THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO PUT THIS: WE SCREWED UP.
Howdy Folks,
We started HOWL with a simple mission: keep the forest and the campfire alive.
The R1 was born from that mission.
We made it affordable, and you responded in force.
The R1 took off faster than we ever imagined. Orders rolled in, and our small crew in Colorado grew alongside them. Your orders haven’t just built fire pits, they’ve built good jobs, right here at home.
HERE'S HOW WE BLEW IT.
We set out to sell R1s for as little as possible, knowing that we were starting with an awfully slim margin. Why? Because we wanted to put them in as many folks' hands as possible. More campfires AND less wildfires – that’s a good deal.
It looked like as long as we made major investments in tooling, as well as significant gains in efficiency, we could sell the R1 for $349, and over the long term, we'd still be able to pay the bills.
But as we scaled up from making 120 units per month to 1,000 and saw those efficiency gains come to fruition, it became clear: we just weren’t going to hit a sustainable margin.
And that's when the tariff war heated up. Prices on US raw materials started to spike, and with already slim margins, the cost overruns threatened to put us in the red.
SO WE HAD TO MAKE A HARD CALL.
Material costs have eased a bit, but we’re still losing a little on overall R1 sales. That’s 100% our fault. We also know that a lot of you have been saving up and budgeting for an R1 at the $349 price point. We want to do all we can to keep you from hardship.
So we’ve decided to hold the price until May 15th. All orders placed by May 15th, regardless of when they ship, will be honored at the current price of $349.
Starting Friday, May 16th, the price of the R1 will increase 13% to $395.
What about the R4? For the foreseeable future, the price of the R4 will not rise. A great deal of the cost in the R4 is labor, and as we take R4 assembly in house and make production more efficient, we should be able to keep the price and margins on track.
So there you have it. We have to raise the price of the R1, and that stings. But we're doing it because it sets us up to stay in the fight. It gives our employees stability, it ensures you have access to our tools, and it gives this mission a future.
Some of you have been reading these updates for years now, ever since the R4 was just a rendering and some spare parts. It's been an absolute privilege to be on this journey with you so far, and we're barely just getting started.
What about the R4? For the foreseeable future, the price of the R4 will not rise. A great deal of the cost in the R4 is labor, and as we take R4 assembly in house and make production more efficient, we should be able to keep the price and margins on track.
So there you have it. We have to raise the price of the R1, and that stings. But we're doing it because it sets us up to stay in the fight. It gives our employees stability, it ensures you have access to our tools, and it gives this mission a future.
Some of you have been reading these updates for years now, ever since the R4 was just a rendering and some spare parts. It's been an absolute privilege to be on this journey with you so far, and we're barely just getting started.
There are many more problems to solve, more tools to develop (scroll down to the parting shot), and more stories to share. We can't wait to show you what else is coming!
Thank you for reading, and thank you for being understanding of our mistake. As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns.
Keep Carrying the Fire,
Randall, Alex, Kelly, Nicholas (the founders)
Thank you for reading, and thank you for being understanding of our mistake. As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns.
Keep Carrying the Fire,
Randall, Alex, Kelly, Nicholas (the founders)
