Artisan Keycap: A Ultimate Guide

From the blind box that attracts millions of fans and the expensive Lolita dresses, JK dresses and Hanfu, we can see that the new consumption concept of the young generation has made personalized economy a new entrepreneurial trend.

Now, some young people have found a “new pit” that they can’t stop spending money on — customized mechanical keyboard, especially the artisan keycaps on the keyboard, which was originally ordinary, has now become a collectible miniature model, the cost of the keyboard is far more expensive than the keyboard itself:

A top-of-the-line Jellkey Craftsman artisan keycap can sell for 300 or 400 yuan, and it’s only available in a limited and niche fashion, making it hard for many keycircle players to afford it. The Year of the Rat Jellkey, which costs 315 RMB, won’t arrive until November at the soonest

One of the most popular aluminum key caps on Taobao is “HolyOOPS of Thor’s Hammer,” which costs 238 yuan. Buyers show that the most popular caps are from girls since their boyfriends are satisfied with this “present”. Thor’s Hammer keycap is very popular on Taobao. The Pokemon Key caps produced by S-craft, the original price is 249 yuan per piece, and the pre-sale price is 499 yuan.

Pokemon series artisan keycaps, some people even ask for 700-800 a keycap on second-hand platforms.Now this exquisite key cap dotted between the keyboard, has become a contemporary young digital geeks dazzled personality and aesthetic necessities. In order to save a love of the keyboard, a large number of post-95, 00 have been addicted to that.

Custom mechanical keyboard is not that simple

It might be a gamer, a programmer, or just a white-collar clerk who clicks away in the office. The shaft body determines the basic feel of the mechanical keyboard. Many people can distinguish the characteristics of the green shaft, the tea shaft, the black shaft and the red shaft, but playing the shaft can only be regarded as the entry-level player of the keycaps.

Only by playing the customized key cap can you open the door of the new world of in this field. If you compare a keyboard to a car, the regular mechanical keyboard kit is like the VW version of the BBA — the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class or Audi A4 — while the custom mechanical keyboard is like the BMW M3, Mercedes-Benz C-Class AMG or Audi RS 4.

The Artisan Keycaps Show Personality and Appearance

Keycap material, in the eyes of layman, it is nothing and looks like plastic, but the fans of keycaps, they distinct the differences of ABS, PBT, POM, titanium alloy, resin, walnut. Subtle differences between key caps of different plastic materials. Even the keycap character carving process is exquisite, old players don’t look up to screen printing or laser engraving, but some artisan keycaps fans will choose thermal sublimation or two color molding.

These two kinds of technology will not let the character on the surface of the key appears small concave and convex, the touch is consistent, and the character will not disappear due to wear. Red and white forming key cap. This detail goes all the way down to the height, size and alignment of the keycap. The concave arc of the SA highball cap looks round and lovely.

There are many different keycap heights and combinations. But for the soul of the keyboard cap, it’s the color scheme and theme of the entire set. Just like the theme color matching of computer and mobile phone, the original key cap has long been out of the main color of black and white. Now players can freely choose the color or into the roaming theme, EVA, Super Mario, World of Warcraft are the mainstream theme color. Everyone can customerize a comfortable and pleasing keyboard.

You can Sell a Artisan Keycap for 2,000 yuan

When a product has the same core but is wrapped in different elements, it usually means more money. Fortunately, the artisan keycap price of the keyboard is friendly, most of the single key cap is not more than 100, if it is a set of key caps, the average down a key cap as long as a few dollars, can be said to be a good deal, than a girl’s lipstick is cheaper.

These are common artisan keycap combination, factory scale, time does not have to wait too long, the price is relatively stable. But if the key cap is customized, then the key cap order can be turned into the “financial product of the year”. Pay the money and wait for a year before delivery. The price of such personalized customized keycaps is also much higher than that of ordinary keycap combinations.

If a set of ordinary key cap to sell hundreds, equal to each key cap price is affordable, a key cap can sell hundreds of pieces is very expensive, after all, a keyboard most need to have dozens of key caps. And a key cap of hundreds of pieces, in the personality key cap has been very common. Second-hand platforms also prove this point.

A user posted his customized keyboard on the second-hand platform, in which several key caps were replaced with personalized key caps. The user priced the keyboard at 2W, and there were many voices in the comment section that were moved, admired and worshipped.

Lately the most popular keycap is the “Artisan keycap” purchased by the individual. Artisan keycaps, as they are known abroad, are manufactured in limited quantities by hand, and players usually buy one or several to attach to the Esc, F1-F12 or space bar to adorn their keyboards. Jellkey’s Craftsman Artisan Keycaps, from Vietnamese studio Jellkey, are known for their extreme sophistication and their ability to fit a vintage arcade or even an entire miniature city into a artisan keycap, making them popular among gamers.

Jellkey “Lost Cities” series Craftsman Artisan Keycap

JellyKelly’s Jellycaps, which sell for 300 or 400 yuan each, can pay for a full set of blind boxes and are currently only available on a group purchase basis.

The Clark Factory in the United States is also very popular, featuring 3D printed and colored keycaps. The workmanship is also top-notch, but it is so rare that a used skull keycap is listed on the Keycircle forum for $300 and can find a buyer within minutes. A Clark’s Skull key cap has even been auctioned off for $1,560 on an American geek forum.

