Yea, there's something odd about kickstarter. The creators of the project offer some kind of "reward" for backing the project, but the backers get no stake in future profits (at least not by default). I guess that could be one of the rewards, but in the case of the Tigr Lock, the rewards were the locks. If you look at the price of the locks for backers, they're a bit on the high side. I doubt they will be able to retail the locks for the same price. It was worth it to me to get it early since I commute to work and hate the weight of a u-lock.