The Crackies are closed. Artisan keycap maker plans to close its doors by the end of the month, citing lack of sales and increased costs.

"... We did not make enough money to remain open and did not reach profitability, but somehow we have been strong for many years

"Unfortunately lack of sales (no demand?And business clients combined with growing overhead have made it impossible to keep Clackeys open."

The current customer's order should be fulfilled prior to closing. Open refunds will also be paid. The company also hopes to repay the remaining debt and salary by selling off a significant excess stock by the end of this month. 

That may be a good opportunity to secure artisan keycap at a decent discount. If it makes you feel like a vulture hunting on the corpse of the deceased, Vignone said: "Any last-minute purchase from our store will be of great help."

Vignone apologized for not being able to "keep this boat afloat."

Clackeys was known for creating keycaps inspired by popular games, movies and TV shows of the day, from Widowmaker and Cacodemons to Star Wars and Transformers. Although the design of its own creation, which is also how the company began.

As Vignone told me in a 2021 interview, after testing his 3D modeling skills with an artisan keycap, "I basically started the company by mistake."

The company has grown considerably since its inception in 2016 — interest soared during the coronavirus pandemic. By the time I was talking to Vignone in 2021, it was a "big company" in a niche market of artisan keycaps employing 6 people and a row of 3d printers. To accommodate a larger project, we wanted to expand to about 20 people, but we didn't make a profit.

"Cracky has never been profitable," says Vignone. "Our monthly operating costs at our peak were over 20,000 month a month! (I absolutely hate managing cash flow)."Sadly, it's not going to be built into a much larger company, as Clackeys once wanted. However, it has continued to net large clients over the past few years, including Riot Games and Hasbro, but not enough to make money. We are still well served in the world of artisan keycaps, from home enthusiast designers to large business ventures. But as one of the greatest evangelists of the hobby, Cracky going down is a big loss.