News: Results in August
August is almost over! Glenn here with this month's news update and 2019 Co-Kan Survey results! But we’ll get to that later. For now let’s talk about...
Affectuator Colors
Affectuator colors are kind of a thing right now. We were expecting to have enough stock to keep them available until at least halfway through next month, but we sold out of the blue last week and we only have a few of the red left.
Thank you to everybody! We’re still trying to figure out what to make of this. We’ll use this momentum to rush ahead and get started on the next big thing!
Color Hanging Clasp Chains
At midnight on the 31st, color hanging clasp chains will be removed from the store. Until then, they are half off and if you buy 3, you get the 4th free! We assembled all these by hand and we still have a few left. They need homes!
This is part of our big simplification plan that we discussed in the last month's blog.
Survey Results
Thank you to everybody who took the 2019 Co-Kan Survey! Results are still trickling in, but it’s tapered off to a point that we can start discussing the responses with you all! You may learn something about your fellow Co-Kan flockers, read on!
Conventions
Flockers overwhelmingly visit conventions. This should come as no surprise, but over 60% of you visit two or more conventions a year. I’m surprised! Personally, I was expecting way fewer con-hoppers and more one-time and annual convention goers. Sonya, on the other hand, laughed at my naivety, calling me a child who knows nothing of “the struggle”.
Flockers skew toward wanting colorful, canvas, everyday use bags. For those of you who want gargantuan mega bags for your entire drawer worth of merch, you are slightly in the minority. More than three fourths of you think of “high quality, colorful bags” when you imagine Co-Kan products.
Speaking of Co-Kan products, flockers want new accessories, DIY supplies, and new ways to display fandom merch and figurines/plushies. We’ve got some things we’ve been meaning to release to cover those bases, so look forward to it!
Referrals and Rewards
A fourth of you didn’t know we had a rewards program, and a little under 40% of you didn’t know we had a referral program! We should fix this!
I’ve tied all these together and created dynamic thingies at the bottom of our emails reminding you to register for rewards, refer friends, and leave reviews. They’ll also directly show you your referral URL and coins balance. Also, all new orders now come with a little welcome packet that explains all this. We want you to get the most out of your time with Co-Kan!
Bag Manufacturing
A little over 40% of flockers would be willing to pay more for a Co-Kan bag made in Japan, and half of you don’t care where it’s made as long as it’s cheap. This is interesting.
This question was hard to ask, but this is such an important decision that we would only do it with your blessing. Currently our bags are made in China because it’s easy to get set up there, but we may change that in a year or two. I used to manage two apparel factories in Nagano, Japan, so I’m impartial toward the relationships I have within those companies and communities. In addition, a Japanese manufacturing base would allow us to target the Japanese ita bag market, which would be hilarious in it’s own right. I’ll likely ask this question again in a different manner once we’ve reached a size where this would be feasible.
Public Question Responses
You asked questions! Some of them were really good! So good, in fact, that I’ll answer them here.
Why aren’t you making more Instagram content?
We've been busy with life. The focus on quality, when met with limited time, makes it very difficult to regularly put out content. Co-Kan isn’t our full time job (yet) and making content, managing everything, and packing orders is hard.
We sign and practically gift wrap every order we ship and it all takes time. We may consider shifting order fulfillment & warehousing to a 3rd party order fulfillment company within the next half year, but I just love signing those cards and filling orders with goodies that I think I'll find it hard to hand that off to somebody else. We'll do another survey about that in the future.
Will you get the Pioneer Pack again?Definitely. When? We’re not sure. We’ve blown past every deadline we’ve given regarding the Pioneer Pack Mk. II, so I’m afraid to make another. We have a concept sketch and a precise idea of what we’re looking for, it’s bringing it into reality while managing all other aspects of Co-Kan that’s difficult.
Will you make a canvas backpack?
We should! I’ll put this on the backburner.
Will you make backings that work for enamel pins?
Yes! We’ll actually be releasing a bag made for enamel pins very, very soon.
Will you sell accessory making supplies? When will you release The Lifter?
Both these questions arose due to last year’s Kickstarter. The Lifter will be out before November and we need to simplify our inventory some more before we start selling accessory making supplies.
Will you ever go to Fanime, AX, or Crunchyroll Expo?
No conventions until January 2021 at the earliest.
After seeing how most of you are are con-hoppers, we may need to consider a better long term convention strategy.
Enamel Pin Bag Incoming
Enamel pin collectors are hard core.
We've been sent photos of broken enamel pins from people trying to push them through the styrene backings we sell. People have drilled hundreds of holes in those styrene backings. People have sewn second panels into the OTB Messenger. Enamel pin collectors have gone through great lengths to jury rig our bags into something they could use.
No more! The Cutility Pack is coming! More details soon.
And that’s all the news I have to share with you this month! Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
— Glenn from the Co-Kan Flock ▲
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.