Buy it for Life

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A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!

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ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net

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EU or Canadian alternative to Unicomp PC keyboards (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by MystValkyrie@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/buyitforlife@slrpnk.net

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I'm less interested in Unicomp/IBM's novel buckling spring technology (as cool as it is) and more that they're built well, are corded and not wireless, offer replacement parts on their website, and have a mail-in repair service.

Unicomp's Model M keyboard was my first choice for a long-lasting keyboard, but now I want to lessen my dependence on American-made companies (especially since Unicomp is based in Kentucky) and wanted to see if any alternatives existed. I've heard good things about Cherry, but I don't fully understand their business model or how to order their products.

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I think that Cherry just sold off their German production facilities or something. I vaguely recall posting something along those lines when it came up in the news. Cheaper Chinese competitors kind of killed them off.

searches

https://blackout-news.de/en/news/end-of-cherry-production-in-germany/

End of Cherry production in Germany

December 6, 2025

Cherry, the internationally renowned peripherals manufacturer from Auerbach in the Upper Palatinate region of Germany, is ceasing its German production after 60 years. Cherry became particularly famous for its iconic keyboards, which are expected to continue being manufactured in the Far East. Production in Germany, however, is no longer profitable, according to management.

Even though six decades of purely German production is a long time, Cherry is now, historically speaking, returning to its roots. These roots lay in the USA for the later German icon, as its Anglo-Saxon name suggests. Walter Cherry founded the company in 1953 in Highland Park, Illinois, and established the German production line in 1963. With the peripherals produced here, the company achieved a spectacular international breakthrough in 1983. That year, it launched the MX Switches, which have since defined the global standard for mechanical keyboards.

However, a Cherry patent expired in 2014, protecting the company’s MX design. Since then, Chinese companies have flooded the market with equivalent but cheaper alternatives. Manufacturers like Kailh, Gateron, and Outemu now offer switches with innovative technologies such as the Hall effect, some of which even come pre-lubricated. The Hall effect is a magnetic actuation mechanism for variable actuation points. Far Eastern manufacturers have now mastered this technology better than Cherry.

Completely relocating production to China will undoubtedly reduce costs and perhaps even bring Chinese expertise into the company. Industry leaders like Razer and Logitech took this path years ago.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I thought that Matias was western. Looking them up, it looks like they're in Canada. It looks like they sell both keyboards and keyswitches, though I'm not certain that they manufacture everything locally or whether they brand it and have manufacturing done in China or somewhere like that.

https://matias.ca/

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

FYI, the Matias boards that use the Alps style switch are fantastic to type on, but unfortunately during my research when buying a good mechanical keyboard, I found that Matias switches do not have the durability of the older real Alps switches, with many developing hysteresis in some switches pretty frequently.

Those switches can be replaced with a soldering iron, but overall they don't appear to be as reliable as MX style switches, nor do they offer the same ease of switch replacement as hot-swappable MX switch boards do.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I've never used one myself

please don't take it as an endorsement on that front. I was just trying to think of a Western keyboard company.

I also subscribe to !ErgoMechKeyboards@lemmy.world, and OP could try them.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Somehow I missed the EU/Canadian requirement in OP's title 🤦‍♂️

From a Chyrosran22 video on the Matias TactilePro, I was able to spy from the label on the back that they are now made in China, unfortunately.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Ah, good investigation. I looked on their website and couldn't find anything (though that might have said something...companies that do domestic manufacturing tend to trumpet the fact).