Dear Nooch community,
We can hardly believe it, but it’s true: the first 620 pairs of Noochies ever have been produced! And it’s all thanks to you! At the moment, around 80 per cent of people have received their Noochies at home. If you haven’t received them yet, they’ll either be on their way to you next week or you’ll be at the pick-up party this coming Sunday to collect them in person!
We’re getting fantastic feedback about the shoes from all sides – it’s overwhelming. A massive thank you to everyone!!!
Unfortunately, we also have some extremely distressing news to share.
We’ve received alarming reports from a few people: the lace holes have torn when putting the shoes on. This is a massive red flag, because this absolutely must not happen!
We immediately launched an investigation, and what we discovered yesterday completely threw us for six. A crucial part of the shoe – the reinforcement for the lace holes – was omitted during production. This problem didn’t occur in our earlier development rounds, but it is present in the final production batch.
The harsh reality is: there is no quick fix for this. All the shoes that have been delivered have this problem, and there is a chance that the lace holes will eventually tear on all of them. And that breaks our hearts.
Over the past 24 hours, we’ve moved from panic and sadness to taking action, looking for a way to deal with this that lives up to our values. Nooch is built on your trust, and we’ll do absolutely everything we can to put this right; we can only hope, from the bottom of our hearts, that you see and feel that.
We are in close and direct contact with the factory in Portugal, and they, too, are devastated that this has happened. A shoe like this has never been produced anywhere in the world before, so they, too, have been through all the ups and downs of recent times and are 100 per cent committed. We’re learning so much, but this lesson has been incredibly painful for them too. Please know that the Noochies are also made with incredible care and love on the production side at the factory.
And now for the solution
However big this setback may be, there is one silver lining: together, all of us involved (including you!), have proven that we can deliver an amazing product—one that is essential for both the present and our future. And despite this production fault, one thing is crystal clear—people are incredibly enthusiastic about their Nooch shoes.
That means we’re going to do the following:
You will ALL receive a new pair of shoes that are made to the highest standard (this is, of course, free of charge for you). EVEN if your Noochies haven’t worn out (yet). HOWEVER, as we have no stock, we can only produce these shoes in the upcoming second production run. In this second round, the website will also reopen for new orders (including new Nooch variants!) and the first batch of 620 pairs of Noochies will be included in that. Unfortunately, this does mean that we won’t be able to deliver them until September. So… what happens in the meantime?? There are roughly two scenarios.
Scenario 1: Your Noochies have already worn out – what now?
Please let us know directly. In this first production run, we had 10% more produced than was ordered. If your shoes have broken, we’ll check whether we have the same model in the right size and send them to you. If we don’t have the same model in the same size, we’ll discuss with you which shoes we do have and whether you’d like to receive them (for example, the low-top Noochies instead of the high-tops). We’ll then ask you to take great care of the shoes so that they don’t get damaged, but so that you can continue to enjoy them for as long as possible until the next production batch.
Scenario 2: Your Noochies haven’t broken (yet) – what now?
We hope that if you’re very careful when lacing up the shoes, they won’t break. Not an ideal situation, of course, but it would be brilliant if, by taking this care, you could still wear your Noochies for as long as possible. Who knows, they might even last until September – that would be brilliant! But either way, in September you’ll receive a new pair that’s been manufactured perfectly.
So, rather than taking the shoes back, we want to embrace this fully as an opportunity to learn even more about the shoe — about sizing, comfort, logistics, materials and everything in between.
And the faulty pairs? Perhaps we’ll turn them into compost and let something beautiful grow from them. A lemon tree, perhaps. Because… When life gives you lemons, we’ll fucking make lemonade…
And last but not least: the collection party. It’s still going ahead! If you’d like to come along and haven’t registered yet, please do so here. Thank you so much for all your support, from the bottom of our hearts!
We’ll keep you updated.
Lots of love,
On behalf of the Nooch team, Lotte and Stefan