Wow.

What?

What a development would a turn of events.

Who would think we're sitting here talking about a simple, slim phone case just turned into this really comprehensive thing.

Some of you are aware some of you aren't.

If you don't care about this case talk whatsoever, feel free to move along.

No hard feelings.

But there's enough people that that want a follow up that are looking for some more information about how this case came to be, how it relates to other products that are on the market, where it came from.

What is the origin story and so forth?

Because has been I mean, there's been some drama take place, a lot of it unwarranted, as I'll get to in this particular video.

So I went on to Twitter.

I felt that was the best way to do a follow up video at this point, considering the fact that they're just like this wide variety of questions that people have based on a number of videos that came out where people were just essentially assuming the worst.

And this has got to be the most evil enterprise lose, caught red handed that obviously not the intention.

There's a lot more to the story, but people like to go make the hot videos because they could get maybe twice a CZ many views as they would normally get and fair play whatever, do what you got to do.

So before I get into the questions, because I did, I went on Twitter and asked people to ask me questions just a little bit about the case that's in front of me right now.

This is really the one.

This is the important case to me because it exists for the pixel for excel, which is my device of choice.

It doesn't have to be everybody's device of choice.

Yes, I was absolutely aware of the existence of air amid Kevlar thin fiber based cases, but I had been exposed to them through various brands that were busy making those particular products, including evil tech And yes, of course, Pataki.

But what?

The thing that that isn't really getting covered in this story, at least from the other angles that have come out, is the fact that this particular case in front of me wasn't available from either of those other brands that we're currently playing in that space and at the end of the original video, that minute and 1/2 fancy piece of content that we had a little bit of fun with that didn't absolutely did not cover enough information Based on the feedback.

People wanted so much more dialogue.

But at the end of that video, I said I couldn't find what I wanted, so I went out and made it.

And this is where things got squirrely in terms of interpretation.

People were saying, How dare he claimed that he went out and made this thing when the concept has already been established.

So I understand the misconception there, that the assumption being, oh, he's claiming or taking credit for the concept and that's that's my mistake for putting it in that framework.

And I think, in an effort to make the video clean or to the point or not boring, we avoided some of the comprehensiveness around that and in a way fed the miss interpretation when in reality, what I meant to say or the way that I was conceiving of that terminology was in relationship to this exact case.

I can't find what I want in the market So I went out and made it now to just be clear on what it means to make something.

No, I did not lay these fibers down.

No, I did not personally manufacture the tool from which this was created, But also I did not hop on Alibaba or Allie Express An order.

1000 pieces of this case.

This case really did not exist.

So step one, you have to create a tool for it.

So there was a pre existing industry around the idea of air amid fibers, Kevlar fibers being turned into, well, various industrial products.

But nothing existed specifically for this device.

So the tool cost for one just to be completely transparent.

The tool cost is around $13,000 per device that's being supported currently on later case.

So that's money out of my pocket.

That is not back there yet.

That's an investment for anybody that wants to do the math.

It's fairly significant, and on top of that, you have a minimum order as well for anybody that's probably gonna want to work with you.

The minimal order for us here is around 1000 units for a not very popular device like the pixel for Excel.

It is significant, and it's tough to make up for.

So the original concept for the I went out and made it part is relating to finding a way to bring this Arum ID technology into a case for Matt available and accessible to a wider variety of people than what was currently supported from the pre existing manufacturers.

Of course, other devices were launched at the same time, and that's where more of the problems occurred.

And it's certainly where the criticism videos focused in on.

And then that's where things just got completely out of hand.

Because Pataki, 01 of the companies who manufactures these types of cases, went on Twitter and went absolutely bananas about being the innovator and the small guy in the story, and that I was the big, bad youtuber out thio destroy them when in reality I was trying to solve a personal problem.

The funny part about this is that Pataki is well known you you obviously some of you know them, they've done some marketing.