JustKeys Malaysia makes colorful minerals keycaps with a price of 60-80 yuan, but the supply is in short supply and the official website is sold out all year round. At present, atrisan keycap enthusiasts can customize some keycap kits made by domestic manufacturers’ studios on Taobao, with prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan. However, those rare and customized keycaps are not even available on Taobao.

Primecaps Universe series keycaps

To buy custom Keyboards with rare colors, you need to go to foreign websites to customize digital equipment, such as GeekHack, Mechanical Keyboards on Reddit, zFrontier and GeekMaker, and to select manufacturers and order them in group. It is normal to wait for a few months for customized keycaps. Some products are so limited that you can only buy on the second-hand market, if you are lucky.

Dwarft factory personality key cap

The artisan keycaps are more expensive than the keyboard. If the mechanical shaft determines the basic feel of the mechanical keyboard, the key cap is an important element to add to the feel. Different materials, different colors of the key cap, not only determine the appearance of the keyboard level, but also affect the long-term use experience of mechanical keyboard.

Looking at this sentence, you will not feel that the keyboard is a little expensive, but if I make an analogy to a girl’s lipstick experience, it will be more profound. If the base makeup determines the basis of a look, lipstick is an important factor in whether a look is stunning. Different brands. Different textures, different colors, different thicknesses, not only determine the success of makeup, but also affect your temperament.

Master of Artisan Keycaps

In fact, before Artisan Keycaps became so popular in domestic market. It has been a lot of foreign players are professional on artisan keycaps. On foreign communities like r/MechanicalKeyboards, Deskthority and GeekHack, enthusiasts share daily photos of their keyboards, trading rare artisan keycaps kits and figure out how to refine them to the best of their touch and look.

Tiny, an AsiAn-American girl born after 1995, has been working in keyrings for three years to become a keycap maker. She posts her handcrafts on Twitter every day and has amassed 30,000 followers. Tiny recently released its own food keyboard, which took a year to create and is chronicled on Tiktok. Called the Smorgasboard, each key cap is a resin and clay model of 61 foods, each with a letter corresponding to its initial.

For example, a ‘W’ for waffles, an ‘S’ for salmon and a space bar for Subway sandwiches… Some netizens tease: they will wake up one day, found himself drunk to eat the keyboard. Tiny hopes to selll more than $100 for each artisan keycap, and she makes a career out of it. Such dreams have already been realized by some of the enthusiasts.

When Nathan Kim, a 24-year-old software engineer at IBM, posted his first video assembling mechanical keyboards on Twitch two years ago, he didn’t expect keyboard play to become a top business. In January, Kim was commissioned by esports star Tfue to assemble the world’s most expensive custom mechanical keyboard, at $3,500.

The keyboard has an indigo and tural-green plating on the chassis, and a set of key caps named “Striker”, created by Spain’s Zambumon team, selected from GMK. The design theme is indigo blue, which pays tribute to the Japanese men’s football team. The characters are engraved in Japanese, commemorating their “samurai blue” spirit on the field.

Kim started out as a blogger sharing his knowledge of mechanical keyboards on Twitch and YouTube, but as he learned how to get rare artisan keycaps and shafts from the best manufacturers, as well as the characteristics, production cycles and customization requirements of different manufacturers, he became the KOL of the keycircle community.

Since quitting IBM, Kim has founded a keyboard customization service called Taeha Types, which specializes in purchasing limited quantities of mechanical keyboard components worldwide. It builds cool, luxurious, custom mechanical keyboard kits for esports stars and gaming bloggers alike, just as it would for a traditional athlete with a fancy sneaker suit. Such demand is also growing in esports. Kim’s channel currently has nearly 300,000 subscribers. With ads from youtubers and commissions for assembling luxury mechanical keyboards, Kim makes a good living, even in the Bay Area.

A Niche Market

Today, film keyboard accounts for 90% of the market, mechanical keyboard is a niche digital product, while customized mechanical keyboard artisan keycap is a niche market in the circle. Especially for the young people who pursue individuality and innovation, the same industrial products can no longer meet their needs. The highly homogeneous keyboard used by everyone is one of the typical examples.

In the aesthetic world of mechanical keyboard, where the cost of mass-produced consumer products is still not good enough, a truly personalized product outside the ordinary purchase channels is a distinctive label and the proof of a veteran player.

Driven by the strict demand of keycircle enthusiasts for the ultimate experience, some players do 3D modeling, DIY, establish community forums, QQ group purchase customized independently designed products, exchange and share product customization experience on peripheral equipment websites, and chase after rare exquisite artisan keycap design.

Unconsciously, this has created a lot of mechanical keyboard products with high appearance level, good experience, even comparable to collectible art. In recent years, some enthusiast’s customized key cap color matching has also begun to go into mass production, gaining greater market recognition.

With the popularity of e-sports, the growing number of online game groups, and the increase of mechanical keyboard players, the market demand for keycaps has become more popular. Just like other expensive hobbies, custom mechanical keyboard plays with cultural values. You can participate in it according to your personal interests and find a sense of fun, passion and difference. That’s another reason to spend a little more money thinking that a keyboard is at least an essential tool compared to a blind box.