few parts to this that make it what it is. It has a Gorilla glass screen protector (optional), 9mm shock absorption layer, a pass-through silence switch inspired by the safety on a gun, special water resistant filters for the speakers/mics, and special ports to protect the 30-pin connector and the headphone jack.
As both that spec list and the video shows, this is probably as close as you’ll get to the ultimate in iPhone protection. It bulks up the iPhone quite a bit, though, and compensates by de-bulking your wallet. The case starts at $75, swings by $100 for the version with the Gorilla glass protector, and goes up to $250 for two different backer levels: one that includes an iPhone 5 (technically it’s the iPhone 6; I don’t know why people keep making this mistake) case once that becomes available, and another one that is a mix ‘n match pack with all sorts of colors to choose from. $50 added to the pledge will also provide you with a bike mount that fits the case.
There’s a reason why these people have two very successful projects already, and I think this product demonstrates that very well. Despite not having an iPhone, I drooled quite a bit over the Mophie Juice Pack Pro, but this is just several levels above that (aside from not having an integrated battery). The attention to detail with this case is just insane, and it’s one $100 case I don’t question the price of. The estimates ship date is in August, which seems a bit optimistic, especially since the last project isn’t exactly on schedule. If that deadline can be met, though, the better it is for the backers, and the company.
[Kickstarter]
