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Ask HN: What should I do with all of these sandals?

16 points by mneedham ↗ HN
About a year and a half ago my (then) 14yo son wanted some Among Us themed slides. They didn't exist so I decided it would be a fun project for us to get some made. He drew up some sketches, we got in touch with some factories via Alibaba, went back and forth on prototypes, and ended up with a bunch of slide sandals in our garage.

We worked together on setting up a simple Shopify website (https://sussysandals.com), set up an Instagram account, and learned about the basics of marketing, inventory management, and order fulfillment.

Surprising nobody, my 14yo lost interest pretty quickly. I've been putting minimal effort into trying to get rid of the sandals. They sell pretty well but I've got a full time job and the whole thing requires more attention than I'm willing to offer.

So, my question is: what should I do? We've sold through over half of the inventory and I'm to the point where I'm willing to eat the rest of the initial investment just to get some space back in my garage.

Are there places that buy small lots of unsold inventory? Are there specific charities I should consider? Is there some fun loophole I can shove the remaining sandals through?

13 comments

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ssag2
Woot.com sells stuff just like this. Not sure how they get stock now since they got bought by Amazon.
vkdelta
unrelated: 1/ Can you provide some financial details of this experiment (If you are ok)? (how much inventory did you order, how long did you run, how much was FOB cost, How much was margin, Lessons learned, etc)

2/ If you dont mind, what theme are you using for this shopify page?

mneedham
For sure: 1) Ordered 800 pairs with an all-in manufacturing cost of $10/pair. Shipping was right around when supply chain awfulness had ships stacked off Long Beach and ended up bringing the cost/pair up to $13.

We've been 'live' with the website since December of 2021.

Started selling for $40/pair. Sold some. Dropped the price to $29/pair and sold more. Currently selling for $20/pair and that seems to be the right price point for these.

We've sold ~450 of the original 800 pairs and I still have just less than $2000 outstanding from the original investment.

2) Brooklyn: https://brooklyn-theme.myshopify.com

randomluck040
Can you elaborate on the production part of the sandals? How did you approach some company to produce them for you?
eddsh1994
Can you ship it to an Amazon warehouse and have them ship it for you? Then all you have to do is get them all there.
PaulsWallet
This is what I would try. Let Amazon do the fulfillment and pray you sell out before Chinese brands on Amazon catch wind.
phphphphp
Your son might not have an entrepreneurial desire but you probably know some young person in your orbit who would be interested in the experience. If you offer them the opportunity to run the store (selling through the remaining stock) maybe you’ll spark something that’ll turn into something great. Maybe there’s a youth club or student organisation that might be interested?

Giving away the stock / selling it on Amazon FBA / wholesaling it is a good way to get rid of the stock but it doesn’t take advantage of something rare you have: an online store with a product people actually want. The money side is a wash — the product is a niche gimmick — but it doesn’t need to be a financial success to provide value to some other kids.

(Plus, if you do bring some other young entrepreneurial spirit into the project, you’ve got an option on their future success: if you become the spark that turns them into a great success in future, the returns will be huge! The next jeffy bezos could owe you a lifetime debt of gratitude.)

nytesky
Isn’t Among Us a copyrighted work? Did you get it licensed to use their IP? I would check on that before trying to sell the business itself as that may attract more attention that trickling out sandals.
gadders
Ha - not the target market but they look pretty cool.