You’ve read our product reviews, you’ve found our website and you have all your details ready to get yourself the best commuter backpack that money can buy – only to realise that the product you wanted is out of stock and there is a waiting list. What the hell guys??
Why out of stock?
As a boutique manufacturer, we only run small scale productions with our partner factories. This is primarily to manage and control the quality of our products but also, to keep our independent business afloat.
We grow with our community of athletes and commuters. This means that for every new production round we try to increase the volumes to meet the steadily rising demand for our products but in order to do that, we need to sell our existing stock first for cash flow. That cash is then invested in the new, slightly bigger production and to pay our partners.
This results in a time gap between when the previous stock has been sold and when the new stock is ready to ship, leaving us out of stock usually for 1 or 2 months.
Why waiting lists?
The next step for us is to figure out which products are going to be re-produced. This is usually a pretty simple exercise as we don’t do seasonal collections and all our core products are bestsellers and therefore, will go in to production again.
Once that has been decided we open waitlists to communicate to our community any news regarding these products and expected launch timings. People on the waiting lists also get a pre-order priority which is especially relevant when it comes to new, limited stock products like Stolt Athlete.
It is simply first come, first served. New products are offered first to the people who have been on the waiting list the longest and then to the most recent joiners before opening orders to everyone on our website.
Why pre-orders?
Once all the details have been locked with our manufacturing partners and we have a launch date, we will open the products for pre-orders.
If you buy your Stolt before we start production, it helps us in a myriad of ways. In return, we give you a discounted price. This way we are able to pay for our production and slowly (but surely) grow our business to serve more athletes and commuters around the world.
Here’s to a great next production round and a new product drop in March! Stay tuned!
