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The Sticking Place

Posted by Lance Atkins on May 25, 2012 4 Comments

We nervously launched Blackbox Case the day before Thanksgiving, 2009. From there, it was off to the races: learning how to make a continuously cool product, learning how to tell you about a cool product, learning how to deal with crazed-Christmas-gift-givers, learning how to run a business, learning, learning, learning. It’s been a hell of a lot of work, many thousands of cases, and a lot of fun. 

Blackbox Case was founded on the idea of hand-making a no-compromise product in America and being damn proud of it. It has worked and it has been hard. There have been struggles with profitability: America is an expensive place to make things. Sometimes making a thousand cases will make you pull your hair out and start swearing. In the end I hope that Blackbox Cases have retained their original soul, their prideful design, and I think they have. Through the struggles, I’ve definitely taken a blow to my idealism of taking the world by storm with a, well, solid ideal. Sometimes it feels like the river is going the wrong way. It’s freeing to tell you that chasing that ideal has me feeling beat down.

However.

You all are in more than 65 countries enjoying Blackbox Cases. We had never made a product before. We learned how to. We were scared shitless launching a new, unheard of product. We got over that. We got a lot of love-letters from you all. We introduced a product so unique it inspired hundreds of articles within a week and many copycats thereafter. We made a ton of mistakes and learned more than possible in a classroom. We risked, went (for) broke, and did it. We brought a product whose design we were incredibly proud of and we didn’t budge.

So what’s happening? Blackbox Case is taking a hiatus. I (Lance) will be moving with my wife to Cairo, Egypt, as she is going to become the world’s greatest first  grade teacher at an international school. As such, I have chosen to park Blackbox Case for now. I’m excited for a lifetime of projects and inventions and it is time to proceed.

We will be fulfilling orders, catching up on orders, and selling/making a very limited quantity of cases for the next few months. If you’re waiting on an order that hasn’t made it to you yet, I am sorry. Those should all be shipping in the next week or two.

Here’s what I want you to hear and I really want future Me to remember: Stick to it. If you are proud of what your life produces that’s worth being stressed over. Failure is scary, so get over it. Take your ego out of and put your heart in. If you’re in it for the money you’re missing it. You need to try “it.” People will think you are wrong but usually they are wrong. You will not get it the first time so get back up. Have fun. Risk.

“But screw your courage to the sticking place, and we’ll not fail.” -Shakespeare