Caselabs is shutting down.

[mr moose]

35 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

maybe they meant it like a foreshadowing factor and decided to file early? not sure how half-and-half are both factors mentioned ,_,

When a company declares bankruptcy (without a sudden major event e.g earthquake knocking out all your factories without insurance), it is nearly always at the end of a long stretch of very weak performance.  Future prospects are not the cause. 

[Lurick]

Wow.... this sucks

I love my SMA8 and was hoping to buy some extra parts incase I screw something up but it looks like that won't be happening now....

 

[Trik'Stari]

35 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Wow.... this sucks

I love my SMA8 and was hoping to buy some extra parts incase I screw something up but it looks like that won't be happening now....

-snip

 

Same here man. I just ordered the last gunmetal grey quad 120 radiator sidemount that I could find on Amazon for my SMA8.

 

Can't find any drive cages to put on it though, which is what I really wanted/needed in the first place.

 

https://www.mountainmods.com/product_info.php?products_id=326

 

I suppose that will suffice. Not as good as the original Caselabs option which held more drives and used sleds and whatnot, but that doesn't seem to be available anywhere.

 

 

I hope someone at least buys the rights to make replacement parts for a few years.

[Drak3]

Translated:

 

Company can't compete. Blames tariffs that don't even have an effect yet.

 

 

Similar thing happened with steel products used in construction, tariffs are blamed for the most recent price increase, but the tariffs were ultimately irrelevant as said price increase was known to suppliers well in advance.

[leadeater]

Ease up on the political discussions, far too much of it.

 

Thread cleaned.

[Exotath]

Shame, they really did make beautiful cases.

 

Well I guess this means we can expect to see more brands duplicate their cases.

[Lathlaer]

10 hours ago, Pbr38 said:

i suppose its too hopeful to pray hat maybe some of their designs and designers get picked up by someone else like corsair, nzxt, etc.

Or Thermaltake

 

Sad to see them go, they really made quality stuff. SMA8 is one of the very few cases on the market where dual loop actually makes sense.

[NumLock21]

11 hours ago, FireofDestruction said:

If they did get picked up by corsair/nzxt/coolermaster etc the cases wouldnt be near the quality of what caselabs produced

Yeah, it won't. The reason why caselabs cases cost a premium, even for their cheapest case, is because their frames is a lot thicker, than other case manufactures out there.

 

[Tribalinius]

I'm really sad to see them go. I was really looking forward buying one of their case next year. Sad times.

[an actual squirrel]

3 hours ago, Drak3 said:

Translated:

 

Company can't compete. Blames tariffs that don't even have an effect yet.

 

Tariffs themselves are generally the result of failing industries with outsize political influence blaming other countries for their own lack of competitiveness.

[SuperCookie78]

That is such a shame. I loved case labs cases. I didn't have one but have always wanted one. My they go down as legends in PC history.

[aezakmi]

$600 for a mid atx case was kiiiiiiiiiiiiinda high

[kurt kurtson]

Such a shame. Hope the people working there find new jobs. So lucky i got my Mercury S8 delivered in June!

[wanderingfool2]

4 hours ago, Drak3 said:

Translated:

 

Company can't compete. Blames tariffs that don't even have an effect yet.

 

 

Similar thing happened with steel products used in construction, tariffs are blamed for the most recent price increase, but the tariffs were ultimately irrelevant as said price increase was known to suppliers well in advance.

 

14 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Some of Case Labs stuff would have been hit; some would not have been. (The Tariff run actually affects petroleum products a lot more.) It's 25% Import tax, but that usually translates to about a 10% end-user cost increase. They also *haven't gone into effect yet*.

 

The real problem would appear to them being an extremely fragile company. They lost 1 account and their production costs go up 80% from a 25% tariff that isn't active yet. This means a lot of bad decisions were made over time, and they simply got crunched by events when they weren't stable enough to handle them. One could also say that their business model required production cost arbitrage out of China. 

 

This won't be the last company to go under like this, but it also explains why this is happening. The entire Cost Structure of some of these industries is based off getting products at prices that aren't actually viable for the industry. China has been one Recession away from causing this chain of events anyway, it's just being kicked off by the USA.

 

7 hours ago, mr moose said:

So a tariff that isn't implemented yet is blamed for a company going arse up and you people believe it without question?  Crikey!

