Hello Stagazers!

WOW! We can’t express how shocked we are to see how fast everything sold out. We always try to order as much as is needed but it’s easier said than done!

Our plan for this line and all lines after it was always to be better about restocking quickly but we figured for Starfall that we should open pre-orders, especially because of that silly freebie pin issue (sorry!).

We’re always striving to do better and hope you can understand that doing in-stock drops is to alleviate some of the pains and frustrations that come from pre-orders. Not everyone is willing to wait for their order! We’ve found that in-stock launches have been much better for us in many ways, but it seems this is best for this situation.

We’re also recovering from a traumatic pre-order experience earlier this year and were hesitant to open pre-orders again. But you’ve convinced us! Please be gentle. <3

For those who don’t know and in as few words as possible, our pre-order shipment last year was held for ransom. We got lawyers, local authorities, and help from the CBSA but in the end were forced to pay the ransom. It was easily the most stressful time of our lives, but we prevailed and our customers were happy with the end result. Needless to say we were hesitant to do another but we’ve made some changes to the system to prevent it which we've explained later in this post. The silver lining is that we proved we can handle the toughest situations and that your pre-order is safe with us. 💪

So, what can you expect in this pre-order?

TL;DR:

• Starfall Pre-Order: Launches noon August 16, 2024, ends midnight (EST) August 30, 2024.
• Payment: Payment is captured immediately at checkout.
• Refunds & Cancellations: Full refunds to your original payment method accepted before August 30th. Refunds after August 30th are for store credit only.
• Products:
  • Mini Tees fit true to size as they are very stretchy. The garment measurements can be misleading so when in doubt, buy your size or one size up if you want a looser fit.
  • Knit tanks are stretchy but not in the same way as mini tees. Due to the nature of knit, the tanks stretch and will reset when washed. They should be snug when you put them on.
  • Blue Moon items have very similar colours but due to differing materials between items, they do not match exactly the way a jogger set would.
  • Gift cards are still active and are automatically fulfilled as they are a digital, stockless product.
  • All non-Starfall products are disabled until the pre-order ends.
• Risks: Our last pre-order was met with significant delays due to issues out of our control. There’s always a risk of delays with any pre-order. Please be patient and respectful, we’ll make sure you get your order!
• System Changes: Improved shipping process and added buffer time for delays.
• In-Stock Items: Ships immediately if you only ordered in-stock items (jackets and bandanas); if combined with pre-order items, ships together in early 2025.
• Timeline:
  • Pre-order: August 2024
  • Production: September-November 2024
  • Shipping: December-January 2025
  • Fulfillment: February-March 2025
• Updates: Monthly updates in our blog, on socials, and Discord. Major updates posted as they occur.
• Contact: For questions, email hello@carmico.ca or join our Discord.

The Rules

• This is a pre-order, the products must be manufactured before we can fulfill them
• Delivery is expected in Q1 2025
• Expect delays and don't buy with a specific delivery date in mind (i.e. birthdays, Christmas gifts, etc.)
• No refunds; cancellations are only for store credit
• International customers must be aware of applicable import charges
• If you deny delivery you are not entitled to a refund of your shipping fee
• PayPal is disabled due to PayPal policy restrictions; we wish it were different
• You can place a single order for you and your friends to save on shipping but we will not retroactively combine multiple orders
• You accept responsibility for deliveries made to an old address if you fail to update your address before fulfillment

Our experience and contingency plans

• This is our seventh pre-order
• We've worked out a lot of the kinks but there is always room for error and unforeseen circumstances
• Production timelines could get pushed due to recent social media virality
• You will be updated regarding all major timeline changes (read on to learn more)
• We may need to ship in batches and will let you know more about how that works once we get all our numbers together
• Any unforeseen circumstances will be communicated via a blog post, email, and Discord channel updates

In-Stock Items

Items

Jackets and Banadanas

Our jackets and bandanas have huge MOQs (minimum order quantities) so we’ve got some left over from the launch. Rather than add them to the pre-order, they will be ready to ship.

If you order in-stock items with pre-order items

Example: A jacket and joggers

Your entire order will ship once the pre-order items are available in early 2025.

If you order in-stock items without pre-order items

Example: A jacket and a bandana

Your entire order will ship immediately.

We’re doing it this way so that you can get the bigger items and save on shipping, rather than having to put in multiple orders.

Products

Most of you have probably seen all the products already, you may have even been ready to complete your purchase! So we won’t go too far into the details about each of the products; pictures are worth a thousand words, after all.

We have been getting a few questions regarding some of the items, though, so we’ll address those here.

Mini Tees

There’s been a lot of confusion regarding the sizing for the mini tees and this is mostly our fault; we forgot to include a recommended size guide! We’ve done this before with Flashback knit tanks, but it slipped our mind.

