I broke the brain of a medieval peasant by describing what a preorder was to them

I hear ya. Preorders are a bit confusing and range from store to store. In this blog post, I'll go through our preorder process. It should be noted that we do not dropship. Our team in Los Angeles (myself and two others) pack each order by hand. 

How does it work?

The preorder process begins with the item being listed on our site with a setting called "Continue selling when out of stock" turned on. This lets us take in preorders for the item as negative quantity in our system and we can easily count what we've sold of each size. After about 5 days when the drop has calmed down and orders for new items start to come in less frequently, we adjust the quantity of each item's inventory to reflect what has sold and some extra. The "Continue selling when out of stock" feature is then turned off and any remaining available product is left on the site until the product sells out. We generally try to match the inventory we order with how long we think it will take to sell out and some other factors.

How long does it take and where do you produce your items?

Preorders generally take anywhere between 3-8 weeks to produce and ship to us. We produce our items in a variety of countries, using only ethical facilities to manufacture our designs. This includes China, Japan, Italy, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. All manufacturuers are chosen through lots of testing of responsiveness, pricing, sample quality, minimum quantity needed for production, facility description, etc. We work with a lot of amazing people who help us do what we do and make everything as high quality as possible.

Why do you do preorders?

Preorders are a super helpful way to kickstart the production of each item we produce with the help of early supporters. As a small business, and especially with clothing, it is genuinely challenging to expect how much of an item will sell and how well the product will land. For instance, I had no idea how well Catvisu would be adopted. It seemed to break boundaries for our brand in terms of people supporting outside of the anime realm. Without doing a preorder, we probably would've sold out quickly. Which don't get me wrong is great, but also leaves a lot of supporters left out as they can't act quick enough to grab it before it's gone. On the other hand, some items flop. I can't lie. The whole project is an experiment and was really never supposed to go this far. I'm so grateful that it has gone this far and I'll continue to push it as much as I can.

Another note, we are hoping to switch to in-stock releases in this coming year. Manifesting.

- M