Update #5: Production complete, a new fulfillment center, and ocean freight
Hello Stargazers!
Our last update was optimistic but a tad sad. We’re excited to share some amazing news for the future of Carmico and, of course, your pre-orders!
Production complete!
As mentioned in the previous blog, Stargazer Sweaters had just wrapped up production, and the remaining items were about half way done. As of May 22nd, all production has been completed! 🥳
Sea freight
Normally with news like this, we’d also share news about sea freight, but we’ve been hard at work through all of May to secure a US-based warehouse before we started shipping. (We need an address to ship to, after all!) While non-US orders will be going to our Canadian warehouse, not the new US warehouse, we still need to arrange new shipping terms with a local partner. We’ve previously given all delivery responsibilities to our manufacturers, but we had no visibility on the process, which left room for corruption in the supply chain. With increased border scrutiny, we wanted to make sure there was as little risk as possible. Moving forward, we’re taking full control of our shipments so we have full visibility on the freight network. If all goes according to plan, we’ll have the product moving onto boats next week.
Timeline
Despite some of the challenges we’ve faced this month, we’re still on track to be within this timeline.
Here’s a callback to our launch post for estimated timelines:
- February 28th - March 14th: Pre-order
- Late March - Early May: Production
- Mid May - Mid July: Shipping
- Early August: Fulfillment
- Late August: Pre-order Complete!
New US-based warehouse
As with most of the year so far, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, but we’re on the up right now. We’ve been in meeting after meeting with contacts in and out of our supply chain to secure the best possible option for US fulfillment. As of this post, we have short-listed two 3PLs and will make a decision by the end of day today or tomorrow. Once that happens, we’ll move everything onto a boat as fast as we can.
Full disclosure, in our last post we mentioned that we were working with a new 3PL, so you’re probably wondering why we’re at this point again. Long story short, we had signed a contract with them on May 7th month but we got the ick and backed out, which took some time. We’re way more excited about the two we’ve short-listed. They’re smaller, more “high-touch” and family owned, much like our Canadian warehouse. Once we make the decision, we’ll make an official announcement so you can see why they’re such a great fit!
US orders vs everyone else
We want to be especially clear to all customers that you will not be affected by tariffs.
Here are some important notes:
- US orders and inventory will be shipped to, stored, and distributed using our new warehouse in the US.
- All other orders will be shipped to, stored, and distributed using our current warehouse in Canada.
- Carmico will be covering the cost of tariffs on US orders for this pre-order, though we may open a tipping option later on to offset costs if anyone wishes to help us out.
- Absolutely nothing changes from the typical Carmico experience for non-US customers.
- US customers will now have faster delivery as there is no longer a need for border clearance and everything ships from within the US.
Future updates
Our blog posts usually go out on the first Wednesday of every month, but since we’re expecting substantial progress in the next week or two we figured we’d send another update once we have product on the boat rather than wait for the first Wednesday of July.
So we’ll be back on June 18th with updates!
As always, thanks so much for pre-ordering! We’re so excited to get everything to as soon as possible.
Until next time,
The CarmiCrew
