Hey all. Lemme tell you, I've had a great week, just fantastic. Getting my right to vote stripped while my business gets dragged out back and ol' yellered by heinous tariffs? Spending hours trying to explain to my incredulous mum who's lived in this country since she was 7 that she needs to be careful about what she puts on facebook because she could get her green card revoked? Seeing that the shiverpigs on the leash of the guy who called me a figment of imagination are getting turned loose on "illegal ideas?"
(derogatory)
Never been better. Anyway. Any of you with the misfortune of living in the same country as me, you already know the shape and stink of all these fires, so I won't keep preaching to the choir. Manufacturing for the most important product of the campaign, the bags, has NOT been completed, and as such there is absolutely 0 chance I can get them staggered and shipped express to race de minimis. That means I need to adapt to the worst.
I am switching to a China-based fulfillment partner, specifically NextSmartShip.
Any goods that are not already stateside (lanyards, plush keychains, mini bags, neon dino bags, and zebra bags,) will be fulfilled by my new partners overseas. This is a fresh deal that I just confirmed Wednesday night and I am still in the process of being onboarded. What this means for anyone waiting on these items: Shipping mixed orders:
Domestic backers, you will only be paying for a single shipping cost even if some of your items are fulfilled by this fulfillment partner and some are received by me. I will be shipping you any second packages at my own cost.
International backers, I will be contacting you when fulfillment time comes if the tariffs China has placed on imports from the US are still in place. We will figure something out then. If those tariffs are lifted, I will be shipping stock to the China based warehouse so it can be included in a single package.
Paying tariffs:
EVERYONE WHO HAS BACKED OR PRE-ORDERED, your paid total will not be getting raised. I will not be charging you more.
International backers, you will not have to pay any tariffs pertaining to the current situation.
Domestic backers, whenever orders come in you will have to pay whatever tariff is in place yourself, if any, for the items you receive fulfilled by the China based warehouse.
Anyone who hasn't already backed, if the pre-order store re-opens it will be with adjusted pricing, but whenever your order is actually placed that pricing will be locked in for you.
I have still left cards uncharged for shipping despite locked orders, and I will be doing so for as long as is reasonable since this whole situation has been changing so rapidly.
With any luck by the time our fulfillment window actually arrives all this tariff stuff will be figured out and done, but I'm not holding my breath. Once manufacturing is complete, if tariffs are lifted or suspended with a believable certainty on how long it will last, I will be moving everything in the China warehouse to the US warehouse on my dime for domestic fulfillment to ease shipping costs or risks of tariffs being inflicted again. This won't be immediate because I know better than to think minds won't get changed, especially after a week like this.
If we reach fulfillment time and all this is still going on, all domestic backers with packages that would be fulfilled from the China warehouse will have 2 options:
Receive your order knowing that you are responsible for any tariffs incurred.
Receive a gift card for Lairbrew.com equal to your total.
This isn't me being greedy or selfish. I have seen a lot of creators promising their US backers won't be paying for tariff fees, but I beg you to please understand there is a huge difference in unit cost between a pin and a plush. As it is, with this project + the 800 kobolds I funded out of pocket on the way, I would currently be on the hook for over 30 thousand dollars that I do not have. That's minimum size orders for just 10 plush/bag designs. If I don't re-direct these goods to the warehouse they will sit unclaimed until they are destroyed. Even if I cancelled production right now we are far enough along that I would not be refunded for a single cent, so I can't just do that, blanket refund everyone, and close the project. This is me doing the best I can with the cards I have been dealt.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO MAKE A DECISION RIGHT NOW, AND IN FACT SHOULD NOT! Things are changing a lot and who knows what it will be like months from now! This is just the current plan, and it is worth thinking on a bit.
Now for another break from the doom & gloom, I've got some more completed prototypes for you to see!! Mako Chow was the first completed, but now Bear Chow and Alley Chow are done too!
ALLEY CHOW!
Smaller drip on one side
The embroidered lid
Trash goop at the bottom
Alley chow didn't turn out as metallic as originally intended, but lookit it standing by itself! Wow! I'm very happy with how this one turned out and am curious to see how big it is in person. It is made in the same manner as the other bags, but holds its shape a lot better.
This poor salmon looks a bit overfed
The meat front
Poor Bear Chow doesn't look too good without anything inside it. That is one of the downsides with these bags, they prioritize space over empty appearance, so they look a lil saggy with no filling. But I look forward to getting it in hand here at home and filling it up to see how it looks! The front is more of a preview of what it would be like without the effects of gravity weighing it down.
With those two all the bags currently in prototyping are complete! Poor Royal Chow was unpopular enough that I didn't send it in for this. With how things are I am holding off on placing an order for any of these just yet. I don't want to start production on anything new until stuff is more stable and we can better understand what is going on. I will be sharing if/when anything else goes to production because enough dust has cleared.
Anyway. Sorry for the long and gloomy update, y'all. Please be safe out there and make sure to take as many little moments of joy for yourself as you can possibly find. Thank you all for supporting the project, and I'm sorry that things are going to what they are. See you soon!