 

There are plenty of tariffs that have come into effect that could explain the price increase; and there could be the speculative price increases from providers (and to an extent price increases from shortages as supplies and consumers hoard material intended for tariffs).  Ultimately, the announcement of tariffs and the fear of what tariffs may mean can cause a lot of instability in prices. [An example, if you sourced your steel locally an proposed tariff would increase the demand for local product which the local supplier might not be able to full-fill, causing an increase in pricing due to demand.  If you relied on local steel to supply your company, you could see a huge increase in cost]

[cj09beira]

 

2 hours ago, an actual squirrel said:

Tariffs themselves are generally the result of failing industries with outsize political influence blaming other countries for their own lack of competitiveness.

do you know how china can have steal and aluminum so much cheaper? well they subsidize it, and bought tons of it from 3rd world countries well under the price it was worth, remelted them and were able to sell at very low prices, the government then pays for transport too, how can other countries fight against all the trickery china pulls, its really hard 

[jasonvp]

2 hours ago, aezakmi said:

$600 for a mid atx case was kiiiiiiiiiiiiinda high

It's not if you've had one of their cases before.  Their cases' quality is literally second to none.

[aezakmi]

9 minutes ago, jasonvp said:

It's not if you've had one of their cases before.  Their cases' quality is literally second to none.

better be made of solid gold then

[2FA]

9 hours ago, mr moose said:

So a tariff that isn't implemented yet is blamed for a company going arse up and you people believe it without question?  Crikey!

It didn't seem that unreasonable of a statement to me. Quotes for materials are going to include the tariffs in the price since orders are placed ahead of time.

[Foxxer]

Relocate to Canada, problem solved.

[Bananasplit_00]

Damn, sucks to see them go. They made sweet cases but none that I would ever buy because of the cost. Not just the cost of the case, but also the cost of what you need to put in there to not make it seem extremely empty. 

[NumLock21]

3 hours ago, aezakmi said:

$600 for a mid atx case was kiiiiiiiiiiiiinda high

Not kinda high. It's too damn high.

 

1 hour ago, jasonvp said:

It's not if you've had one of their cases before.  Their cases' quality is literally second to none.

For $600 it's either

A) CaseLabs case with a GT 1030

B) Phanteks Enthoo Pro case with a GTX 1080

Most will likely go with option B. So it doesn't matter how good their cases' quality are, when cheaper cases have the features they want.

 

[jasonvp]

27 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Most will likely go with option B. So it doesn't matter how good their cases' quality are, when cheaper cases have the features they want.

 

As it turns out: no case manufacturer has the features and quality that CaseLabs does (or, more accurately: did).  It's why their cases cost so damned much.  For instance: my optioned-up THW10 was literally $900.  Just the case.  There isn't a case in existence that has what mine does.  It's why I bought it.

 

The problem is volume.  They obviously couldn't compete only with high-end cases.  They needed a "low-end" or "down-market" set of cases to sell in volume.  However, given that they were a teeny, little shop with only a few folks hand-building everything they did, volume just wasn't an option.

 

It's too bad, really.

 

[Lathlaer]

47 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

For $600 it's either

A) CaseLabs case with a GT 1030

B) Phanteks Enthoo Pro case with a GTX 1080

Most will likely go with option B. So it doesn't matter how good their cases' quality are, when cheaper cases have the features they want

You know very well that it's extremely improbable that there are any Caselabs chassis owners who had to make that kind of decision ;-)

 

"OMG bought SMA8 and custom LC, now I don't have money to buy actual hardware and will need to watercool my 1030"

[aezakmi]

20 minutes ago, Lathlaer said:

You know very well that it's extremely improbable that there are any Caselabs chassis owners who had to make that kind of decision ;-)

 

"OMG bought SMA8 and custom LC, now I don't have money to buy actual hardware and will need to watercool my 1030"

quad sli and 64GB ram is considered a low end build for someone who buys a caselabs case smh

[mr moose]

4 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

 

 

 

There are plenty of tariffs that have come into effect that could explain the price increase; and there could be the speculative price increases from providers (and to an extent price increases from shortages as supplies and consumers hoard material intended for tariffs).  Ultimately, the announcement of tariffs and the fear of what tariffs may mean can cause a lot of instability in prices. [An example, if you sourced your steel locally an proposed tariff would increase the demand for local product which the local supplier might not be able to full-fill, causing an increase in pricing due to demand.  If you relied on local steel to supply your company, you could see a huge increase in cost]

How many new tariffs do you think there are?  As far as I am aware there has been nothing new applied for a very long time, in fact if anything things over the last decade have gotten cheaper due too less government interference with trade.  Rest assured this is 99% poor business management in a tough market.

 

2 hours ago, 2FA said:

It didn't seem that unreasonable of a statement to me. Quotes for materials are going to include the tariffs in the price since orders are placed ahead of time.

It is when the tariff is not actually implemented yet.  How does a company suffer losses and cost increases from a cost that doesn't exist?