Why's Everything Always Sold Out?
So here’s the lowdown on why so many things are sold out all of the time, and why I often don’t have an answer to you questions of “when will it be available again?”…
Makeshifter is and has always been a tiny operation that is just myself, and sometimes one other person helping out. I also own a bike shop and work there part time. If you’ve been anywhere near the bike industry (or any service or retail industry) since the pandemic, you probably know how overwhelmingly busy and shorthanded we’ve been for the last 16 months. Whenever someone needs time off from the bike shop, or if a challenge arises, I’m the one who covers. Which means nothing gets sewn for that day or week. At the start of the pandemic I more or less stopped trying to create any sort of production calendar, because it inevitably fell so far off track it became useless.
It’s hard to find a solution for outsourcing and expanding the work that needs to be done. I have high standards and I’m particular about how things get done—I don’t compromise much when it comes to high quality products, low waste and maintaining creative control. I’ve had some great help that has moved on with their own creative endeavors, which is awesome and also really tough for me. Losing one stitcher when there’s only two of us means production gets cut in half. Small production houses are booked out for months or years, and they often want to alter my designs so dramatically that they hardly resemble the originals. Currently, I’m working with a very small Portland sewing operation to see how they can help out. They don’t have all the same tools and machinery as I do, but they should be able to make some things, or cut them out in bulk, or partially assemble things. We’re in the midst of digitizing my patterns one by one, working out costs and processes. It’s going to take a while, but ultimately it’s an investment in making things faster in the future.
A few other things came up that are going to hamper my output this summer. I’m moving my home AND my shop over the next month, which I feel like is a full-time job in itself. My bar tack machine might need to be replaced. One of my most-used canvas colors is back-ordered, and won’t be available for almost 2 months. And we’re still in the midst of this bike boom (or retail boom or whatever the hell is happening right now) that causes me to sell out of things more quickly than I can make them.
The canvas that’s sold out for a while is what I call “Peacock.” Here’s a sampling of some of the bags I can’t make without that color:
Some other things to note: I quit wholesaling for a while in 2020. I don’t plan to take on new wholesale accounts (forever, I think) but I’ll honor the existing ones. Snackholes only.
I say this all the time, but again, just please be patient. My own mental health will always be more important than money or pleasing customers. I’m fine with Makeshifter being a small operation, however temperamental. I will never be able to keep up with forces of nature or the internet (i.e. some much-followed Instagrammer shares a photo of a Snackhole and then I sell out my stock in a day), so I stopped trying. You can still email me to be like, “when can I get this?” but I will continue to likely not have an answer. Thanks for playing, thanks for supporting this business and all of its troubles, thanks for understanding all of this. That’s all I’ve got right now.
With gratitude,
Becky