Latest update on the production and new delivery dates
Hey guys!
It’s Dmitri here, CEO of Boost Surfing with our status update.
I missed a couple of weeks of updates, and I’m sorry about that, I’ll try to make sure we are sending updates to you at least once a week!
We are in July already, so in today’s update, I wanted to share the most important news with you. We will discuss the following:
- Estimated delivery times – around August 20th now
Sorry about delays, I’ll explain all the reasons below.
- Progress on the plastic mold.
The final step in finalizing the plastic mold, this was the main setback
- Update on the production of components and Timeline
Motors, batteries, chargers, fasteners, etc. are either in the production or will be launched into production this coming week and be ready by the end of July – we expect no delays there.
Unfortunately, estimated shipping dates now are late August
We are experiencing delays with production, so we have to move the delivery date a little bit again. I will try to explain in detail why it is so, where we currently are with production, and what we are doing to prevent any further delays.
I understand that it still might be very frustrating to read and if for any reason you decide that you want to cancel your order please contact our customer support and we will take care of it (please keep in mind that if you cancel an order we won’t be able to place it again at the same price).
Why there are delays: I usually hate to blame anyone or anything, but in this new COVID-19 world we just couldn’t find a way to our production facilities, the government wouldn’t let us, otherwise, all the boosts would have already shipped by now, but each step of the process was affected by the pandemic. I’ll try to make it simple: usually, when we launch mass production we are physically at the factory iterating on samples. In our case after we finalize each step – samples get sent to us for a test, and logistics suck… Deliveries take a week to arrive and sometimes get stuck at customs, every single iteration is at least 10 days+. Even though it rages me, there is not much we can do. We have to make sure everything is tested at each step of the process.
Plastic mold design for manufacturing is finalized
We have finalized a plastic mold design for the fin, it was the longest process in our manufacturing. So it was the main setback, and it’s ready. The press form will get ready soon and we will be receiving first samples.
Production of motors and other components
The production of the Boost Fin motors is in full swing.
Apart from the motors, all the other components are either already in production or finalized and will be launched into production very soon.
Plastic, housing, antenna, rubber, adapters should be finished by the end of July. Fasteners are in production and should be ready in early August. Motors, batteries, and chargers are being produced at the moment and will be ready in 10 days. Boxes, buttons, screws, screwdrivers, and other smaller components will be launched into production very soon, lead time for these components is short.
So where are we now and our current timeline
On the 30th of July, we should get the first samples from mass production, which will be sent to us and that will go through a series of quality tests. I want to stay positive and hope that everything goes smoothly (we did test the same shells from 3d printers and they were great, so it should be good but you never can be 100% sure). If so (fingers crossed), we should have the first 1000 fins ready for shipment on the 15th-17th of August. So in the ideal world, the first fins will be delivered around the 20th of August and then 2500 each week.
There is a slight chance that after the tests of the final samples small adjustments will be required, which will move the delivery dates a week or two further, but I’ll keep you updated on that. Let’s hope for the best.
To conclude…
We are truly sorry for delays, we’re doing our best to make a great high-quality product and deliver it to you, but I want to stress the fact that we prioritize the quality of the product, we don’t want to speed production up to the detriment of quality, that’s why we are taking more time to do more tests and finalize the components. And as I said before, we cannot speed up logistics.
But as you can see, there are no major setbacks with the production at the moment. We have faced various issues over the past few months but we solved them all by now. The only stumbling block is the logistics, as we cannot affect it in any way. We’d love to deliver the fins to you as soon as possible and we hate the fact that shipping dates are moving. We’ll do our best to make sure you receive them in mid-late August!
Here are some photos of the battery facility:
