Community

Hey everyone!!

We’ve got HUGE news — and it’s the one we’ve been waiting for all this time after the recent USA shipping changes:
we finally received official approval for our DDP shipping contract!!! 🎉🎉

👉 It means we can finally resume shipping to the USA for all the in-hand products for this campaign — including all the ready-to-go Bin Buddies packages we had already packed and labeled!

Yes, you read that right:
Many of your rewards were already packed, labeled, and ready to leave our studio... but they were forced to sit still due to the new US import tariffs (aka the Trump Tariffs crisis we’ve mentioned before). 😩

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We’ve seen some of you asking:
“Couldn’t you have just sent it and asked us to pay the extra fees?”

We totally get the question, and we want to clarify:
This wasn’t just about charging more at the time.

💥 All couriers had completely suspended the usual (DDU) shipping method we always used (and that most likely everyone uses). It was no longer allowed at all for parcels headed to the US. We couldn’t send anything — unless we had a valid DDP shipping contract.
And... we didn’t have one.

It took weeks of documents, applications, rejections, back-and-forth emails, and so much emotional energy…
but in the end, we did it.
We now officially have a DDP contract and we’re finalizing the technical setup with our shipping platform. 🧠⚙️

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This new DDP method means that Customs charges will now be pre-paid and added upfront to your Backerkit shipping cost.
This ensures smooth, fast delivery with no surprise charges at your door.

❗Even if you’ve already paid for your shipping in the past, this extra Customs fee will still need to be charged via the surveys before we can ship your parcel.
Without it, unfortunately, the package can’t leave — so please make sure to complete the payment in your survey!

We’ve done our best to keep these added costs as low and fair as possible, using the official import tariff percentages that apply to each product category. 💌

✅ Meanwhile, all European parcels containing ready in-hand products have already been shipped out — so this only affects US backers for now!

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Since so many Bin Buddies rewards were already labeled under the old system, we’ll need to re-label everything from scratch using the new method.
It’s more work — but honestly, we’re just relieved we can finally start fulfilling again.
We’ll begin re-labeling and shipping out as soon as the system is fully ready!

📸 But just so you see how close we were…

We were literally ready to go.

These shelves you see here? 👀✨  
We had just bought and assembled them with care months ago, organizing every hoodie and jogger by size and design to make the process smooth and fast — because we were finally about to start fulfilling the apparel rewards!

All the sorting, folding, packing... was done. Our studio was ready.

But then the new shipping restrictions hit. And everything had to pause. 💔


>Please also know this:  
 It’s not like we were sitting around doing nothing while these rewards were ready. We wanted to ship them. We were ready. But we couldn’t — and we spent all this time trying to find a way. The issues we faced were real, serious, and way beyond our control. We’ll begin re-labeling and shipping out as soon as the system is fully ready!

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We know the delays have been painful.
Trust us: they’ve been devastating on our side too.
The past couple of years have been a constant, unexpected battle — with logistics, health, and emotional struggles.

There were moments when everything felt hopeless.
When this campaign (and others) could have been abandoned.
But we chose not to.
We chose to keep going, even when it meant pouring in personal time, money, and emotional energy.

We even chose not to declare bankruptcy just to walk away from it all — even though we probably could have.
Instead, we kept going, sacrificing our own savings and personal dreams, like being able to travel (we’ve taken only one trip in our whole lives tbh!) or one day having a house of our own. That’s how much this project (all our projects) — and you — mean to us.

We’re still here, still working to bring this project to life 'til the end — and that alone should tell you how much it matters to us. 🥹
Because fulfilling such a huge campaign as Bin Buddies isn’t just a duty... it’s a dream we still want to complete. And we will.

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If you’re feeling upset or disappointed, your feelings are absolutely valid — we just kindly ask that you share your thoughts with empathy, sensitivity, and respect, as always.

Even a critical message can be helpful and constructive —
as long as it’s expressed in a way that acknowledges our humanity and effort.

On the other hand, every message of support, every kind comment, every cheerful word —
they lift us up more than you can imagine.
They give us the strength to keep moving forward, even through the hardest days. 💛

We read all your comments and messages, even if we can’t always reply.
The supportive ones boost us — the harsh ones weigh us down more than they should, especially when they ignore how hard we’re trying.
We know it may sound repetitive to bring up our personal struggles, but we do it to remind you that we’re human too.
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We also know that all our updates have still been quite sparse — and we’re genuinely sorry for that.
Communication is a huge struggle for us, and it’s something we’re still constantly working to improve.
So if you're ever wondering about an update, please feel free to ask us... just do it gently! It might even help us — giving us that little spark of urgency that we often lack, even with all the tools, reminders, and systems we’ve put in place.
Especially when there are no major updates to share, we often fall silent... but we’re still here, working.
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And just so you know — we ALSO personally can't wait to finally fulfill this campaign either!! (And all our other "pending" ones)
Not just because it's a dream we want to complete, but because only once the rewards are all fulfilled... can we finally start listing these items in our shops. 
And that’s the only moment when we actually start earning something from them.

Campaigns like this one are meant to help us fund the production (if all goes well) — not to make profit. 
And lately, many of them ended up costing more than expected... which means we had to cover the difference ourselves, from personal savings.

So yes — we're absolutely looking forward to the day we can say: **it's done!!!**. 
Not just to close a chapter, but to finally be able to move forward — as artists, as a small brand, as people.

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More updates coming soon — including manufacturer's pins packing progress (with hopefully also photos of the progress attached 🤞) and new timelines! We plan to also make a "recap" update of the current situation soon~
We'll be making new updates on our other open campaigns as well! So please stay tuned 💝


Thank you again for sticking with us through all of this.


May your Holidays be filled with warmth, rest, and tiny joys🎄— to everyone who celebrates, and even to those simply enjoying a quiet moment. 🧸❤️
— Inari & Mako 🐾

Hi everyone,
This is the update we’ve been waiting to write.

The enamel pins are officially on their way to us!!!! 😭🚚✨

After the final packaging stage of packaging was completed at the manufacturer, everything has now been shipped out and is currently traveling to us!! 🥹 

Seeing them all packed together like this honestly hit us harder than we expected. 🥺
All the Trash babies lined up. All the colors. All the variants. Every single one individually bagged/packed and finally ready 😭
After everything this campaign has gone through… seeing them like this feels very real.
Seeing all the characters gathered like this and ready — every variant, every expression, every little detail we worked on — made the whole journey feel worth it.

Each pin is now:
• fully finished
• individually packed
• backing cards included for some variants
• customized blind bags for other variants
Now they just need to arrive safely to us. 🥹🤞
The shipment is traveling by sea, so transit time is naturally slower — as many of you already know.


As soon as they’re in our hands, we’ll:
– start our own quality checks
– organize all the pins inside the studio
– prepare for the next fulfillment steps

In parallel, we’re continuing to work on the Shopify / BackerKit integration situation mentioned in the previous update.
We’re actively evaluating the best path forward and possible workarounds.
Depending on the solution we move forward with, the fulfillment phase may require different processing steps and timelines.
Once the pins are here and everything has been checked and organized, we’ll provide a clear Fulfillment Roadmap based on the final setup in place.

We’re not sharing timelines just yet — we want to wait until they’re physically here and we’ve assessed everything properly. That said, we’re confident the remaining steps won’t take much longer once they’re safely in our hands.

But this is a huge milestone.
For a long time this project has felt like endless obstacles — new shipping regulations, manufacturer ghostings and delays, multiple added costs, system changes, technical blocks.
This part though? This is tangible progress.
They exist. They’re real. They’re coming home. And we're so incredibly excited 🥹


We’ll update you again as soon as they arrive in our hands.


Thank you for still being here with us.
— Inari & Mako 🐾

We’re currently dealing with a technical issue affecting all our fulfillment processes, including Bin Buddies.
As part of the relabeling process (following the new Tariffs requirements), we’ve run into an unexpected block that’s temporarily preventing us from moving forward with address handling and label creation for the rewards that were already packed.

We’re based in Italy, and we’ve always relied on a system where we export your Backerkit orders directly into Shopify, cause this is the only way for us to generate shipping labels and process international parcels through our shipping platform.

However, Shopify has just rolled out a major change in January 2026:
they completely removed the legacy app system that Backerkit (and other platforms like Zapier or Printful) used to connect directly to Shopify.
This means that the connection between Backerkit and Shopify is temporarily broken — and without it, we can’t generate shipping labels or send rewards, even if they're ready to go.
We’re working directly with Backerkit to fix it and will resume fulfillment as soon as it’s resolved.

Over the past weeks, we’ve been actively working to understand and resolve the problem, and we were hoping to have it fixed sooner. Unfortunately, it’s taken longer than expected, and Backerkit is still actively working on it on their end too.

We also want to acknowledge how exhausting this has been — for many of you, and for us as well.
We know it can feel overwhelming to read about yet another delay or unexpected issue, especially after such a long wait.
Unfortunately, the beginning of each year often brings major system and policy changes across platforms, and they’re rarely smooth or creator-friendly. For us, this is even more challenging because we’re based in Italy and don’t have the same range of alternative tools, platforms, or fulfillment options that US-based creators often have access to.
Despite all of this, our commitment to this project hasn’t changed. We’re still here, still working through every obstacle we can, even if progress and our communication have been slower and more complicated than anyone hoped — including us.

A quick note on communication: we do read all comments, emails, and messages, but we may not always be able to reply to each one individually.
Many questions overlap, and in some cases we’re still actively figuring things out. When we’re deeply focused on resolving ongoing issues and coordinating solutions, it also becomes harder to keep up with frequent replies and updates.
For this reason, responses may be selective, but this is never meant to ignore or dismiss anyone. And we also prefer to wait until we have clear and accurate information to share rather than replying prematurely/quickly.
We truly appreciate your patience and understanding.


Thank you again for sticking with us through such a long and complicated journey.
We know this hasn’t been the experience anyone hoped for, and we don’t take your patience for granted.
We’re continuing to push forward step by step, and as soon as we have clear confirmation or concrete progress to share, we’ll update you right away.
Bin Buddies still matters deeply to us, and we remain fully committed to seeing this project through to completion.