Hey everyone, so sorry for the extreme gap in updates! We’ve had a bit of a crisis on our hands which has kept us up burning the midnight oil the past month and a half, and we want to apologize for the effect that has had on our communications.
When we got back from Blade Show Texas, we realized that we were missing about 80 knives – 40 gray satin Truffles and 40 gray satin HiveMinds. That’s about 1/3 of our stock that somehow disappeared. I guess it’s still possible that they'll show up, but after all these weeks, that seems unlikely.
So to try to recoup the financial loss from the missing knives, I've been customizing our existing stock to sell exclusives. The upside is I’m learning a lot of new skills, the downside is it has really cut into my available time. So I’m pretty far backed up on emails and other comms.
That said, I apologize that I left you guys hanging. You've made a significant investment in the future of AKT by backing Snarf and I want to make it clear how much we value your trust and support by keeping you as up-to-date as we can, so sorry I dropped the ball on that this time.
So picking up from the last update, we mentioned our OEM wanted to produce additional samples of colorways before going to production. Even though this would delay getting the knives out to our backers, it would ensure that the minor tweaks and color options we added during the campaign came out as expected.
So although we hated to delay the delivery, we did decide to go ahead and have Scikio/DreamTech produce updated samples. Here's how they turned out:
Laura from Scikio and Frank from DreamTech who are co-producing Snarf are actually bringing these samples to us at Blade Show Atlanta next week, so we'll get to handle them and ask questions in person. This also means if you happen to be attending Blade Show you can handle them in person as well. We could also do a live at some point if there's enough interest for those who aren't at the show to give some feedback, so let us know if you'd be interested in that.
I just heard back from Laura and she said that the good news is they've continued production on all the elements they could while still waiting on a final thumbs up from us. That means that if we approve the samples at Blade Show, they expect to finish production late July and ship to us early August. We originally estimated everyone would receive their knives in June, so the current quote is two months behind, but the delay will mean we've had one more chance to make sure everything is as we hoped for.
Speaking of, this is all assuming everything is ready to go. In the photo above, some of the colors seem off (especially the Miamiburst colorway) but that could just be due to poor lighting. Either way, we'll get another update back to you after Blade Show so you know what the status is.
I especially hate to inform everyone of a delayed shipment after a delay in communication, but I do hope that this will mean we're able to get you the best first-gen Snarf we can. Just keep in mind that if for any reason during the campaign you'd like a refund, please message me at [email protected]. We'd hate to lose your support, but we'd much prefer you be happy!
Again, if you'll be at Blade Show next week please stop by the booth and say hello, and if you see a box of 80 AKT knives on sale on Craigslist please hit us up! Seriously, thank you guys so much for the support and for bringing Snarf to life!
-Michael
P.S. - Several of you expressed interest in giving us feedback on future projects, so I wanted to let you know we've got a prototype for Truffles Jr. (1" shorter than Truffles) and we'd love your thoughts! You can fill out the survey here: Truffles Jr. Feedback and you can also use the survey to join our mailing list specifically to give feedback on future designs! Again thanks so much!
