We began in early 2021 when our founder purchased his first VR headset, the Valve Index. He was enthusiastic about using it for gaming and experimenting with VR development project ideas. Unfortunately, he soon realized that the headset was uncomfortable because the face gasket was too narrow for his face.

This initiated our search for a 'wider' face gasket. We soon discovered that there were no options available for purchase. Several aftermarket products we tried simply used the same plastic frame with thinner padding, which was still too narrow and was even less comfortable. It became evident that we would need to pursue a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach, following in the footsteps of others who had shared their experiences online.

As we progressed with our DIY project, we realized that there were many more design factors involved than simply the overall width of the gasket. The design had to take the shape of the face into consideration fully to prevent localized pressure points. A symmetric gasket design combined with a not so perfectly symmetrical face could result in misalignment of eyes in respect to the VR system’s lenses, even after the IPD adjustment. There were also new opportunities, such as designing the individual gasket to bring a face as close forward as possible for a better field-of-view (FOV), rather than designing in a large clearance to ensure that all faces fit without interference. Additionally, we could incorporate a slight downward or upward tilt to prevent interference and bring the face even closer to the lenses, inspired by the "magnet stacking" trick within the Index community.

Of course, this went way beyond reasonable scope for a DIY project and morphed into a professional project where the goal was not only designing a more perfect face gasket for ourselves, but also doing so for others. Achieving this required a design and manufacturing process that was efficiently, scalably, repeatably, and consistently executed. As importantly, the customers would need to be able to easily place orders for their custom gaskets, which would involve easily capturing face geometry information and ideally having the opportunity to visualize the custom designs before placing orders.

By late 2021, we had assembled the necessary components, including a third-party face scanning iOS app, to conduct a small-scale trial with several courageous Index owners who answered our call asking for beta testers. The overwhelmingly positive feedback motivated us to persist in our efforts, which now included the development of an iOS app capable of managing not only the face scanning process but also the complete end-to-end ordering process including visualization of custom designs to which we now refer as Virtual Prototypes. We also extended our support to design and manufacture custom facial interfaces for Meta Quest 2, with plans to introduce custom gaskets for additional VR systems in the near future.

On September 8, 2023, we officially launched both the business and the app! We cannot wait to work with the VR community and get the feedback on our designs. We are steadfast in our commitment to ongoing improvement and innovation, always pursuing that ever-elusive 'more perfect' VR face gasket.