Quirkory
CREATOR
6 months ago
Project Update: 🇺🇸📦 Important update for all our US backers/customers
We wish this wasn’t the update we had to write today, we're devastated. But sadly, like many other small businesses based outside the US, we’re being forced to temporarily suspend all shipments to the USA, effective immediately —until further notice.
This decision is not voluntary, nor temporary out of convenience. Due to new international trade restrictions, and following a formal notice from our shipping carrier, all DDU (unpaid customs) services to the U.S. have been suspended starting August 23, 2025.
This comes in response to the abolition of the de minimis import exemption pushed by the Trump administration, which will make every single international package — regardless of its value — subject to sudden and severe customs fees, often between $80 and $200.
Worse still, there’s no infrastructure in place for small businesses like ours to cover or pre-pay these fees the same and with DDU service removed by our courier, we physically cannot ship to the US for now — even if we wanted to.
This comes in response to the abolition of the de minimis import exemption pushed by the Trump administration, which will make every single international package — regardless of its value — subject to sudden and severe customs fees, often between $80 and $200.
Worse still, there’s no infrastructure in place for small businesses like ours to cover or pre-pay these fees the same and with DDU service removed by our courier, we physically cannot ship to the US for now — even if we wanted to.
👉 What this means for us:
As a brand whose customer base is over 89% U.S. based, it’s not just an inconvenience. It’s literally devastating.
💔 How this affects us — and why we’re heartbroken
If you've been following us for a while, you already know: the past two years have been incredibly hard and emotionally heavy.
But 2024… 2024 has been the hardest year of our lives.
We went through multiple heartbreaking losses, one after another.
Our 4 beloved companions got sick, one by one. We fought for them. We sacrificed sleep, comfort, and thousands in medical expenses to give them the best possible care — but we lost them anyway.
And with every loss, a piece of us broke too.
And at the same time, we were trying to keep our work alive.
If you've been following us for a while, you already know: the past two years have been incredibly hard and emotionally heavy.
But 2024… 2024 has been the hardest year of our lives.
We went through multiple heartbreaking losses, one after another.
Our 4 beloved companions got sick, one by one. We fought for them. We sacrificed sleep, comfort, and thousands in medical expenses to give them the best possible care — but we lost them anyway.
And with every loss, a piece of us broke too.
And at the same time, we were trying to keep our work alive.
Work, which had always been our one steady ground — suddenly turned into chaos too — and completely crumbled.
Our long-time trusted manufacturers, who had never let us down before, began failing us in ways we never imagined: delayed communications, endless waiting. We were left with months of silence, and no choice but to start over from scratch.
We had to test new unknown suppliers — and ended up with defective products.
We lost money, time, energy. We had to redo entire collections multiple times, spending every last cent we had.
Every last bit of our personal savings vanished in the whole process.
Our long-time trusted manufacturers, who had never let us down before, began failing us in ways we never imagined: delayed communications, endless waiting. We were left with months of silence, and no choice but to start over from scratch.
We had to test new unknown suppliers — and ended up with defective products.
We lost money, time, energy. We had to redo entire collections multiple times, spending every last cent we had.
Every last bit of our personal savings vanished in the whole process.
We were physically and emotionally exhausted — and as we kept trying to stay afloat, the multiple burnouts we were facing, eventually turned into physical illness.
Still — we kept going. We kept creating.
Because we kept telling ourselves:
Still — we kept going. We kept creating.
Because we kept telling ourselves:
“As soon as we get all the items, if WE just work extra hard, if we give it our all, we’ll finally be able to ship everything and get back on track.”
But now… this.
A decision completely out of our hands — cutting us off from the country where most of our customers live.
This new law is like a giant wall placed between us and you — our supporters, our community.
A decision completely out of our hands — cutting us off from the country where most of our customers live.
This new law is like a giant wall placed between us and you — our supporters, our community.
We’ve always been transparent with you, and today is no different:
👉 This is not just a shipping issue. This is about our entire livelihood.
👉 Not just our work, but our ability to survive — to eat, to pay rent, to afford care for our last living animal still with us (only our bunny Mini-kun is left).
And it’s not something we can climb over with just more effort.
It’s out of our hands.
🛠️ So what now? This is NOT the end.
It’s out of our hands.
🛠️ So what now? This is NOT the end.
We want to be very clear about one thing:
This is not permanent. This is not “the end”, for now.
We are still committed to doing everything in our power to make all the rewards happen, and we hold on to hope that things will work out. For now, it’s a pause, not a goodbye.
We’re working on trying to find solutions — actively — and we are fully committed to bringing this project and all our creations to life as much as we possibly can, even if this adds to the already huge delays.
Here’s what we’re doing already:
🌀 We're exploring alternative routes (like DDP or intermediate delivery hubs, PO box reroutes)
🌀 We're planning to speak directly with US-based fulfillment centers/warehouses
🌀 And yes — we will continue the currently ongoing production wherever possible. We are fully committed to creating every single item we promised, even if shipping will be extremely delayed.
🌀 Additionally, any new campaigns we had in the works will now be postponed, suspended, or blocked for US backers until there is more clarity. This breaks our hearts, but it’s the only thing we can do
We know this might sound like a lot of uncertainty — but please know this:
💬 We are not giving up. Not on you. Not on what we built. Not on this dream.
And beyond the immediate crisis, here’s what we are planning for the future, in order to stay afloat and avoid complete shutdown:
- We may set up US-based print-on-demand options for some of our creations
- We’ll soon open digital versions of many of our works — from wallpapers to coloring pages to art printables
- We’re planning to reopen limited shipping for certain flat items like stickers or prints using flat mail (which seems to be exempt — for now)
- Most importantly: we’re also working on coloring books through Amazon’s direct print service. This is something we had already started developing, and now more than ever it feels like the right path — turning our art into something therapeutic and accessible worldwide.
🌱 How you can help (if you want to):
We are a two-person, neurodivergent team. We work from a tiny room, trying to create beauty and connection despite the chaos around us.
And right now, we’re at risk of losing everything we’ve built — and everything we’ve survived to keep alive.
If you want to help us make it through this:
💾 Support our upcoming digital releases — we’re making many of our designs available in digital/printable form (wallpapers, sheets, planners, etc)
✉️ Grab stickers or prints — when we’ll reopen flat mail shipping for US customers (as soon as we’ve adjusted the shop)
📣 Engage with our posts on socials: leave a kind comment, send a message, or share our work — a kind word goes a long, long way... it means more than you know
🌍 If you’re outside the US — your continued support is more crucial than ever! And we thank you deeply for being here 🫶
🎁 Even symbolic support helps us keep going
Please stay with us. Your patience, your presence, your faith in what we do… it’s everything.
And we'll do our best to keep you updated, as clearly and as honestly as possible.
Right now, we’re hurting. We’re tired. And yes, we’re scared.
But we’re still here — because of you.
And we will fight, with all we have, to keep creating and delivering the magic you believed in when you chose to support us.
💬 Last but not least: thank you.
Right now, we’re hurting. We’re tired. And yes, we’re scared.
But we’re still here — because of you.
And we will fight, with all we have, to keep creating and delivering the magic you believed in when you chose to support us.
💬 Last but not least: thank you.
Thank you for believing in us. For staying, for waiting, for understanding.
We’re doing our best, even when we’re at our worst.
And this time — we really, really need your help to get through it.
This is not goodbye.
It’s a pause, while we fight to make things work.
From the bottom of our hearts:
Thank you for being here. Thank you for still caring.
With all our love (and all our hope),
Inari & Mako 🐄 💔🖤
quirkory
Inari & Mako 🐄 💔🖤
quirkory
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