We may all love Liberty Walk’s F40 bodykit for the Autozam AZ-1, but the company offers a kit for the genuine article Ferrari F40 too — a kit that Liberty Walk has now decided to honor with a mechanical keyboard collab. I know, that sounds absurd, but it’s actually more fitting than you might think.
There’s a massive crossover between car enthusiasts and keyboard enthusiasts. Sure, to many the idea of a “keyboard enthusiast” sounds comical, but the same can be said for car folks in the greater world. We all like intricate engineering projects that are dismissed by others as mere appliances. I’m not just saying this to justify my approximately five keyboards. That’s a reasonable number of keyboards to own, I swear.
The keyboard is a collab between Liberty Walk and Original Konbini, a brand that doesn’t appear to exist outside the collab. Its Instagram account has no posts before the Liberty Walk keyboard, and its website requires a password for anything more than submitting your email for keyboard updates. “Konbini” comes from the Japanese convenience store, but transliterating the Original Konbini name into hiragana returns no results. The Drive, however, has some more info:
“This is a piece of JDM heritage that lives on your desk,” said Caleb Chandra, co-founder of Original Konbini. “We want to bring the passion and beautiful modifications of these machines to your space, an extension of love for one of the most iconic builds in recent JDM history.”
As for the keyboard itself, its case is made from two milled blocks of aluminum that were then coated in an off-white color similar to the tuner’s F40. It uses low-profile mechanical switches and keycaps, but there’s no word on who makes them or their specs. The only switch detail provided is that they’re tactile switches, meaning they have a noticeable engagement point that you can feel in the keystroke. However, we do know it’s a wired USB-C keyboard with RGB backlighting and a 75%-ish profile. For non-keyboard nerds, the latter means that it has function and arrow keys but no number pad or page-up and page-down buttons. The Liberty Walk livery looks great, too, with its simple black-over-white main keys, black space bar with “Slammed” on it, and the Japanese flag on the enter key.
That name, Caleb Chandra, gives us a bit more information to go on. Chandra is also the founder of sleek keyboard outfit Monokei, but none of that company’s PCBs seem to match up with the new Original Konbini layout. The Kei seems closest, but it’s missing a button in the first row — the Liberty Walk board looks original.
Most interesting is the claim of low-profile tactile switches and RGB lighting. That could mean the board uses Gateron low-profile SMD-compatible switches, either in brown or banana flavor. My daily driver board — a custom handwired Alice-style split 60 percent — uses full-profile Gateron Milky Browns, and they’re an excellent switch. This Liberty Walk collab may end up feeling as good as it looks.
The worlds of cars and keyboards aren’t so different, and if this Liberty Walk collab bridges that gap then it could mean more fans of both communities. I, for one, think that’s a plus.
