Attention PR folks: On average, I get about 100 pitch e-mails a day, and most of them get ignored. But this is how you get my attention:
SUBJECT: What do bulletproof vest and our charging cable have in common?
Hello Lee,
We at Nonda have developed an indestructible charging cable.
Introducing the ZUS charging cable built with Kevlar by DuPont with lifetime warranty.
The cable in question comes in USB-C, micro-USB, and Apple Lightning forms. It's also currently the subject of an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that has massively exceeded its $10,000 funding goal (it’s up to about $157,000 this morning, about $10,000 more than it had yesterday). The standout feature, Nonda PR says, is the set of Kevlar reinforcements that run through the cable’s core, strengthening it and in theory preventing it from tearing or breaking on repeated bending.
Normally it takes something extraordinary for me to write up a crowdfunding campaign, and I certainly don’t often do it for phone accessories, but this was an exception—unlike most other crowdfunding campaigns, Nonda actually had product to send out for review.
So I asked for a cable. I’m going to be honest here: I did not benchmark the cable. I didn’t check it for RF leaks or ground problems or shielding issues. I didn’t run over it with my car or hook it up to a robot bend arm to try to see how many times it could flex without breaking. I didn’t even plug it into anything—not a single device.
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The ZUS cable next to our suppressed FN Five-seven MK2 pistol.Lee Hutchinson
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The Five-seven takes its name from the 5.7x28mm necked cartridges it fires. These green-tipped rounds are SS198LF lead-free cartridges, with a muzzle velocity of about 2,500 fps (about 760 m/s). One standard Five-seven magazine holds twenty rounds.Lee Hutchinson
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In spite of the marketing copy talking up the cable's Kevlar content, the ZUS is sheathed in black nylon. The Kevlar is on the inside.Lee Hutchinson
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The cable features Kevlar strings running lengthwise to buff the cable's resistance to bending, tearing, and pulling.
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The results are pretty much what I expected. Where the rounds hit, the cable was shredded. (The visible residue on the cables is the glue I had to use to affix the cable to the posterboard.)Lee Hutchinson
I just glued it to a piece of posterboard, took it to the local shooting range, and blew it to pieces.
The marketing song and dance about the "Kevlar" cable and the whole "What does our cable have in common with bulletproof vests?" just couldn’t stand. As a journalist, I need to speak truth to power, and this was some power that needed a talkin’ to. Also, this was a great excuse to expense a range trip and some ammunition.
As it turns out, the ZUS cable might contain some Kevlar, but it is not in any way bulletproof. Not even a little bit. One magazine of twenty 5.7x28mm rounds was sufficient to disassociate it into component bits. In Nonda’s defense, the company certainly never outright claimed the cable was bulletproof, but here at Ars, we like to leave no proverbial stone unturned.
Lesson learned: if you want your product featured on Ars Technica, a pitch e-mail implying that it might be able to stand up to a hail of bullets will definitely get you a leg up.
Listing image by Lee Hutchinson
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