Our #1 goal is to make staying active with your kids great. Period. Everything we do from innovation, safety, performance and our business strategy is aligned to that goal. The last thing we want is to mire our KidRunner community in global supply chain problems. But transparency is embedded in our core culture and we believe that the more information we share with you about what's going on, the better.
So here you go:
It is not an overstatement to say that, "Chaos" has stuck the global supply chain; raw materials, labor shortages, factory closings, inflation and shipping constraints. KidRunner is part of that ecosystem. We work with world class suppliers in Asia and the US; all of whom are confronting the same challenges.
What specific bottlenecks are impacting your KidRunner deliveries:
- Raw material, energy and labor shortages: COVID and unexpected 2020/2021 weather events have forced factories to furlough production and cut capacity. The freeze in Texas constrained plastic based raw material supplies in the US for over 2 months. (Article hyperlink)
- Ocean, Truck and Air Freight Congestion: There is too much global product attempting to be moved via not enough capacity to move it. (Article hyperlink)
- Supply and Demand Pricing Spikes: With more product and less space, service providers are increasing costs sometimes as much as 250% forcing companies like KidRunner and others to find new options. (Article hyperlink)
What is KidRunner's Supply Chain Strategy?
From a product/manufacturing perspective, KidRunner is a, "Kit"; one part of the kit is made in Asia and the other part in Colorado, USA. We converge those two kits in Bend, OR then ship to our customers via UPS. That means the kits can be complete but we can't combine them until we have received both kit components.
In 2020, we made the decision to foster US economic activity by creating an innovative supply chain model. It's been a double edged sword in the COVID environment. The good part is that it indeed fosters more community based economic activity and ultimately will be a faster, more responsive solution for our customers. The bad part is that it creates an additional node in the supply chain that under these unexpected dynamics, can slow things down.
What are our Customers' Options?
- Since day one, we've offered and honored 100% refunds for your pre-orders. We appreciate that nearly all of our pre-order customers continue to collaborate with us and wait.
- Unlike many companies, we use ZERO pre-order capital for production or to solve any of these unexpected problems. That means 100% of the deposits are always available to our pre-order customers.
- KidRunner is optimized for kids 6 months to nearly 5 years old. That means that even with delays, many of our parents will still get several years of great running together.
- We are pursuing many of the following strategies and offering them to our customers including expedited airfreight along with a surcharge which we hate!
Doing what you love increases your sense of well begin and community. Scrambled global supply chains and delayed product deliveries are not part of our vision. But like parenting, we start everyday doing the best we can to control what we can control and crossing our fingers on the rest.
Move. Together.
Will Warne
CEO/Founder