Oh no no no no no no...
You may or may not have seen the reel that was posted on our instagram account. But when our stock arrived, there was something a little different about our labels.
You'll quickly come to realise that a big part of STAE COLLECTIVE is finding little messages that will help lift you up. These messages are really the heart and soul of the brand.
So imagine our shock when the label we'd meticulously designed & created artwork for (and yes, checked ONE MILLION times for errors), contained an error that was present on each and every item - on 1200 items. Damn.
WHY DIDN'T YOU HAVE THEM RE-LABELED?
Being kind to the earth means minimising waste. Having our items re-labeled would have meant 2 things:
1. Printing 1200 NEW labels, and sending the old ones to landfill.
2. Our boxes would have to be flown back to the factory, then back to Australia.
It felt super wasteful to do this, especially because the label is perfectly fine, it still does it's job, just with a little less impact.
The message is on the BACK SIDE of the label too, a place where many people might not even look - but that was part of the fun of hiding a nice message there.
WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST LEAVE IT?
As mentioned before, little messages like this are the heart and soul of the brand. The idea that we may able to deliver a helpful message or reminder to someone when they need it most is so important to us.
To have that message interrupted by a missing word, therefore overshadowing the point of the message - simply wasn't an option.
SO HOW DID YOU FIX IT?
After a failed attempt at iron-on transfer (transfer paper + ribbon are NOT a match, FYI), we wash-tested laundry markers for smudging and durability. We found our winner and the re-labelling began.
I considered trying to match the font (as best as I could), but decided to embrace one of STAE's core values - Authenticity. The things that make us different, are what makes us special.
Each one of our items had to be unpacked, label-fixed, left to dry (not necessary but we did this anyway #anxiety), re-folded, re-packed and re-stored. We did this 1200 times over 31 hours.
THE SILVER LINING
We were able to physically view each and every item for quality control (they do have to pass Quality Control checks at the factory - you may find a QC sticker on your item, I did remove some of them as I packed). We can say with confidence that every item is absolutely amazing, and the label conundrum was the only hiccup.
So that's great news.
You will also be the proud owner of a very rare, limited edition, hand-signed product when you order from our first collection. So that is pretty cool.
