Over the past years, NicePBT has established itself as a top-tier PBT keyset offering - with sharp dyesub, solid reverse dyesub with minimal fading, 1.8mm thick blanks, and most recently, windowed keys and recessed stems.
Moving forward, we’re excited to announce that we’re going to be able to offer increased flexibility in NicePBT designs, as well as reduced pricing via Group Buys!
Historically, we’ve only offered NicePBT sets as in-stock products (or pre-orders, once the sets were produced and shipped to us already). But this came with a certain set of challenges. In order for the economics of stocking NicePBT to make sense, we had to buy a high MOQ. As a result, we’ve had to turn down a lot of NicePBT designs that we didn’t think could sell 1000 units. We’ve also had to press for more standardized kitting which limited designers' choice in including or excluding certain keys. In other words - the 1000 MOQ dictated a lot of decisions and decreased flexibility in offering NicePBT.
Honestly - we hated having to turn these sets down. So much of this hobby has to do with getting exactly what you want - and that should include a custom keycap set, with the kitting you want, even if it doesn’t necessarily have the mass appeal to hit sales of 1000 units.
An example of the large kitting available for our NicePBT sets. NicePBT SpooKey pictured.
Today, we’re bringing some of that customization and flexibility back with NicePBT! We’ve negotiated a lower MOQ with our factory to now offer NicePBT sets with just a 100 unit MOQ. As far as we know, this is the lowest MOQ necessary for any high-quality PBT keycaps on the market (aside from services that offer one-off production).
This opens up a world of possibilities for designers to see out their vision - and we are eager to partner with designers to make this happen. If you want to design a set specifically to cater to 40s and Ortho keyboards, you now can with NicePBT. Or maybe you want to use some color combinations that aren’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. As long as you and 99 other people want it, we’d love to help you make it.
This lower MOQ does come with some tradeoffs. The unit cost that we pay for each set is going to increase considerably - but we have a solution for that too. Moving forward, we’re happy to announce that NicePBT will no longer only be sold as in-stock - but will also be sold in a Group Buy format! This will allow us to bring the price of NicePBT sets down - even with the increased unit cost. Group buys do have increased wait time - but we should be able to deliver on our NicePBT group buys within 4 months of the end of the group buy. And we will manage the queue to ensure this time doesn’t increase.
As the hobby has progressed, we now have a ton of in-stock options available - and we’re still going to continue to have NicePBT available in stock, but we’ve also lost a bit of the “custom” element of custom keyboards. We’re hoping with these new changes, we can bring some of that back, and also provide NicePBT at a lower price.
To kick us off - we are currently offering two new NicePBT sets in Group Buy, designed by members of the CannonKeys team. NicePBT Reverie is a dreamy set we envisioned to match great with the Reverie Keyboard - but works amazingly well on its own too.
NicePBT Reverie, available in group buy through October 13th.
And to celebrate the spooky October season - we’re happy to introduce NicePBT SpooKey. This cute Halloween inspired set features a friendly little ghost who you are sure to love.
NicePBT SpooKey, available in group buy through October 31st 2024.
Typically, sets with reverse dyesub and NicePBT sell for $85 in-stock - we’re happy to bring both of these sets to you at a discount at just $65. And if you’d prefer to wait till these are in-stock - that’s still an option! They’ll be available later in-stock, in limited quantity, at the $85 price point.
NicePBT Moomin® 80. Coming to GB on October 24th 2024!
For any designer interested in running a NicePBT set with a reduced MOQ - we want to hear from you! So much of what makes our hobby interesting is the customizability and options that we have - and we need your help to keep that going. We’re working on a platform to help designers submit and surface their ideas - but until then, feel free to submit our designer collaboration form. We can’t promise that every set will run - we still need to make sure our lead times stay reasonable, and if we can’t hit MOQ, your design might be a little too niche. But we’re going to do what we can to make your ideas a reality.