SwitchPod is lightweight, compact, and nearly indestructible tripod. It will save you valuable time between shots so you can focus more on shooting and less on messing with your gear.
I have a gorilla pod for vlogging. I rarely if ever wrap it around anything. Its always hand held our propped up/falling over haha. This does look pretty dang nice
So excited to see @patflynn and @calebwojcik get this live on Kickstarter. They've been working on this for a year+ to really nail every component of the design and manufacturing -- based on exactly what filmmakers want. Got a chance to play with an early version and it's really quite incredible compared to everything else on the market.
@delk Thanks for sharing this Ryan!
@patflynn@calebwojcik Incredible work. Not only on the product, but also the photos, GIFs, and sales copy. It's really fun to see a launch with so much effort and detail put into it!
@delk@patflynn@nathanbarry Thank you Nathan. When we are able to hand this to someone to use, they just "get" it. So it was important to us to visually show how it works as best we could through videos and GIFs on the KS launch page.
@calebwojcik and @patflynn If you guys are up for it, I'd love to hear more about the challenges and stories from the last year of developing the SwitchPod. I've never invented a physical product like this before, so I imagine it was completely different from working on digital products. Thanks!
@calebwojcik@nathanbarry It's definitely been challenging. Especially having been in the digital marketing space for over 10 years, I usually expect things to happen faster. Changes are easy online, but when there's a change with a physical product - SO MANY things have to happen, from shop drawings being updated, to getting new prototypes made, and of course, all the shipping involved.
Costs come to mind, also. Also our Kickstarter was funded in 12 hours, that doesn't mean we're at 100k profit - not even close. This covers the cost to get the tooling made, which then enables us to mass produce these things. The unit cost per prototype (in the end when we began to use real material as opposed to 3D printed plastic) was between $1500 and $2000. Once the molds are created and tested, however, the cost per unit will be significantly less. All that has been on our minds since preparing for the Kickstarter and understanding the numbers.
And then of course, the usual challenges of self-doubt and "who am I to even build this" come into play - having never done physical products before, I knew that was going to happen (like everything else challenging in my life) but I've learned to take it as a sign that this is something that could be great, a la Stephen Pressfield and The War of Art.
No, but seriously, the SwitchPod is an awesome invention and I'm excited to have this sleek versatile tripod. I give Caleb and Pat a ton of credit for the design thoughtfulness they put into the SwitchPod!
Hey PH community, I'm one of the co-creators of SwitchPod. Let me know if you have any questions about it. We've been working on designing and prototyping this for over a year and are blown away by the support on the first day of the Kickstarter campaign being funded already.
@calebwojcik This looks like an awesome product! Love how slim it is! Perfect to throw in my bag when I'm traveling/on the go... plus this looks much more stable than my gorilla pod that loves to fall over when I have heavier lens's attached to my dslr.
@unclejessy4real Thank you Clayton. That's what we wanted to focus on. Slim, lightweight, fast, stable, durable, etc.
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As somebody who made physical products for years (jiu jitsu gis), I can adequately understand ALL of the work that went into this project. Congrats to @calebwojcik and @patflynn on making all the smart steps they could and still taking the risk of putting this out into the world. I'm stoked to see they're at $153k as of the time I'm writing this!
@patflynn@brendan_hufford Thank you Brendan. We waited until we had the product as close to ready as possible before launching it on a crowdfunding site, which gave us plenty of time to build buzz, show it to influencers, and capture it on camera.
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@patflynn@calebwojcik I bet being that patient was a killer at times, especially coming from the digital world where things can be made so much faster. Great work.
Pretty excited to see this come to life for @patflynn. One of those ideas that's so simple when you see it in action, but no one executed on it previously. Looking forward to replacing my Joby Gorillapod with this as soon as it ships
@crypto_bobby Thank you so much! The response has been INCREDIBLE! Thank you for your support Rob, and big shout out to my partner @calebwojcik for being equally (if not more!) involved in the process! Oh, and to the engineering team and support from Prouduct!
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Realistic expert review by the incomparable Peter McKinnon:
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I’m really excited to see this come to life. As a YouTuber who is constantly fussing with a GorillaPod - a stable, packable, lightweight tripod like this is going to be a tool I use nearly every day for making videos. Congrats guys!
@mattragland Thank you Matt. I remember showing you an earlier prototype last year. Excited to have to help us on day one.
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Wow @calebwojcik@patflynn! This is how you do a successful Kickstarter*.
[1] make something cool
[2] support it in the best ways possible— multiple users, video, photos
If you're not already selling a video "How to Make a Successful Kickstarter", do it NOW!!!
As I'm on the page, I'm watching the $ animate-up. That's some killer video content too (timelapse that) http://share.sqr.fr/v/oBHDkPjNYN...
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I got to play with a prototype over the summer and it is a game changer for vlogging. Caleb and Pat have invented something special here. I bought 5.
Pros:Super slim, instant setup, easy transition from handheld to tripod.
Cons:You lose the ability to wrap a tripod around a tree, but it turns out I didn't use that nearly as often as I thought I would.
Xbox One Party Chat Podcast #39: Bossa Studios Creators of I AM BREAD
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No, but seriously, the SwitchPod is an awesome invention and I'm excited to have this sleek versatile tripod. I give Caleb and Pat a ton of credit for the design thoughtfulness they put into the SwitchPod!
Pros:It's not the stupid Gorilla pod.
Cons:I can't have it for a few more months 😂
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Xbox One Party Chat Podcast #39: Bossa Studios Creators of I AM BREAD
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