Hi friend,
An update on where things stand today:
The natural-colored soles have arrived at the factory in Portugal. The black-and-white soles are on their way and should arrive in time for the factory’s summer break, assuming customs cooperates.
The Hyphalite uppers for your sneakers are finished and ready to leave the factory in Vietnam.
That leaves us with one final but important decision: How do we ship the uppers?
When air freight was mentioned in our last update, many of you told us you'd rather wait a little longer than put a plane in the air for a pair of sneakers. We heard you.
Mother Earth is our Chief Executive. Yet, she doesn't take meetings or answer e-mail. So her decisions land with us, and with you. And there's a call to make.
So please vote..
Reply with A or B.
A. By plane
The Hyphalite uppers fly to Portugal. If the remaining black and white sole material clears customs in time, production can start before the factory closes and your sneakers could still arrive this summer, as promised.
The trade-off: We'd be putting a cargo flight in the air, we'd skip the final production sample (a last test pair made from this exact production run) and rely on a very tight timeline. Of course we would compensate for the flight by purchasing and permanently retiring carbon credits.
B. By boat
The uppers travel by sea, which takes around 40 days. No flight required. We use the extra time to complete the final production sample and quality check before starting the full run.
The trade-off: your sneakers would arrive in early autumn. Later than we originally promised.
If you don't have a strong preference, that's okay too. We'll make a decision based on the responses we receive and share the outcome with everyone.
Rather talk it through? Call me. Stefan, +31 6 463 40 998.
With love,
Lotte & Stefan