Remember Vybe? The Buzz Band knock-off successor loudly promised a February 28, 2014 ship date, but has now quietly reneged. While they’ve scrubbed the guarantee from their website, it’s still documented in the Internet Archive and the creator’s letter to Ch00f.

Over 75% of crowdfunding efforts miss their deadline, and there’s still reason to believe Vybe will deliver a product eventually, so this is only notable because:

1. They made such a big deal about shipping on time during the campaign, and
2. They are quietly hiding their failure, hoping no one will notice.

We are curious to see what happens if enough backers start demanding their refunds.

Phew, it’s been a pretty crazy week for Drop Kicker, but fortunately the dust has settled, and we have a chance to clarify some of the misinformation that has been flying around the Vybe campaign.

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I received this email today from one of Vybe’s PR companies who asked to not have their name shown as they do not want to be in any way associated with the Vybe campaign.

CREATOR RESPONSE

To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing in response to an article written by “Choof.” We (****** Agency) previously handled media relations for Vybe up until this afternoon. As one of three agencies contracted to work with Vybe I want to be clear that we did not, nor have we ever managed a Reddit account or campaign on behalf of a client. We have a zero tolerance policy regarding astro-turfing and do not associate with companies that employ the practice.

Our agency provided media relations services for Vybe only. This consisted of the drafting and distributing of a press release and media outreach. This afternoon we decided it was in our best interest to terminate our relationship with Vybe and founder Chris Stoikos, releasing the company from all contractual obligations.

I would like to point out the great respect our agency has for the media and assure you that we would never ask an outlet to remove a story or advise a client to do so either.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further by phone.

Best,

**** *****
vice president

Not 12 hours after I published an article discussing the Vybe campaign on Crowdtilt, I was surprised to receive a phone call from one of the project creators.

CREATOR RESPONSE

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CREATOR RESPONSE

Link to Crowdtilt campaign

Oh boy! Another wrist-mounted gadget!  What’s this one do?

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