Update: What a difference a few days make! In the few days since Fidget Cube launched on Kickstarter, its campaign has soared passed its initial fundraising goal and now currently sits past the $2 million mark. Better yet, it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. More than 55,000 backers have so far signed up and it seems the world is about to become home to a whole lot more fidgeting.
“What we’re experiencing right now has shaken our concept of what can be achieved as a small company,” co-creator Mark McLachlan told Digital Trends. “At this point, we have more emails and comments than we could possibly reply to, and more items on our to-do list than we could have possibly imagined. We’re strategically thinking about how best to prioritize those so that we can make Fidget Cube the quality product we know it to be.”
Original text:
Designers up to and including Apple’s design guru Jony Ive love what they call the “fiddle factor:” the unique design flourishes added to a product for no reason other than to give users something to play with.
That concept has been taken to its logical conclusion with a new Kickstarter project for the so-called “Fidget Cube,” an all-in-one solution that allows fidget-afflicted users to click, roll, flip, glide, spin and any number of other fiddly verbs to their heart’s content.
“We came up with the idea for Fidget Cube about four years ago, when we realized that we both have a hard time sitting still and staying focused while working on projects,” Fidget Cube co-creator Mark McLachlan, who works alongside brother Matthew, told Digital Trends. “Other toys that are meant for fidgeting look out of place in a professional setting. We wanted to design something that would look great in any circumstance.”
Taking the project from inception to present day was fiddly in a whole other manner, however, with the engineering challenges of fitting all the necessary components into one tiny cube ultimately taking the brothers four years.
Fortunately, it seems that Mark and Matthew aren’t alone in their desire to see the Fidget Cube become a reality — with the funding target of $15,000 already being obliterated to the tune of $192,650.
“The response we’ve received so far has been overwhelming,” Mark said. “We believe the reason this project is resonating so widely with individuals is because of the numerous applications it has. We’ve received countless messages from executives, teachers who plan to use Fidget Cube with their students, people who have ADHD and see this as a beneficial tool, and medical professionals who have expressed the belief that Fidget Cube will help with the rehabilitation of patients.”
Whether or not the Fidget Cube is truly set to become the next great teaching or rehab tool remains to be seen, but if you want to get one for yourself you can secure a Fidget Cube for the low price of just $19.
To be honest, it’s worth pledging purely to reward the creators for the project’s hilarious promo video, which has to rank as one of the best in Kickstarter history.
