Recently, Peak Design launched the Micro Clutch: a variant of a wrist strap that has been around in one way or another for many years. The company makes several products that are loved by many photographers. Combined with hype marketing, it obfuscates the evidence of various questionable ethical practices over the years. The company grew from the love of the Kickstarter community, which crowdfunds the creation of multiple products. And unlike other companies, they’ve kept their promises to customers. However, folks are starting to wonder about the Micro Clutch.
The Latest Peak Design Kickstarter: Micro Clutch
The Micro Clutch is a plate that attaches to the bottom of your camera and then uses a strap to connect to your camera’s strap loop. It’s adjustable to make it more comfortable for the photographer’s hand and to accommodate various cameras. However, photographers on Facebook have already called out multiple problems with the accessory. According to them, the battery compartment is blocked, it can’t work with the Capture Clip, and most of all, the company doesn’t need a Kickstarter.
Like most of Peak Design’s other projects, we’re sure it will be successfully funded due to hype marketing. Social Media influencers don’t typically offer unbiased opinions like the press does. In fact, a few brands don’t even bother talking to the press anymore and instead focus on social media influencers.
The History of Peak Design You Probably Don’t Know
The Phoblographer is currently between its 13th and 14th year of publishing, and we’ve reviewed most of what Peak Design offers. Years ago, we asked them why they continue to use Kickstarter, and the reps told us that it’s because of the core community that built them from the start. From a marketing perspective, this can be seen as a loyalty to that community.
On the other side, it can be seen as a greedy move from a company looking to get funding for its product before it makes it. It’s akin to the craziness of Canon launching products on Kickstarter. The platform is typically used for small companies. According to the US Government, Peak Design might no longer be considered a small business due to profits. Crunchbase hasn’t updated its information in a while but shows an earlier glimpse at Peak Design. Growjo states that Peak’s estimated revenue is around $20 Million, while both Kona Equity and Zoom Info point it to around a more reasonable 6.6 million. Zippa says it’s even lower. Considering the real estate involved with their brick-and-mortar stores, one might figure that the company must make more money than this.
However, if you look at the company’s funded projects on the Peak Design Kickstarter page, the numbers are bound to bring up various questions in your head. Their Travel Tripod brought in over $12 million, as just one example.
It’s clear that Peak Design isn’t a super large company, but they’re undoubtedly very profitable from the traceable resources we can find located in US Banks.
In March 2021, Peak Design started a campaign against Amazon copying their camera bags. They positioned themselves as the little guy compared to the behemoth, and their intellectual property was being infringed on. As we’ve reported previously, Peak Design was actually the company with a complaint against them in the case of the CaptureLENS. We only knew of this because the original creator shared it with us years ago at a Photo Plus show.
But Peak Design’s biggest problem perhaps comes with their previous support of Unsplash, which they refuse to comment on and apologize for. Unsplash tricks photographers into providing their images for free without even the need for attribution to companies for commercial use. And because of this, one can reason that they’re a source of data mining for various AI projects. We’re not the only publication to have called this ironic.
These are part of why we stopped working with Peak Design. Years ago, when Unsplash came around, we saw a swathe of companies begin working with them, hindering budding photographers’ efforts while undercutting working professionals and semi-professionals. We reference this on our Ethical Disclaimer page and other editorial practices. Brevite, Moment, Polaroid, Flipboard, and various others have been added to that list.
Can They Do Better?
Despite all of this, Peak Design has a whole section on its website detailing its impact on treating factory workers fairly and their environmental practices. For example, the report states that they paid their Vung Tau workers an estimated 178k dollars. It doesn’t say how many workers that was split amongst.
They’re also arguably one of the biggest innovators in the photography space for accessories. The Capture Clip and various copies wouldn’t have been made if it wasn’t for them. The same goes for the innovation within the tripod world and camera bags. As all of us believe, though, with significant success comes social responsibility. And Peak Design could clearly be doing much better. Examples of this can be seen throughout the rest of the photography industry. Leica, for example, sets up efforts to help women in the photo world — as does Sony. Sony recently did work to help visually impaired photographers. Fujifilm backs photographers who work on several causes to help the world. There are lots more out there too.
If history is any indicator, consumers will ignore this and simply focus on the product. However, ethics are becoming more critical among Millennial and Gen Z consumers.
