When we hear "Kickstarter" we think of wholly original product designs like Scott Wilson's TikTok/LunaTik or Studio Neat's Glif. Devin Montgomery's Backcountry Boiler is the first project we've seen that takes a product already on the marketplace and tries to improve it without changing the overall design.
Remember the Kelly Kettle, the water-boiling camping thermos with a hollow conical fire chamber? Montgomery's Backcountry Boiler is essentially the same design, albeit in a shorter and slimmer form factor and with a silicon stopper rather than a cork one. Given that the Kelly Kettle is currently being produced by the fourth generation of Kellys associated with the kettle's design, we didn't realize this was even legal.The Backcountry Boiler design
Montgomery states that the design has been around "for a long time" in several different cultures, though he neglects to mention that Kelly Kettles currently sells the object in question. This raises some thorny questions about what people can do with Kickstarter.
What do you think? Is Montgomery's refinement of the design a valid and distinct update, in the way that car manufacturers continually refine the automobile, or is it too close for comfort? We're curious to hear the design community's thoughts.
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Here is the point: while the design itself isn't that innovative or original it doesn't have to be. The fundamental principle of all business is not to have an original idea, but to see an unmet customer need and put in the hard work to meet that need better than the competition. There are folks who didn't like some of the aspects of what was available (too heavy, too bulky). Devin put in the hard work to actually make it happen. I appreciate that there are folks out there still thinking about how to improve things and putting in the effort to make it happen.
So many have rebranded and copied.
go read the whole forum and see their discussions on the 'available in the market' boilers and why devin worked at a lighter version, and how a few brands are in fact made by the same metal spinning company. and see how he picked up metal spinning in the face of expensive commercial metal spinning costs.
As has been mentioned to death, chimney kettles are not the exclusive domain of the Kelly family. This is an extreme old concept. Plus, this design is aimed at a whole different market segment - backpackers, not homesteaders and survivalists.
It's one thing to take a very complicated and detailed design and make a design that's similar in every which way. That could well be called a knockoff. Copying the style and structure of a UI - from layout down to iconography - could make for a knockoff. A clone of the Mona Lisa at some flea market would be a knockoff. Slapping Apple's branding onto a cheap plastic phone with a distinct silver rim would be a knockoff. A design student without ideas for a project, choosing to rehash a concept he found online would be guilty of making a knockoff.
But for crying out loud, when you have a design as simple as a burner, a chimney, a water chamber, and a stopper, you just can't call it a knockoff unless it's a total spitting image of another product. Otherwise, *every* maker of practically *any* establish type of product is an unoriginal thief, unless he'd ladle on so much needless crap that the initial appeal of the object would be lost - and even then it'd be iffy.
By such a standard, if I were to design a pencil, there would be no originality if I played with materials, or ergonomics, or color; oh no, it would have to brush my teeth, feed my cat, pedal my bike, and do all my sketching for me in order for it to not be a knockoff. But then, it wouldn't be a pencil anymore, would it? "Pencil" would just be a feature of this hypothetical product.
At what point would you be satisfied with Devin Montgomery's design? Would you be okay with it if the kettle portion were detachable, or if he came up with a way to increase the surface area inside the chimney for greater efficiency? Would you be okay with it if it would be available in a range of Pantone colors with pretty little patterns laser-cut into the burner section? Would you be okay with it if he welded a bundt cake mold from Target to a buddy burner he stole from a hobo, wrote some artsy-fartsy tripe about society's waste and excess, and sold it to some rich poseur for $200?
At what point would you be satisfied with a design that derives from an entire general *category* of products?
How about this, Hipstomp: buy one of these Backcountry Boilers, and buy a Kelly Kettle. Do a comparative review on Core77, and then tell us whether or not you think it's a knockoff. After this scathing (and frankly, rather brash) article, Mr. Montgomery deserves that much. If after that, you still believe that it's knockoff, then fine - it would at least be an informed and tested opinion, with your thoughts and conclusions clearly laid out for others to consider for themselves.
Everything is a re-mix - products, music, movies and we stand on the shoulders of giants.
http://vimeo.com/19447662 - I'm guessing you like Star Wars - but you would hardly accuse George Lucus of being a hack!
Devin Montgomery-Well said and good luck with the project.
So there were a ton. But none were small and light enough to practically carry around with you. I made one that was on my back porch, and it is less than half the size and weight of anything that came before it thanks to a lot of hard work and creative design on my part.
I gave credit where credit was due, but Kelly doesn't own (and didn't create) the idea of the chimney kettle. I wish you all had done more research before throwing a new designer under the bus.
-Devin Montgomery
Creator of the Backcountry Boiler
Maybe there is something in this which the Kelly Kettle doesn't have. Maybe it's the insulating sleeve he puts on some of the units. Maybe it is the smaller form factor and weight. Maybe it's just the community the guy has on the backpacking forum he's on.
Why does it matter if the "original" company is iterating or experimenting with a new design of an old product? Why can't it be done by a third party? Is there really something bad about improvements or derivative works?
The part of me who's read too many business books would say that the Kelly Kettle company needs to innovate, face this competition (certainly better advertising on their part couldn't hurt), or just accept it (maybe the market is big enough for all the manufacturers).
I really don't see your point. As if no designer should be making a product that has already been made and only work on 100% original ideas? Designing chairs you can sit on, shoes for your feet is bad? They look more different to each other than most traditional cold water bottles do.
Would I back this product on kickstarter? No, I don't think it brings anything new to the market, which is why I would primarily back something on kickstarter (mind you it does look better). But would I call this unethical or illegal, absolutely not!
by just making it a bit smaller, it still screams "knock-off"!
And frankly, Scott Wilson wasn't the first person to think of ipod watches, he just made some pretty pictures.