Wooting wrist rest
December 31, 2019
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Calder

Resting on the Wooting wrist rest

Had you seen the Wooting wrist rests on one of our social channels yet? Well, it’s in mass production right now. Let’s review the project status together.I have to start by saying that it’s a real pleasure to work on this project and how smooth its development has gone in comparison to others. It’s Kevin’s first Wooting product project that he both kicked off and taken the lead on. We found a great silicone manufacturer that has taken a vested interest in perfecting the wrist rest and moved swiftly through the development. For the manufacturer, it’s also a first-ever to make a silicone wrist rest and a silicone product of this magnitude. If it wasn’t for both Kevin and the manufacturer, this project wouldn’t have moved as swiftly. Also, the product is relatively simple but yet exciting.

Introducing the Wooting wrist rests

The Wooting wrist rest is a full silicone TenKeyLess or Full-size wrist rest. The silicone is very durable and can withstand extreme environments and temperatures. Including your sweaty hands/wrists and gamer rage 😝.[gallery columns="4" size="medium" ids="https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-FS-1.jpg|,https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-FS-middle-2.jpg|,https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-TKL-pattern.jpg|,https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-FS-middle.jpg|,https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-TKL-1.jpg|,https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-TKL-logo.jpg|,https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-FS-side.jpg|"]You can bend it, twist it, spank it, kick it or throw it out of the window. It won’t crack, break or give in. After giving it a great beating, spilling a drink and touching it with your nacho fingers, you can easily wipe it clean with a damp/wet cloth or throw it under tap water.

We struck a balance in hardness to provide a stable yet soft and comfortable surface. You can squish and cuddle it but you won’t sink in it. It’s entirely coated with a protective layer that further softens and smoothens the entire surface for that extra comfortable feel. The silicone rubber doesn’t heat up during use or become unpleasantly cold and retains nice room temperature.[gallery columns="2" size="large" ids="https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-hand-off.jpg|,https://blog.wooting.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wooting-wrist-rest-hand-on.jpg|"]The large flat surface gives adequate space for your wrists and palms to rest for maximum comfort. The slope follows a natural angle that prevents you from touching the edge and allows repositioning to allow slight height adjustment. The height will fit with the majority of mechanical keyboards on the market including your Wooting keyboard.In constrast to other wrist rests on the market, we discourage too much cushioning. Wrist rests with “gel”, memory foam or any type of foam are often too soft and sink in your wrists/palms. This cushioning doesn’t encourage or assist in good posture, doesn’t give feedback on bad posture and only masks the pain caused by bad posture.The goal of our wrist rest is to encourage good posture and provide a more comfortable surface. It decreases tension in your finger tendons, provides better weight distribution that includes the bottom part of your palms and gives resistance/feedback when you place unnecessary weight on your wrist.

The Release Date

The original plan was to sell and deliver the wrist rest in December 2019. I was fairly confident this wouldn’t be an issue until I noticed that the finalizing phase was taking longer than expected. We had to push back mass production for 2 reasons:

  1. Polishing the molds. This included removing etching marks, divide line, and other blemishes.
  2. Choosing the right protective coating. This is a coating that makes the silicone material a bit softer and smoother to the touch.

We signed off on the final samples and now we’re in the midst of mass production. I underestimated the mass production duration. I expected 7 working days but in reality, it takes a full 18 working days to complete the entire production. It takes this long because the curing (time in the oven, also in the vlog) takes about 20 minutes per time. The mold holds 3 cavities, so that’s 3 wrist rests per 20min.I expect to ship the wrist rests to our warehouse begin January 2020. The sales will launch shortly after it’s on its way to the warehouse. In theory, this will leave up to 2 weeks from launch to delivery at your front door. The goods will come in 2 batches. One goes by Airfreight for the launch only and the other (larger) amount by boat. If we underestimate the launch sales in January, we’ll temporarily be out of stock until the boat shipment comes at the end of February.We will launch the product page in advance of the sales. This will go into more product details and pricing.

Keep an eye open

I’m extremely excited about the Wooting wrist rests and hope it can make a mark on the oversaturated and boring wrist rest market. This is the wrist rest that will outlast your keyboard and will be hard to say goodbye to. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter (in page footer) if you haven’t already to get notified of the launch.<3,Calder &Team Wooting

Calder
Calder
Co-founder and CEO