The KIN wallet is this magic coin-sorting wallet designed by three students from the National University of Singapore.

KIN Studio, which comprised Cheryl Ho, Lim Li Xue and Ng Ai Ling, were responsible for funding and producing this wallet.

The magic wallet

Instead of manually separating your shillings from your notes, one could slot everything into the main opening of the wallet, and the coins would "automatically" slide into the coin pouch.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="680"] GIF via KIN Studio's press kit[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="800"] GIF via KIN Studio's press kit[/caption]

The sleek, waterproof design offers efficiency at it's best, and fans of the wallet were quick to fund it.

The project reached 375 percent of the original funding goal within four hours.

The earliest backers were supposed to receive a wallet as a reward if they pledged S$30 under the Super Early Bird tier, while later backers receive the same award at the Kickstarter Exclusive tier, at S$40.

There are also additional tiers for multiple purchases, which started at S$66 for two wallets to S$340 for 10.

Oversubscribed

Currently, the project has 4,746 backers, with a whopping S$280,468 pledged when the initial goal was only S$4,000.

That's more than 70 times the original target.

The wallet has been featured on various news outlets locally and overseas, receiving effusive praise.

The creators were also awarded a Red Dot Design award in 2017.

Initial obstacles

If only making the product was actually this easy though.

The product materialising has hit a few snags here and there, as both backers and the creators would come to realise.

This begun with their manpower team downsizing from a three-person group to two, after one member left having differences in priorities.

Then, there were problems with their supplier.

One of the original colours for the wallet, Burnt Sienna, was suddenly discontinued entirely by the supplier.

Backers who had wanted Burnt Sienna could simply accept a new colour of wallet or ask for a refund, and later they were also given an option to swap colours.

However, by this time, it was already July 31, 2017. The estimated date of delivery was supposed to be July 2017.

September 2017: a small batch of wallets sent out

It was in September 2017 when a small batch of wallets were successfully delivered to the makers, which were then sent out to backers.

The team had even made a trip down to the factory to oversee the wallet's production process, which got extended.

A quality check showed the wallets had a faulty mechanism. It also suffered from poor quality due to the assembly.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="639"] Screenshot via KIN Studio Kickstarter update[/caption]

December 2017: Nearly 1000 wallets delivered

More wallets were slowly being received and delivered.

By December 2017, the KIN Studio announced that they had delivered 992 wallets.

January 2018: More wallets sent out, more angry backers

By January 2018, KIN Studio had updated backers on the delivery of 300-plus more wallets, bringing the total number of wallets delivered to 1,394 in total.

Once again, they also clarified that those who had ordered more than one wallet of different colours are likely to receive their orders later, as the manufacturing process had been adjusted to produce wallets of one colour at a time, to keep the wallets' standard of quality.

By then, backers were angry about waiting this long.

In their last update in March, KIN Studio explained that issues with their factory meant that they had to do a month-long stay to fix them.

It is uncertain whether this was the same month-long stay as reported in September or yet another additional trip made in recent times.

KIN also stated that they would assist everyone with queries as soon as possible.

However, backers were demanding refunds, asking for updates, and getting angrier as days went by without an update on their packages.

Initial responses to comments by KIN Studio on their Facebook page stated that they are sorry for the delay, but will work towards fulfilling each and every order.

People are getting their wallets

In case you may be beginning to think that it's a scam, there are people who received their wallets.

But some who have received their wallets weren't the most pleased with the quality, despite the various lengths KIN Studio had gone to ensure the quality was not compromised.

The need for more time

You might have seen this coming if you've backed different projects on Kickstarter before.

It's actually a common occurrence to see some delays in the fulfillment of a project.

For the uninitiated, a Kickstarter project isn't something that is guaranteed to take off right away.

It's not so much a shopping site, but rather, a platform for creators to kickstart the production of ideas, so delays are inevitable.

This is something that Kickstarter has mentioned about on their site via their terms of use, explaining that backers "must understand when they back a project, they're helping to create something new -- not ordering something that already exists".

This was also echoed in a Kickstarter blog post written by Yancey Strickler in 2012.

Given that KIN Studio is essentially run by two students -- though we are uncertain if they have additional team members at this point of time -- the amount of work to be done attempting to fulfill more than 4,000 orders for the production of a unique wallet design is going to be extremely daunting.

But of course, this doesn't exclude them from the most important clause: Completing the project and fulfilling each reward.

Technically, they've at least tried to fulfill orders and backers are getting their wallets.  

KIN Studio has updated backers up till March on the delays, while reaffirming their plan to see the project the entire way, and have been offering refunds to those who want to cancel their order.

That being said, this just isn't enough for backers who felt that they've waited far too long to get their Kickstarter reward, especially those who wanted it as a gift or to replace an aging wallet.

Kickstarter could do a lot more in helping cases like these as well.

The user interface could make the administrative processes of payments and refunds more accessible, perhaps.

FAQ

Mothership.sg has since reached out to the group via Kickstarter and Facebook for comment.

When we reached out to the Facebook page, the following automated message was received:

Here's the full FAQ:

Screenshot via KIN Wallet's FAQ. 

So... What now?

To sum up:

• some people are getting their wallets,
• some people aren't too happy with their wallets,
• some people aren't too excited about waiting too long for a wallet,
• along with others who didn't understand why it took so long to make a wallet.

[related_story]

We'll hold it to the girls to finish their orders as soon as they can, as it seems that they are indeed keen to make it work.

Perhaps then, the only thing left to do is to give more frequent updates whenever possible.

Hopefully, everyone whose orders are stuck may get their wallets soon, and those who have since requested a refund will receive theirs in time.

Also, lesson learnt: It's generally not a good idea to get someone a gift via Kickstarter.

Back a Kickstarter project knowing that you're funding an idea to its fruition, not for an online shopping order that will necessarily be expedited just because it has received lots of funding.

Top image via KIN Studio's press kit