Hello friends, Evan from Shaky Hands here.
First, let me address everyone who is waiting on merch, Hi! I am so sorry you’ve been waiting forever. I am working on getting your shirts out to you, I have not forgotten about you. In fact, the fact that you don’t have your merch yet keeps me up at night with anxiety, among many other things.
To everyone who was so kind to support us and to support Mildred by getting merch, thank you so much. You helped us survive as a cooperative for awhile, and it means the world to us.
By “us”, right now I mean “me”. When I joined this cooperative back in 2020 (oy vey) it was a worker-owned, unionized affair with some great people I admired a great deal. Well, it’s still worker-owned and still union (PPPWU 577-M) but now I’m alone in the enterprise.
Back in 2021 we joined another local cooperative as a DBA (Doing Business As) because they offered to help us out with infrastructure like book-keeping, taxes, payroll, worker’s comp, etc. so we could focus on growing. It looked like a great deal. It turned out to be a curse.
The primary owner of that cooperative turned out to be…not as he first appeared. My therapist would tell me to describe his method of interacting with others as “ineffective” when he is stressed.
Everyone else quit but me. I am still here because I am legally tied to the parent cooperative until I can safely resign, which I can’t do for sticky reasons. I am also still here because I still think I can survive doing this, and I don’t want to go back to retail.
Obviously all the blame for you not getting your merch in an acceptable period of time cannot be put on this one person, and it is not all his fault. There’s lots of reasons: ADHD, health issues, family issues, deaths, capitalism, etc. etc. These aren’t excuses, but they are explanations.
So what am I doing right now to get you your merch? I am struggling to keep this boat afloat by myself, fulfilling jobs that I am lucky to get. As a person with raging ADHD, timelines help me, so I’ll make one right now.
All outstanding orders will be fulfilled by the end of December 2024.
I know that’s a long time, and you’ve probably already been waiting a few months. I’m sorry I can’t go faster than that.
Honestly, we probably should never have attempted a Print on Demand service with screen printing equipment. We learned a lot of lessons over the years, and that was a big one.
Right now, I have had to pause sales until all outstanding orders are fulfilled, otherwise I just get more and more behind.
We might be able to start up again in the future. I don’t know.
I am so grateful to Mildred for sharing their platform and fans with us. Working with them has been an incredible delight, and I feel awful for letting them down in this way.
If you need to get in touch with me, please don’t contact Mildred. I know I am bad at email sometimes, but please email me at evan[at]shakyhands.co and I promise I will do my best to help.
Thank you all so much. I am so sorry I couldn’t make this work to the best of its potential.
~Ev