It is about time that I make this post and let everyone know what is going on.
So here it is.
TL;DR - short story is that Great Lakes Grooming products will not be for sale until this pandemic is behind us – my apologies for any inconvenience. For more info please read on.
In the fall of last year I decided it was time to refresh the brand and update our products. This was planned to occur over our typical Christmas break and extend into the post holidays slowdown. I was optimistic and laid out a fantastic road map involving new products, packaging, scents and merch. However, it is obviously taking much longer then anticipated and that is entirely my fault - it is just taking much longer then I thought.
GLG was launched in Sept 2015 as a fun way to pass the time while I was living apart from my friends and family trying to get my engineering career off the ground. Fast forward 4.5 years - GLG has been sold in Urban Outfitters, Winners, and shipped around the globe. But it is still mostly a one man show run out of the spare room in my apartment with whatever time I have left after working my regular 40hr work week at my day job. Jasmine will help out when she has time, but 99% of the time its just me.
I have learned so many things while working on GLG over the years and because of that I have set my own bar pretty high and pride myself in only turning out products that I can fully stand behind and would love to use daily myself and because of this I cannot continue sell a product I know I will be updating in the near future – I know this isn’t good for business, but honestly I am not doing this for the money, I am doing it for the products.
The problem is that this refresh time has started to drag on, and unfortunately this pandemic has begun to affect everyone – myself included. Recently I have begun to work from home in my day job in an attempt to self-isolate, flatten the curve, and stay healthy, but the only room available is my spare room – the room where my hobbies take place – and this has left me with no choice but to suspend production of Great Lakes Grooming products until this pandemic has cooled down enough so that I can return to work.
It has been a very hard decision to make, and if you have been trying to get a hold of me for products or stock this is why – I just have a hard time saying no.
The bright side is that I will still be working on the brand refresh and the road map I spoke about earlier. I will still be working on new scents, colognes, pomades, and merch and working to get things ready for the day when I can relaunch.