Hi Taylor,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and apologies for not joining this discussion sooner. You absolutely deserve to hear the story behind KUBO and the surprising coincidence that brought our paths to cross.
We are a team of product designers focused on creating consumer goods, a craft we’ve been dedicated to since 2005. Interestingly, KUBO started as a side project rather than our primary focus. It was born from the creative mind of one of our team members, Anıl. The initial concept for KUBO dates back to his university days as an industrial design student, and in recent years, he began developing an industrial version as a personal hobby—just for fun. And here’s where it gets intriguing: it was originally envisioned as a 3D-printed product, just like your version!
To give you some context, Anıl’s 3D-printed prototype has been sitting on his desk for almost two years now. In a break from our usual work of developing and selling product ideas, Anıl suggested launching KUBO on Kickstarter through our brand “Unusual Objects.” This brand was created to bring innovative yet functional ideas to life. For Kickstarter, we redesigned KUBO for mass production, creating spring hinge systems for easier assembly—a process that’s not as simple without clear assembly points, unlike 3D printing.
About a month and a half before our launch, Anıl stumbled upon your 3D-printed version on an Instagram page and was stunned. Naturally, he shared it with us, and we were equally shocked. Initially, we thought someone had stolen Anıl’s idea! After some digging, we realized it was a wild coincidence. Somehow, both you and Anıl developed the same concept in eerily similar ways. Your hinge design especially caught our attention—it was uncanny.
For a brief moment, we even considered whether our printer had inadvertently shared the file on some server! But no—this is just one of those remarkable coincidences where two minds, working in the same mental space, came up with the same idea independently.
We genuinely appreciate your work and admire your designs. It’s always amazing to see others sharing a similar creative frequency. If anything, we hope you take pride in the fact that you’re creating work that resonates with people. For our part, we know the struggles of dealing with copycats, particularly from overseas, so we understand the frustration that comes with protecting originality.
That said, we’re thrilled to see how much people enjoy the concept, and we wish you all the best with your designs. Here’s to a shared love for innovation and creativity.
Take care,
The KUBO Team
