Is there a reason why the matcha keycaps were pushed to June?

[celest carbon]

I find it odd how some of keycaps that are considered your flagship sets are so scarce... 🤔

[frank igloo]

In terms of popular sets like matcha selling out, joys has mentioned something along the lines of it here: #💬・discussion message

While osume has switched to an in-stock model, it doesn’t mean infinite stock

There may also have been production or shipping delays that have contributed to the keycaps restock being pushed to June

[heavy scarab]

last time they did a restock (i'm not talking about extras), the sets were in-stock for over a month, maybe even a few.

also keep in mind that osume is still a small business that doesn't have the resources like huge vendors to constantly keep products stocked-up

[hidden sail]

Yeah, there's a very big difference between fulfillment by big box companies that have hundreds of staff and a ton of capital, versus small companies in an already-niche industry.

Custom keycaps are mostly produced and managed by small, independent businesses/designers. Compared to how the industry has been historically, Osume is doing exceptionally well with fulfilling and restocking items (some keycap sets by other companies/designers have literally taken years to fulfill). Please be patient!

[celest carbon]

Totally hear the above, although it's more about communication and setting expectations better versus being strictly impatient. Any self respecting keebhead will know that waiting is a huge part of this hobby lol.

Osume may be a smaller company, but that doesn't affect the process of how businesses process supply and demand...I used to run merch/product production for smaller businesses myself. I just wished the company was more consistent on how they managed their supply on one of their flagship products. I'm also not implying that a company should have "infinite" supply, because that is bad business practice, I'm just pointing out I find it odd how a well established business such as this, regardless how small it is, is experiencing this amount of delays. When there is no clear communication why, the only thing a consumer can assume is that the company did not properly calculate the number of units they actually need. It's clear they are the only ones that sell this keycap set and that there aren't even other vendors that can make a set as exceptional as these.

[cosmic condor]

imperia, you have reached lv. 1!

[celest carbon]

in any case, at the end of the day, I'll end up throwing money at them anyways lol, so I guess asking questions like these is pointless when a business has a monopoly on a specific product, just how it goes

[hidden sail]

I had assumed you were new to the keyboard hobby, apologies if that’s not the case.

I’m not a business expert, but for as long as I’ve been in the keyboard hobby, delays have always been an unfortunate but common issue. Should it be the acceptable norm? No, but it happens, and often for a variety of reasons that might not be in the vendor or designer’s control.

I guess what I’m saying is that plenty of businesses in the keeb world go through delays, and while I also hope that it gets better, it’s not entirely uncommon.

[celest carbon]

No worries, and we're on the same page, it's all good. My main point was that I just wished the communication was more transparent on why the delays occur. It helps people make more informed buys with all the options out there and cut down on the bad feels regardless of which vendor it is.

[inner vector]

I don’t know if osume has any flagship products. They have said that a couple of their sets that are limited releases, but they have many other sets to manage like tsukimi and sakura, and new releases. Also I don’t know if i’d categorize them as having a monopoly on this product either, because there are many GMK/DMK/Akko/Nicepbt/Pbtfans etc sets out there, with limited stock of each, most of which don’t get restocked at all. I hear you that you’re just trying to manage expectations as a customer though!