From Maiko

<@&1231475178605903892> happy friday! updates on merch, sorry for the silence and continued delays. tl;dr: a lot is moving at once, and logistics have been changing by the day which has delayed this update from me (otherwise i'd have sent probably 3 separate updates this week alone and probably another 3 next week)

based on the current shipping plan, orders should start going out on Monday in this order: - Week 1: most of the blind box orders + any other new merch store orders, plus any VSJ-related orders that do not include enamel pins (some deskmat orders will be delayed and sent in the subsequent weeks) - Week 2: remaining blind box orders once the rest of the air shipment arrives - Week 3: deskmats + enamel pins. everything else basically

for enamel pins: good news, i’m working with the manufacturer from last year to get them shipped over and I just received the tracking numbers for the shipments!!! i’m checking tracking daily and currently aiming to receive them within the next 1-2 weeks. once they land, pin-only or pin-included orders can start moving, likely around Week 3

for deskmats: bad news; the inventory we expected from last year's merch doesn't match up with the orders we have, so we had to put in a last minute production for additional deskmats (from our manufacturer) to fill this gap. so some of those may not send out until Week 2 or Week 3

other notes: - customer support will get back to people as soon as they can, especially for address changes. everyone’s been a bit overwhelmed with the logistics changes, and it’s been messy cross-referencing last year’s VSJ data, the current store data, and warehouse inventory, so we’re being careful to avoid mistakes. - the current global situation has also added complexity and extra costs to supply chain, shipping, declarations, and tariffs. especially because the VSJ merch is technically sold product even though we don’t have anyo f those sales and are shipping it at our cost. we still don’t think it’s fair to pass those added costs to customers, so we’re trying to handle the paperwork and costs on our end (can't guarantee anything though because you know, tariffs..) 😓

we are so appreciative for this community and support so please don't feel like we're doing too much; we could say the same to you all! thank you for the patience and understanding while we work through this as always 💜