It’s now in the size chart of the listings and here for your convenience:

The tees are very stretchy and should fit true to size. So far, all of the people who have worn it have fit nicely into their usual size. When in doubt, get your usual size or size up once for a looser fit!

Blue Moon Items

Another question we’ve gotten is whether blue moon items match each other. The short answer is: mostly.

The long answer:

All of the blue moon items are made with different materials or material blends. The Stargazer Sweaters are cotton-modal, the joggers are cotton, the tees are cotton with spandex, the knits are cotton knit, and so on. No matter how well the dyes are matched, the difference in material will make it so that they don’t match exactly.

For the most part, all blue moon items can be worn together without noticing much of a difference, but don’t expect them to look exactly the same the way that a full jogger set of the same material would.

The most notable differences in colour are in the knit tank and the stargazer sweater since they are a porous knit from a different manufacturer. You will notice in some of the flatlays that the yellow in the knit tank is brighter. Same goes for stargazer sweaters. That’s the biggest difference!

Miscellaneous

Gift cards are still active and are automatically fulfilled as they are a digital, stockless product.

All non-Starfall products are disabled until early September.

Refunds

Think of this like a crowdfunding campaign similar to Kickstarter, except we’re hosting it on our own site. You’re here because you’re passionate about Carmico clothing and understand that, with supporting small businesses, some concessions must be made.

We are not Amazon or any other big corporation. Your refunds and cancellations are more than just a number on a year end report. They affect us magnitudes more than the big guys.

In order to make pre-orders work, we take the money you used to pay for your order and we use it to pay for our manufacturers to produce it. This means if you cancel your order, we have spent money on products that are no longer wanted. Finding new people here and there to pickup where you left off isn’t a big deal, but the reason we don’t allow refunds at all is because doing so opens us up to large scale liability that could seriously damage our business.

If we let one person refund, we have to let everyone refund. So, in the spirit of fairness, original payment method refunds are not allowed for pre-orders. You may cancel for store credit and you can exchange for other sizes while supplies last.

Timeline

We’ve added some extra buffer time for inevitable supply chain delays. We understand 6 months is a long time to wait but our lead times are usually 3-4 months without contingencies. Since production will be starting in peak holiday rush and our upcoming lines will be in production as well, we’re hoping to under-promise and over-deliver.

August 16th-August 30th: Pre-order

Early September-Early December 2024: Production

Mid December 2024-Mid February 2025: Shipping

Late February 2025: Fulfillment

Early March 2025: Pre-order Complete!

Risks

Our most recent pre-order (the one we paid a ransom to get a hold of) delivered 3 months later than expected.

We’ve run 7 pre-orders before this one. One of them was delayed due to a system migration error, another due to Black Friday fulfillment blackouts from our warehouse. These delays only pushed the timeline by a couple of weeks but it’s still something to be aware of. The rest delivered on time or early!

There are always challenges with pre-orders but we like to be as transparent as possible. We’ve learned a lot from all of our pre-orders and hope that this one can go without a hitch.

Risk Mitigation

We believe in solutions and are proactive towards potential issues. Since the ransom, we’ve learned a lot. This time we’re taking control of the shipping process instead of leaving it up to the manufacturers. We have a retained a trusted importer that helped us through the ransom earlier this year.

They are a registered Canadian business of which we have granted power of attorney, which basically means they act on our behalf. The contracts we have with them hold them accountable for their promised services, and legally bind us in a business agreement, something we only had with our manufacturer last time. This gives us so much more leverage in court in the unlikely situation that they were also a bad actor.

For what it's worth, other indie brands don't handle importing themselves and could be subjected to the same situation we were in. This is just an extra measure to make it as unlikely as possible.

Updates

We will post updates in our blog, on our social platforms, and in our Discord at the beginning of every month. The updates won’t always be significant, but we want to keep you updated and let you know we haven’t forgotten about you.

In addition to guaranteed monthly updates, we will also post updates regarding major developments.

We’ll always let you know when the next guaranteed update will be so you aren’t left hanging.

Final Words

As always, thank you so much for the overwhelming support and for considering Carmico as a brand you can trust! Your ongoing support is beyond appreciated. Las time we made a post like this we had a smaller team. Since then, we've gone from a team of 4 to 8. You've helped Selina realize her dreams as an artist and, vicariously, the livelihood of our small yet mighty (and growing) team.

We can't wait to spend more time with you! We now have a community Discord where we'll share pre-order updates as well head on over if that's something you're interested in.

We announce new features like the community Discord, new products and launches, and other cool things to our email subscribers. If you missed the pop-up to subscribe, you can open it again by clicking the button at the bottom right. We're not spammy and you can tailor your email preferences so you only get content you care about. 💌

As always, thank you so much for the overwhelming support!

If you have any questions, please direct them to our support email, hello@carmico.ca or join our Discord and post in #questions.

Happy shopping!

Until next time,

The CarmiCrew