Is the Park & Diamond Foldable Helmet an Indiegogo Rip-off?

Final yr, Discerning Bicycle owner wrote an article concerning the eye-catching Park & Diamond foldable bike helmet.

It was so spectacular, in reality, it even acquired over £1 million in funding throughout a crowdfunding marketing campaign that closed in November 2018 in addition to an extra £1.5 million in pre-orders by way of Indiegogo since.

Why did the Park & Diamond helmet get a lot consideration?

Properly, it was a helmet that promised to fold extraordinarily flat utilizing a novel design and truly appeared like a reasonably stylish baseball cap when in use.

The difficulty is, regardless of initially committing to start out transport the helmet in “early 2019”, Park & Diamond nonetheless haven’t delivered a single helmet – and (on the time of writing in June 2020) aren’t near doing so.

Is Park & Diamond a Rip-off?

On the face of it, it doesn’t look good.

In 2019, many individuals complained after receiving – what they thought – have been Park & Diamond “helmets” after seeing an advert that was supposedly put out by the corporate on Fb. Sadly, although, this was a fraudulent imitator, with individuals who had ordered the “helmet” merely despatched an inexpensive baseball cap by folks pretending to be the corporate.

Whereas that is massively disappointing for anybody who was duped by these adverts, there was little Park & Diamond may do about this.

Nevertheless, the difficulty is, faux adverts and helmets apart, Park & Diamond aren’t delivering on their very own guarantees but, not to mention any helmets.

Their saving grace at this second is that they’re nonetheless offering updates concerning their state of affairs on Indiegogo.

Beneath is a abstract of Park & Diamond’s most necessary updates:

Park & Diamond Delay Updates:

22^nd February 2019:

• Park & Diamond announce that their first deliveries have been delayed till June 2019, stating: “Designing, constructing and delivering a protected bike helmet with prime suppliers from all around the world has been massively advanced – and fairly frankly, it has taken extra time than we anticipated. This complexity has been additional compounded by the present worldwide commerce local weather, which has disrupted manufacturing and sourcing in lots of industries.”

14^th June 2019:

• Additional delays introduced as they purpose to start out transport in September 2019: “The ever-changing world commerce situations have created some short-term provider challenges with our hat skins and we’ve now labored by way of these points.”

21^st September 2019:

• One other delay is introduced (transport stated to start out in November 2019), though no particular motive was given.

19^th November 2019:

• One other delay, attributed to the necessity to carry out new exams after altering manufacturing distributors. Delivery will begin “by the tip of December 2019”.

23^rd December 2019:

• First transport delayed once more till “finish of January 2020” as a result of provider points.

25^th January 2020:

• “We estimate the primary 3,000 helmets will ship the week of March 30^th” as a result of “our manufacturing unit in China shuts down for the Chinese language New Yr from January 25 – February 8. When staff return from their vacation break, we’ll ramp again as much as full-speed manufacturing the week of February tenth.”

19^th February 2020:

• The coronavirus delays transport additional: “As soon as our manufacturing unit returns to full operational capability and the P&D manufacturing workforce returns to the manufacturing unit, we undertaking roughly 6-8 weeks to start transport the primary 3,000 helmets (precise timing and date, TBD).”

20^th March 2020:

• “Contemplating the present uncertainty concerning the influence of the coronavirus on our world enterprise operations, we’ve not too long ago pushed again supply dates for brand spanking new Backers to September 2020.”

12^th Could 2020:

• “Park & Diamond stays very dedicated to delivering your helmet, and regardless of some basic stories of Chinese language factories being again to “enterprise as standard”, that has not been our firsthand expertise… All pre-orders made by August 31, 2020 will likely be shipped by vacation 2020, and we could have precise order supply particulars (i.e. order numbers/transport dates) inside three months after we return to China.”

You’ll be able to learn the complete record of Park & Diamond updates on Indiegogo right here.

Okay, all of that doesn’t make fairly studying.

Is Park & Diamond a rip-off? I don’t consider so.

Have they been unfortunate? Possibly a bit, however they have been already over a yr delayed earlier than the coronavirus points.

Has the undertaking been poorly managed? It actually appears that manner.

What is obvious, is that given their observe file, it appears extraordinarily unlikely that they’ll be delivering something earlier than 2021.

I actually don’t wish to assault any new firm that’s formidable sufficient to create a probably game-changing product, particularly one in such a highly-regulated discipline. I really like individuals who really exit and attempt to create cool stuff.

Nevertheless, I do object to Park & Diamond persevering with to run adverts and take much more fully-paid pre-orders for a product they haven’t but come near delivering.

Ought to You Pre-Order a Park & Diamond Helmet?

Whereas it appears that evidently Park & Diamond try to get their manufacturing issues sorted, it doesn’t seem to be a good suggestion to position belief on this firm but by putting a pre-order.

I will surely suggest ready till when/if the corporate really begins delivering the helmets and listening to suggestions from the recipients earlier than putting an order. That’s to not say that Park & Diamond are a rip-off, it’s simply they’ve not but delivered on any of their guarantees.

I actually do hope this firm does ultimately dwell as much as its phrase.

NOTE: This web page incorporates affiliate hyperlinks, which means I could obtain commissions for purchases made by way of these hyperlinks, without charge to you. This helps to maintain the wheels of Discerning Bicycle owner turning.

Park & Diamond Alternate options – Finest Foldable Helmets

If you wish to pay money for a foldable bike helmet this yr, although, you don’t have to attend for Park & Diamond.

Whereas Park & Diamond’s design seems to be cool, it’s not the primary folding helmet in the marketplace.

Certainly, the likes of Closca, Morpher and Overade all provide their very own glorious foldable helmets which you’ll see beneath. Or you possibly can learn this text on the perfect foldable bike helmets which you can purchase now.