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Manteca couple adds organic feel & look to Mac keyboards
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A Manteca husband and wife team are adding beauty to function when it comes to Mac keyboards.

Created by Helena and Dustin Harris, Kick Butt Keys provides Mac users of all types with colorful and durable real wood key covers — that’s right, real wood — meant to protect your Mac investment while maintaining seamless functionality.

These key cover sets are laser cut using a high-precision laser, ensuring a perfect fit with the existing keys of any desktop or laptop Mac keyboard. Users are able to select whether they would or wouldn’t prefer the backlight from their keyboards to shine through the wood covers. At only 1/42 of an inch thick, these natural keys offer the smell, feel, and durability of wood without harming — in fact protecting — the original keys, while making no contact with the laptop’s screen. Hand-stained in one of eight different color options, there is a set to match everyone’s taste.

Kick Butt Keys are made using Maple wood from all over the United States, with most of the products handcrafted from sustainable resources harvested in Illinois and Wisconsin — for every one tree cut down, three are planted.

Backed with a strong, yet removable and repositionable 3M adhesive, each cover will stick on until the user decides to remove them and will not damage the original keys when removed. This organic addition provides the perfect contrast to the sleek and industrial look of the Mac keyboard, and with a price-point starting at just $25, these one-of-a-kind additions to the everyday are not far out of reach.

Currently available only through the California couple’s Kickstarter campaign “Kick Butt Keys”, the opportunity to reserve a set in time for the holidays will expire at the campaign’s close at 10 a.m. on Nov. 4. With delivery promised for mid-December, these limited-time, unique accessories offer the perfect holiday gift for all Mac-lovers alike.

Returning to work after welcoming their daughter, Emma, into the world in May 2015, the duo used scaled keyboard photos and CorelDRAW to create a rough draft of the design, printed the design on laser printer-friendly clear plastic transparencies and held the print over the keys of each of the different types of Mac keyboards; adjusting each design until it was just right. Working with a friend who did laser engraving, the couple created their prototypes.

Using a Kickstarter campaign, the Harrises became part of a global group of artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and other creators — 9 million strong — with the hope of bringing their creation to life.

For more information on Kick Butt Keys, and to reserve a visit www.kickbuttkeys.com.