KINK3D Behind the Scenes: Color

For those of you new to the blog, I’m Paul and I’m in charge of operations here at KINK3D. Periodically I like to let our fans have a peek behind the curtain and learn a bit about all the work going on here at our HQ. There’s a lot I’m planning to share in the coming months, but for today I want to talk about color.

By: Paul

We’ve recently announced that our Aqua Blue colorway is headed into retirement. Aqua Blue has been fun, and we've loved having the color dynamism in our product range, but it’s had its time in the sun.

We are very aware that color products are something our fans want. From the beginning, we’ve had requests for every color you can think of. Whether to match some puppy gear, highlight a mood, or flag a favorite kink, people have been asking for more. It’s been a major focus of our manufacturing R&D for years. We haven't talked publicly about it much, and we know some people are disappointed that Cobra and Viper don't already come in more color options. So let’s talk about the story behind color.

How We Got Here

To get started, let’s focus on our core black product line. These products are printed on state-of-the-art 3D printers using a powder-based nylon. This technology gives the best overall combination of strength, smoothness, and low porosity. We don't use filament or resin (which are available in a variety of pre-colored options). Rather our base material comes in a single color.

When the printing and smoothing are done, the resulting pieces come out as a dark grey. We worked with our manufacturing partner to develop a proprietary dyeing process that takes this grey and turns it into a deep, rich black that is actually different from any off-the-shelf black dye on the market.

People who are newer to chastity might not know this, but our original Cobra line changed the visual landscape of the chastity world, which had previously been filled with metal, clear plastic, and the occasional toy-like color. The popularity of sleek, elegant, black cages started with Cobra.

We were (and still are) very proud of how our classic black products look and feel. But we knew from the beginning that we wanted to find a way to bring more colors to market. So for more than five years, color has been an ongoing project for us.

The Challenges of Color

The first promising opportunity for color came about when a new type of 3D printer was released. These new machines used a different base material and infused the parts with color during the print process itself. They were mainly designed for making one-off prototypes, but we were able to get them up and running for high-volume production. This is how our Fusion Pink was born.

However, we quickly learned that the new machines we brought online for Fusion Pink come with some distinct challenges. First, the colors that can be produced with them are limited. This isn’t like a computer where you can instantly get any color in the rainbow just by specifying the RGB values. Instead we’re choosing from a more limited array of colors that can be physically printed, most of which don't line up with the premium look that we're trying to achieve.

In addition to the color palette constraints, we also had to address two major issues that are still a challenge for us today: surface texture and cage/ring fitment.

Just about all 3D-printed products come out of the printer with a noticeable texture. To make our cages smooth, we employ one of two processes after the printing. For our classic black as well as our Arctic White products, we use a very intense, custom-tuned vapor smoothing that provides the unique satin feel people love. But when we tried this same process on color parts such as Fusion Pink, the smoothing led to a muddied color, destroying the very thing we were trying to achieve.

To address this, we had to adopt a gentler smoothing process that would result in a good surface finish without damaging the bright color. After some trial and error, we dialed this in to a level that we think really works well, balancing a comfortable finish that has just a touch of grippiness with the vibrant colors that people love to wear. But this balance requires very careful tuning of the smoothing formula, which actually ends up being different for each individual color.

This leads us to the next challenge, something we refer to internally as fitment.

If you’ve tried the latest version of our classic black or Arctic White cages, you know how the pieces feel as they are pressed together. There's a subtle pop and then some pressure as the pins of the cage insert into the slots on the base ring. The theoretical dimensions we use for this in our 3D models have been honed over years of development to the .025mm (.001 inch) level. While there is still some individual variation from piece to piece due to the limitations of 3D printing, on an average basis, this is just about as good as is physically possible.

However, the different 3D printer and different smoothing method of our color products both make the fitment between pieces more challenging to dial in. Not only is there slightly lower precision in the dimensions of the 3D printing, but also the subtle surface texture of the colors adds more friction to the interface mechanism, meaning that the ring and cage don't always fit together with an easy snugness.

In the end, we feel that we got the Fusion Line products to a good balance of color, finish, and fit, letting us offer beautiful colors while managing the tradeoffs. And we know that people love them.

Why New Colors Take So Long

So why not develop even more colors in the same way? Well, it turns out that we actually have to carefully recalibrate the dimensions of the interface for each color, due to the way color affects how things print: Different colors absorb heat differently, and that heat absorption is key to fusing the material together during the print process. So a new color isn’t just a matter of plugging in a new color pack; it involves extensive prototyping to get a viable design where the fitment isn't too tight or too loose. For some colors, we've found it might not even be possible to get a consistent-enough fitment at all.

Then there’s cost. Direct color printing is extremely expensive — way more than the already expensive process we use for black. With 40 cages and 24 base rings in our core range, let alone the new variants that we'd ideally like to offer in color, this is a lot of SKUs to develop, produce, and keep on hand while holding the price at a point that's still accessible.

Multiply these challenges by every potential color, and they quickly add up. We've realized that if we're not careful, they could become a level of distraction that takes us away from our ability to keep delivering the product quality, innovation, and customer service that are central to our brand.

But we haven’t given up!

What Comes Next

With the development of Arctic White, which uses an even newer type of printer and raw material, new options have become available to us. While dark grey couldn't be effectively dyed in the colors we've wanted to achieve, white is another story. So that’s our next avenue of exploration.

This research is in its early stages, and we don't have a specific timetable for new colors at this point. We've learned that teasing products before we're confident about a launch plan risks disappointing people. This post isn't meant as a product tease. Rather, I thought people might be interested to get some insight into the kinds of challenges we've tackled and the work that's coming up for us.

If we do move forward with new color production, it's too soon to say exactly which colors that might include, and whether it might take the form of limited color drops or new permanent lines.

We’ve always strived to produce the best products on the market, and that holds true more than ever for color. We'll keep working behind the scenes to launch new colors with the standards that our customers deserve.