Leopold Before It Was Global: Three Announcements and 2,265 Comments

To most of the world Leopold is a Korean brand that makes very good, slightly conservative Cherry MX keyboards with thick PBT keycaps. To KBDMania it was, first, the company that imported the Realforce; then the company that got Topre to make a tenkeyless for Korea; then a keyboard designer in its own right; and finally, in 2013, the first Korean manufacturer of mechanical keyboards since Sejin. The news board recorded each turn, and the comment counts tell you how closely the community was watching: 679 on the Realforce 86 announcement, 606 on the FC200R tenkeyless, 980 on the FC660M.

2007: the importer

The earliest Leopold stories in the archive are about imports. In January 2007 the news board reported that Leopold had begun selling a Korean-layout Happy Hacking Lite 2, and that a Realforce 101 with Hangul legends was coming. Leopold was Topre's official Korean importer, and for the Korean hobbyist it was the reason a Realforce could be bought with a warranty at all.

March 2008: talking Topre into a tenkeyless

On 17 March 2008 KBDMania's administrator, kant, posted Leopold's announcement of the Realforce 86. The article explained what a tenkeyless was for readers who had never seen one ("somewhat unfamiliar to the general public"), then listed the changes from the Realforce 101: USB instead of PS/2 only, embossed Vista and context-menu keycaps, a set of red keycaps borrowed from Topre's ATOK keyboard, and DIP switches to swap Ctrl and Caps Lock HHKB-style, swap left Ctrl and right Alt, and disable the Windows keys. A keycap puller, stoppers and the replacement keycaps for a Ctrl/Caps swap came in the box.

The part that matters historically is the quote from Leopold's chief executive, Kang San (강산). The project had started the previous summer. "Topre has excellent keyboard technology," he said, "but it targets the Japanese domestic market, so releasing a tenkeyless suited to Korean users took a great deal of negotiation and persuasion." He had asked Topre for every option it could provide and put all of them on the 86. Release was set for late April to mid May 2008.

Two things to notice. The Realforce 86 (and the Realforce 87 that followed in 2009, when Leopold showed samples and took pre-orders) exists because a Korean importer asked for it. And it arrived the same week the 356-L group buy was shipping. Korea's production tenkeyless and its custom tenkeyless were born within days of each other.

July 2010: Leopold designs a keyboard

On 21 July 2010 the news board announced that Leopold would release its own tenkeyless mechanical keyboard at the end of August: the FC200R Tenkeyless with Cherry MX switches, and an FC200R Lite Tenkeyless with Alps-compatible switches and no LED keycaps. The post, again by kant, read the design closely. The silhouette was conventional, but the edges were "rounded more softly" than the Majestouch; the front height had been kept low enough to type without a wrist rest; the cable was detachable mini-USB, as on the full-size FC200R; there were six anti-slip rubber feet; the keycaps were uncoated laser-etched ABS at Majestouch height, with Cherry-style stabilizers. The giveaway attached to the post, six FC200R TKLs and two Lites to commenters, explains some of the 606 comments. Not all of them.

January 2013: made in Korea

The third announcement is the one that made Leopold a maker. On 18 January 2013 kant previewed the FC660M, a 66-key mini, and the FC210TP, a mechanical numeric pad, both due in the first quarter. The FC660M kept an HHKB-like core but added arrow keys, with Ins and Del at the top right; a DIP switch block on the underside reconfigured Fn and a few other keys; the case was a two-piece design in the HHKB Pro manner. The pad was styled to sit beside the FC700R tenkeyless. Both had detachable cables and PBT keycaps.

Then the paragraph the comments seized on: "More interesting than the features or design is that this product may become the made-in-Korea product that succeeds Sejin." Leopold had set up domestic production facilities and would build the Korean demand and a good part of the export volume in Korea. "A fairly maniacal mini-style mechanical keyboard, made domestically," kant wrote, "is an interesting thing." One commenter: "A domestic product, for the first time in a long while. The buying god is coming."

The post closed with a paragraph of context that is worth preserving. Mechanical keyboards, it said, had split from standard layouts into tenkeyless, gaming, wireless and mini; the market had grown on the back of gaming; and compared with ten years earlier it was "no exaggeration to call it a sea change." Ten years earlier, in 2003, KBDMania's own review of the Realforce 101 had opened by lamenting that keyboards had become "the archetypal cheap peripheral."

Why Leopold is in a history of customs

Because the two stories are the same story. Leopold imported the boards the community compared its customs against, then produced the first Korean-made production boards that a custom builder might choose instead. The Realforce 86 and the 356-L shipped in the same week of 2008; the FC660M was announced thirteen months after KMAC. The Korean scene has always had a production brand in the room, and from 2008 it was one that listened to the room. A 2015 best-article post on the differences between FC900R variants, with 76 comments, shows how carefully the room listened back.