In our last post we mentioned that it's been a quiet close to 2024 for JJWKB. Well, 2025 has been a completely different story, and it's been as humbling as it is exhilarating. Considering how tiny this operation is, it's definitely been a very very busy year, and has led to many post-midnight pushes. Let's proceed with the usual project updates.
Play Tray V2
All group buy orders have been fulfilled. We have a decent amount of extra units that will be available on the storefront in early-to-mid March. Join our Discord server or follow our Instagram for more details on the restock!
Cloudline V2
Here's the big one - this is a massive project for JJWKB and will be the main focus for Q2 2025. For the fine details of this major release, please see the informational page. Some key information I'll repeat in this update post:
- Pre-order & in-stock sale coming in Q2, starting at $519 USD
- Boards are actually already finished manufacturing and funded
- Available via several regional vendors
Please check out the linked page for more details.
Derivative R1.1
This was restocked in early February - I thought I had ordered plenty of units (given the state of the market, as well as the fact we already had an R1 sale), but it looked like I didn't do a great job in my estimation. This sold out in less than a few minutes and I was truly surprised.
I was not planning on further restocks for this design, but we will see what the future holds. I will revisit this idea later this year, after Cloudline V2 is taken care of. After all it's basically just me steering the ship so it's very difficult to focus on too many things at once.
Coord
This slim cardholder had actually basically completed at the start of the year, but I requested for it to be refinished due to unexpected, less-than-optimal fixture marks. Unfortunately it's taken a backseat to a much, much larger project that I've focused my attention on. I hope to resume on pushing this project very soon - but I anticipate we should be able to offer these on our storefront in Q2 2025.
Gradient R1
I love this design. I have a few thoughts in my head currently that can even further elevate this keyboard - and I hope to implement these in a full-scale R1 sale. Unfortunately, time is the main issue right as I run JJWKB in the background of my day-to-day life (it's not the first priority!). So, I'd like to use this section to say that I really really really want to make this keyboard available again - but at this time, I can't 100% say when it will happen. Ideally it would be near the end of 2025.
Some important thoughts
If you've read this far (or if you haven't), I want to thank you deeply for staying in tune with what we're doing in this small-scale design endeavor. In this post, I've mentioned some future projects like Cloudline V2, Coord, Gradient R1, and even another Derivative restock.
To be quite honest - there's a very real amount of uncertainty and risk that comes with these projects, especially now that we're shifting towards (mostly) in-stock sales to take some of that ever-growing anxiety out of the community. Apart from the unavoidable stressors such as working with new suppliers, partnerships, etc., there are (clearly) new and highly unpredictable curveballs that are being thrown out there when it comes to international manufacturing, imports, tariffs, and more.
In combination with other external life factors, I'll admit that I was planning to make the very bittersweet decision to slow JJWKB down after Q1 of this year. But your incredible support really keeps this show running - so I once again want to express my absolute gratitude to every one of you for that. I hope to continue this until I ultimately decide that I can't. We'll see how the story develops, but I just want to put out this reminder -JJWKB would not be possible without you.