There was absolutely no way we could have expected the reception of the Spetsnaz Urban Gorka to be this big when we started this project almost a year ago.
Throughout the weekend we were blown away by the overwhelming amount of support and constructive criticism we've received from this project, and instead of waiting, we've decided to take action today by opening up Pre-Orders for the next run as of the date of this blog going live.
We're striving to avoid pre-orders when we can, but after a significant amount of feedback from our audience, we're going to break the rules for you and open up our upcoming restock to a pre-order.
Please note: as of right now, won't have a solid timeline on delivery until we have a final sample and we're ready for production to start. But, over the last couple months, we've been finalizing our plans with a new manufacturer we trust.
If you partake today, you'll get your size, guaranteed, with no worry it'll go out of stock.
Now let's get down to business.
An Open Letter From Ivan
If you totally missed the whole thing, we can't blame you.
Our entire run of gorkas & helmet covers sold completely out in about 15 minutes.
For reference, this run was a similar number in stock to anything we've done before: KLMK, Red Dawn, Partizan, all have had pretty similar, and quite large production numbers for our store. Unfortunately, that number was the most our manufacturer was reliably able to produce.
We're bummed not everyone who wanted one was able to get one. It was Never our intention for that to happen, and we're eager to make this so much more than a one-time drop thanks to your support.
Whether you're loyal kommandos or brand-new, we want to do our best to make things right.
Shortly after these gorkas actually went into production, it became clear that our current manufacturer [in Uzbekistan] wasn't going to be able to handle the sheer volume that starting with a pre-order might have incurred.
So, we had already decided this would be our last run with them before switching to another manufacturer who could handle the complexity of our unique pattern, our quality requirements, and most importantly scale.
This is exactly why we've said we wouldn't be able to restock these right away.
As launch day got closer, we decided to cap sales at 4 suits per person. We've actually never done that before.
But this number came based on a combination of known sales data from previous launches and people reaching out asking us if they'd be able to purchase an extra 1 or 2 for friends & family. We ended up seeing zero orders of more than two gorkas.
Still, the volume of traffic on our site was several times larger than our black Friday and 4th of July events.
At one point, there were significantly more active carts* than there were suits available, which also completely overloaded our shipping & inventory management software.
*Similar to ~70-80% of stores according to most sources, we do not have a system that "reserves" the item if you put it in your cart. It's a double-edged sword for sure, but that's how we've done things. Putting a cap on gorkas per person ideally safeguarded customers, but it was not needed because most people only bought 2.
At the end of the day, we underestimated demand by anywhere from 5-10 times. However, our manufacturer would not have been able to handle it anyways, even if we had made this project a pre-order from the start.
That's why we're upscaling production first and foremost to do right by you.
Once again, we've been trying to air on the side of being conservative with the number of pre-orders we do. But, over the weekend, we had a lot of conversations about the inevitable restock and read every single comment.
We listen to our Kommandos. So, we broke our own internal rules for you and are opening up the flood gates for Pre Orders.
For now, as the switch to a new manufacturer comes to fruition, we hope that this opportunity helps you feel less like you missed out. Please note, as we said earlier, we won't have a solid timeline on delivery until we have a final sample and we're ready for production to begin. As soon as we do, you'll know.
In our continued commitment to transparency, you'll be able to follow along with frequent updates as always, here on our project tracker.
So, rest assured, you'll know the "wheres", "whens", and "whys" as soon as they become relevant. Thank you for all the support, and more importantly, the feedback.
Pre order your suit at your leisure, and we'll continue working tirelessly on the restock.
- Ivan & the Kommando Crew
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