News Caselabs is shutting down

TheHig

King of Cable Management
Oct 13, 2016
951
1,171
Whatever combination of factors and events brought about the end doesn’t ultimately matter to me.
It’s sad to see a small business full of people trying to do exceptional work and cater to a niche market go out. Hits pretty close to home being a part of such a thing here doesn’t it?

We need companies like Caselabs,NCase,NFC,Chimera,Dancase,HdPlex,Sliger,Mountain Mods and many like them I’m forgetting at the moment. The big players are just going to hang the flavor of the month frag harder lights and tempered glass on rehashed boxes. Boring as hell. Craft. Design. Risk. That’s worth your hard earned.

Ok ..rambling a bit!

Basically it sucks. RIP Caselabs hopefully somehow it isn’t the end.
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
Aug 18, 2016
1,949
2,619
edited the OP to soft remove the tariff bit. if it should be completely removed let me know ,_,

I only share this now in hopes that maybe someone in our group here would be interested in approaching them about taking it over.
If you still have your contact let them know I'm interested.
@KSliger, I can get you easily in touch with the owner of Case Labs. Shoot me a PM.

nice! hope things go well for both parties!
 

tinyitx

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 25, 2018
2,279
2,338
Mountain Mods....probably get their Aluminum from Canada anyway so it’s not an issue.

There are 2000 reasons why it’s hard to operate a manufacturing business in America but a 15% increase in the cost of Aluminum when importing from China is not one of them.
Peace

The top Aluminium import for the US is Canada. I do not think China even makes the top 3 list.
And, Canada is not exempted from the tariff. IIRC, US exempted Canada for a couple months or so and then imposed the same tariff just like that on EU and Mexico. I am not aware of any country getting exemption. So, when Trump said 'America First', he does mean it to be 'US vs the rest of the world'.

BTW, what do you think are the top 2 reasons for being hard to operate a manufacturing business in the US?
 

BirdofPrey

Standards Guru
Sep 3, 2015
797
493
I had an S3 once upon a time. It was pretty large for an ITX chassis but the design was well thought out and provided excellent thermals.

RIP Caselabs. Eager to see what @KSliger could do if the stars align.
Case Labs stuff was always HUGE, but all of their cases have always been very well thought out and well designed, and the modularity for mounting accessories is so very useful, it sad to not see anything like it from other manufacturers.

I never had a use case for their products, but I'd have bought from them if they made an actual small case, and it's sad to see them go.
The guys from Case Labs were also pretty cool dudes, so I hope they're finding some new work.
 

Duality92

Airflow Optimizer
Apr 12, 2018
307
330
I had even offered them consultant help for eventually registering themselves as ISO 9001:2015, but we never got to that point.

Their parent company, which was bigger than Case Labs, I think made server cabinets of various sizes, which would be much more voluminous than cases. Cases was their niche product branded as Case Labs and that company represented a smaller portion of sales. With higher volume of server cabinets, lower margins were seen. If they had a lot of their eggs in that basket and it decided to go elsewhere because of increasing lead times and late deliveries, it'd make sense.

Now, this is ENTIRELY speculation and IIRC stuff, but as has been said, what ever the reason(s) may be, their coming out was to keep their image intact and they aren't obligated to let the public know exactly why things happened the way they did.

I truly hope I get to own another Case Labs case one day. The single only other case that I've had that met their quality was the In Win 805 (which had a proportional to Case Labs price tag).

If one wants to still support Kevin, the son of the owner and the owner/creator of Mod-One sleeving, visit their site and FB page, give them a like. https://mod-one.com/

It's one single guy doing all the sleeving, used to be MB Sleeving, but Michael got hired by Kevin to do their sleeving, he does this full time now in their shop in California and has the fingers to prove it!
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Original poster
Aug 18, 2016
1,949
2,619
for transparency's sake: I won't be secondhanding the possibility of something/anything between Sliger and Caselabs after the above mentions to elsewhere in other forums, untill/unless Sliger breaks out a statement on an official capacity
 

KSliger

King of Cable Management
Sliger Designs
May 8, 2015
855
3,186
BTW, what do you think are the top 2 reasons for being hard to operate a manufacturing business in the US?

1. ePacket and other shipping subsidies to Chinese manufacturers to ship goods anywhere for a negligible amount, while manufacturers in the west have to pay increased rates to offset the subsidies for Chinese manufacturers.

2. Chinese government offering subsidized materials, export VAT rebates, container taxes, steep import duties, and devaluing their currency to lower export costs.

US tariffs I think are a great start for giving the 110+ other underdeveloped countries a chance to compete against China for work, but more is needed.

All I have to say, won't go into any more.

for transparency's sake: I won't be secondhanding the possibility of something/anything between Sliger and Caselabs after the above mentions to elsewhere in other forums, untill/unless Sliger breaks out a statement on an official capacity

They might have plans to eventually reopen, and/or they cannot do any deal making during the bankruptcy. Best just to wait and see.
 

jtd871

SFF Guru
Jun 22, 2015
1,166
851
Hey, I don't mind tariffs that help to level the playing field, but when the domestic producers not subject to tariffs jack up prices in response, well, I tend to get a bit surly.
 
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oceanmechanic

Efficiency Noob
Sep 15, 2017
5
1
I wonder what'll happen to all of the designs / blueprints. I've got a machine shop available and would love to build myself a BH2 now that they can't be bought...
 

jaagdijot

Trash Compacter
Jan 29, 2018
52
10
I hope that someone can pick up their designs and continue producing their(or similar) design into the future.

I am glad I was able to get a merlin sm8 and mercury s3 recently. I definitely will be taking good care of those and keeping them for the long haul!
 

Goatee

King of Cable Management
Jun 22, 2018
738
1,512
Looks like they are being resurrected: https://caselabs.se/

"Will you be making new case models as well?
At some point in the future, we would love to design brand new case models. However, our current plan regarding cases is to start by selling spare parts, followed by the original line of cases. After that, our focus will be on updating the original line-up of cases to revision A with updated front I/O, vertical GPU bracket support and so on.

And we have heard you: A small form factor case could see the light of day sometime in the future. "
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,670
2,697
Looks like they are being resurrected: https://caselabs.se/

"Will you be making new case models as well?
At some point in the future, we would love to design brand new case models. However, our current plan regarding cases is to start by selling spare parts, followed by the original line of cases. After that, our focus will be on updating the original line-up of cases to revision A with updated front I/O, vertical GPU bracket support and so on.

And we have heard you: A small form factor case could see the light of day sometime in the future. "
Holy thread necro! LOL Good news though.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,670
2,697
I check with the search to see if someone else had picked it up and found the original thread. Thought I would keep the forum tidy
Oh no worries. I wasn't commenting on you bringing the info back or the thread. More on how they "Rise from their grave" .
 
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Runamok81

Runner of Moks
Jul 27, 2015
445
621
troywitthoeft.com
Oh no worries. I wasn't commenting on you bringing the info back or the thread. More on how they "Rise from their grave" .
Can't NOT see this each time I hear "rise from their grave"

 
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