We are trying not to lift our US prices on May 1st, but...

Hey Superspacers!

Well, it's certainly an interesting time to be in e-commerce right now!

With the extremely fluid situation we find ourselves in regarding international trade, we thought now was a good time to send you an update.

As you're probably aware, we've always manufactured in China due to the specific components we use for Superspace.

Right back before our Kickstarter launch, we looked extensively into ways to manufacture in the US, but the materials were either a lot more expensive than in China or simply not available (like our type of magnets).

We concluded that there was no way to make our product affordable apart from manufacturing in China.

We have, however, continued to explore how to make Superspace in the USA as we look to improve our operations.

One of the biggest hurdles is the cost of production and access to raw materials in the USA (for example, the super strong magnets we use are just not yet domestically available in the quantities and quality we need), while ensuring we are still able to keep prices down for the American consumer. 

We are investing time and money into building US domestic manufacturing capability, but it will take several years to develop.

In good news, the US has recently discovered significant rare earth deposits, with the Halleck Creek project near Wheatland and the Bear Lodge Project near Sundance in Wyoming potentially having some of the largest Neodymium deposits in the world.

But they are years from being in production.

We can source the recycled PET eco-felt, the injection molded plastic clips, and the bamboo we use all onshore in the US – but the downside is each component is between 4 and 10 times the cost of international suppliers. 

We are looking at ways to decrease this and are confident we can make US manufacturing work for us in the future.

However, in the time it will take to set up US manufacturing, we will be subject to significant tariffs. We want to avoid having to pass these on to you as much as possible and have taken several steps to try and reduce the impact of these tariffs.

Firstly, our bottom line has taken a hit.

We are in this to make a toy that helps kids learn, grow, and thrive.

This is at the heart of the Superspace vision, and we're passionate and fully committed to this vision as a long-term project.

As founders, we have all taken a salary cut and have also paused our research and development arm.

Luckily, we have just completed the development of a bunch of exciting new products (which we look forward to announcing and launching within the coming weeks) and shipped over several containers worth of stock – and some of these squeaked in before these tariffs hit. 

Secondly, we have put the squeeze on our supply chain to help share the burden.

 Not so much that they give up on quality – we need these to be consistently well-made – but looking at all aspects of the production machine with a critical eye.

We are sincerely hoping that this gets resolved in the coming weeks, but come May 1st, our pre-tariff stock will have run out, and we’ll be selling items that have been subject to significant tariffs.

Unfortunately, we will have no option but to pass on some of these costs and increase prices on May 1st – but we’re working hard to minimize this.

As this situation is so fluid (tariffs on China are at 145% as of today, but this has been changing every day), we don't yet have a new price figure for the 1st of May.

If the situation gets resolved, it's possible (although we think unlikely) that we might not have to increase prices at all.

We just wanted to be up front about this and give you a heads up without springing it on you last minute.

We will update again with any new developments.

Regards,

Charlie, Craig, Ant
Superspace Founders.