Final yr, Discerning Bike owner wrote an article concerning the eye-catching Park & Diamond foldable bike helmet.
It was so spectacular, in reality, it even obtained over £1 million in funding throughout a crowdfunding marketing campaign that closed in November 2018 in addition to an additional £1.5 million in pre-orders by Indiegogo since.
Why did the Park & Diamond helmet get a lot consideration?
Effectively, it was a helmet that promised to fold extraordinarily flat utilizing a singular design and truly seemed like a fairly stylish baseball cap when in use.
The difficulty is, regardless of initially committing to begin transport the helmet in “early 2019”, Park & Diamond nonetheless haven’t delivered a single helmet – and (on the time of writing in June 2020) should not 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 advertisements, there was little Park & Diamond may do about this.
Nevertheless, the difficulty is, pretend advertisements 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 relating to their state of affairs on Indiegogo.
Beneath is a abstract of Park & Diamond’s most vital updates:
Park & Diamond Delay Updates:
22nd February 2019:
- Park & Diamond announce that their first deliveries have been delayed till June 2019, stating: “Designing, constructing and delivering a secure bike helmet with prime suppliers from everywhere in the world has been vastly complicated – 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.”
14th June 2019:
- Additional delays introduced as they goal to begin transport in September 2019: “The ever-changing world commerce situations have created some short-term provider challenges with our hat skins and we’ve got now labored by these points.”
21st September 2019:
- One other delay is introduced (transport stated to begin in November 2019), though no particular cause was given.
19th November 2019:
- One other delay, attributed to the necessity to carry out new exams after altering manufacturing distributors. Transport will begin “by the tip of December 2019”.
23rd December 2019:
- First transport delayed once more till “finish of January 2020” as a result of provider points.
25th January 2020:
- “We estimate the primary 3,000 helmets will ship the week of March 30th” 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.”
19th 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 mission roughly 6-8 weeks to start transport the primary 3,000 helmets (precise timing and date, TBD).”
20th March 2020:
- “Contemplating the present uncertainty relating to the impression of the coronavirus on our world enterprise operations, we’ve got just lately pushed again supply dates for brand new Backers to September 2020.”
12th Might 2020:
- “Park & Diamond stays very dedicated to delivering your helmet, and regardless of some common stories of Chinese language factories being again to “enterprise as normal”, that has not been our firsthand expertise… All pre-orders made by August 31, 2020 will probably be shipped by vacation 2020, and we may have precise order supply particulars (i.e. order numbers/transport dates) inside three months after we return to China.”
You may 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 imagine so.
Have they been unfortunate? Possibly a bit, however they have been already over a yr not on time earlier than the coronavirus points.
Has the mission been poorly managed? It definitely appears that manner.
What is evident, is that given their monitor file, it appears extraordinarily unlikely that they’ll be delivering something earlier than 2021.
I actually don’t need 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 are attempting to get their manufacturing issues sorted, it doesn’t seem to be a good suggestion to position belief on this firm but by inserting a pre-order.
I will surely advocate ready till when/if the corporate really begins delivering the helmets and listening to suggestions from the recipients earlier than inserting 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 stay as much as its phrase.
NOTE: This web page comprises affiliate hyperlinks, that means I could obtain commissions for purchases made by these hyperlinks, for free of charge to you. This helps to maintain the wheels of Discerning Bike owner turning.
Park & Diamond Alternate options – Greatest 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 appears cool, it’s not the primary folding helmet available on the market.
Certainly, the likes of Closca, Morpher and Overade all supply their very own glorious foldable helmets which you’ll see beneath. Or you may learn this text on the perfect foldable bike helmets that you would be able to purchase now.
