Excerpt from “Wooting”, from Key Source’s print magazine
Looking back on the Wooting company’s journey, it seems impossible to fathom that their initial vision would eventually lead to the Wooting60, a keyboard that seems to have swayed the direction of not only mainstream keyboard products, but of hobbyist projects as well. The team, at Wooting’s conception in 2015, consisted of three people: Calder, the face of their company who had a love for business; Erik, their graphic designer; and Jeroen, an electrical engineer. Together, they sought to, in their eyes, revolutionize the market of gaming keyboards.
To those unfamiliar with their more humble beginnings, it may be a surprise to learn that hall-effect keyboards were not their goal at first.
The TKL Wooting One, which had a successful Kickstarter campaign raising over €135,000 euros, had a very sleek and geometric design that didn’t sway too far from the look of other popular boards around the time like Corsair. However, their board promised the use of analog switches, which allowed for more precise keystrokes in gaming. This could be especially useful for those who played racing games on their PC for example, without the hassle of using a controller.
Wooting has made a concerted effort since the beginning to be transparent with their audience, as seen with Calder vlogging his trips to the manufacturing facilities, and being honest when parts of the process went awry. Wooting One debuted at the Taiwan Computex event in 2017, topped with Flaretech analog switches and a hot-swap PCB.
As of publication, Wooting has been inching closer towards the release of the Wooting80 HE, their TKL variant of the hall-effect Lekker switch keyboard. Throughout the process, Wooting has taken in community input regarding the board’s layout, design, and color choices, with Calder still releasing vlog updates as always. With the consistency and transparency that Wooting has offered amidst a hobbyist community plagued with unfulfilled group buys and silence from a myriad of creators, it seems unsurprising that Wooting’s approach has been met with open arms and plenty of praise.