They showed up on my very channel and many others, but from what I can find, they actually don't appear to be the innovators in the space when it comes to the first evidence I confined of this particular material being used in a phone case application.

In fact, when I referenced the Wayback machine and also look at the founded dates and the Who is data for Pataki versus Eva Tech, it seems well, it appears to me at least if you were to compare these two companies that Eva Tech was creating Arum it based, Kevlar based, weaved looking, carbon looking cases very similar to this one all the way back in 2013 with the company being founded in 2012.

You don't see an instance of that in Pataki's case until 2015 and you don't get an actual look on way back machine at a physical website where you can purchase that particular product until I think 2015 October 1st of 2015.

I didn't even want to go here.

To be honest, I spoke privately, and I'm not gonna go into detail about what the conversation was because there was a confidentiality agreement.

But I spoke privately with Pataki with the CEO, saying, This is ugly in public.

This is this is immature what's going on here, yelling and screaming and insults and this and that.

That, to me, wasn't something that any customer or person following the story would want to see.

Realizing and recognizing that men I've been looking at and knowing about Arum it cases or Kevlar cases or carbon cases for way longer for longer than Pataki even existed before the domain was registered in 2015.

But yet the guy on Twitter, James and the company in general have written blawg posts, and I mean real personal attacks, naming names, suggesting that they've got the absolute on Lee, right on planet Earth to be manufacturing, engineering and manipulating this particular material in the format of a case.

So they're out here saying, You've completely plagiarized when in reality a little bit of investigation seems to indicate that this idea predated.

Then am I upset about it?

Not really.

I thought it was assumed.

I thought when people saw this material, they would assume, like other materials, plastic and so forth that it had just been an option for cases for a very long period of time, which it has been just not necessarily from Pataki's.

So, for example, I've actually got, uh, these air evil tech cases right here and funny enough.

Well, anybody who watches the channel and pays attention to what I've done over the past few years probably knows I'm not a huge iPhone user.

So my exposure isn't the craziest part by exposure to these style of cases is way bore in relationship to evil tech company.

That's actually cool with this.

We had conversations with evil tech prior to going after this project.

Yves a Tech was actually going to be a manufacturer for later case, but they had a really high threshold for minimum orders.

Toe work together somewhere in the neighborhood of around 20,000 units, which you can do the math on that that's a that's a substantial investment across multiple skews that I wanted to support.

They have done nothing to attempt to own this particular concept, recognizing that there's no patent associated with this.

This is a material in the shape of a phone.

Where and how you can innovate around.

This is relative to small, incremental things, and that's another area where I made a mistake on entry video where I should have been more clear that this was mostly a refinement process to my personal taste.

Now there's some changes that took place from this original evil tech inspiration.

I realized these minimum orders and the tool costs and how I wasn't gonna be able to support everything out of the gate but that I could possibly work towards it and that so long as I was creating tools and having access to manufacturing, I was also gonna go ahead and modify all the various versions that I would need to launch.

People are probably saying, Why wouldn't you just launch the pixel version if that's all you needed?

Because as a company, that's not exactly feasible.

You can support devices like this so long as you can build up a customer base around the more popular devices to increase exposure and sails around the popular devices to almost subsidized the endeavour around the wider variety, the wider selection.

This is part of the problem that the other business models have had, and the reason they haven't been able to go out and support a wider variety of Scuse.

So then it was like, Okay, we're gonna have to carry some other devices to meet the minimum orders and tow have an actual feasible business.

So when you start looking, for example, at the Galaxy model that we ended up putting out compared to some of the other products that were on the market at the time, like this one, there were some changes that actually took place on our eventual take, with later case off the best version of what an air amid case could be.

So the initial thing that bugged me about previous era, mid case exposure that I had was the removal process.

They can be hard to get off in.

This varies depending on the range and the device that it's made for.

There was also some issues that I discovered as faras ramps and cutouts for some of the camera stuff.

And, of course, when it comes to removal, one of the ways to increase the ease of removal was to advance the cut out in order to give you Maur Tor Schimmel Flex so that you have this extra confidence when you go to remove the case.

It's just pops off beautifully now as part of the long term plan.

This is another question that popped up on Twitter part of the long term plan for the company.

There's an idea.

Thio actually have multiple versions of each model with different aspects, possibly different patterns, possibly even different materials toe.

Have the potential to change your case very easily or to go case Lis, if you choose to do the same thing, exists with other models as well.

If we're looking at the popular iPhone model, obviously this is against the Pataki aversion.

Yes, they absolutely feel different.

I should say they feel different.

And this is going to be something that you're gonna find across the later case lineup as well.

I when I touched the case, I want to feel, Ah, carbon.

We've I wanna be able to feel the fabric that makes up the case as much as possible.

Other people, on the other hand, may prefer the finish that exists over here.

This is the Pataki a case.

It's a smoother.

It definitely has slightly less texture to it, but it feels more uniform.

So some people think that's amore finished feel.

It's not what I wanted.

So for me to my taste, we come to this where you get to enjoy the feeling off the weave off the materials of the Kevlar instead of a feeling sort of more like a typical case.

And if you get this in your hands at home, then it possible you're gonna appreciate that as well.

It's a constant reminder when it's in your pocket.

This is not a plastic case.

That's another thing that I've seen online.

A lot of people are saying, Why would I spend this kind of money on a phone case?

Well, most of it has to do with the materials so many of you pointed out.

Look, I can go on Allie Express and find a $2 carbon case.

The vast majority of those $2 cases are meant to look like carbon, but they're actually plastic, and then they have, ah, sort of a print on top of them.

Both of these cases, whether it's the later case or the Pataki case has or the evil tech case might as well bring that one over there as well are using this material right here.

That's a fabric that's a weave that's a synthetic weave and, of course, has been referenced as air amid its been referenced as Kevlar.

Kevlar being a brand of pyramid fibers.

That's what I should call it.

Is its fibres Kevlar being the inventor as well, sort of like the Kleenex of of Tissues the material were using in later case, as far as my supplier tells me, is official DuPont Kevlar.

So it's the original stuff that that happens to be in there, and it looks something like this.

So there's a process that takes place to turn this into the eventual case.

But as Jack can pick up there, it is definitely not plastic, and it has incredible attributes.

It's five times stronger, then steal.

It is used in all kinds of industrial applications, including bulletproof vests.

It's actually pretty pretty amazing, but it's definitely not plastic, and it's definitely not $2 on Alibaba or Allie Express.

I should say there are listings for actual Arum ID cases on Allie Express, but again, the real ones, if you do decide to do the actual work to track them down, they're still relatively expensive.

And of course, I can't speak to any of those individuals sellers, whether they'll back up your purchase, whether there's customer service where where the warehousing happens to be, that's another area where I wanted to take some of the confusion out of purchasing these particular cases.

So there's a course of premium associated with doing that now, speaking about costs, it's kind of weird because it was like these multiple criticisms being being cast.

There was the original criticism, which was It's expensive.

Plus, it's a rip off.

But when it comes to cost and you're considering, the difference is, it's important to note that Yutaka themselves who aimed to build their very own business like Eva Tech they've got some expensive cases themselves.

In fact, the newest one, this one over here it's called Air Case.

I believe it's retailing right now for 59 59 99.

I believe, whatever I mean, feel free Thio charge as you please, and and if you if you find a fan base for it, that's cool.

But it was like this weird double criticism of it's a rip off of Pataki but also Alley Express for $2 it's like, Wait there.

There's a $60.

So what you saying about them then as well?

It's a lot of factors that go into the final price.

The cost of the unit that you purchase some people, it's just it's just out of the price range, and that's I fully understand that it's It's not the cheapest case in the world, absolutely, but this process, as I mentioned before, it's just a little bit more complicated, particularly when you're having to manufacture these tools for each individual skew that you're going to support.