Backpack envy, sorted.
8 months ago – Fri, Sep 08, 2023 at 03:36:03 AM

Dear Backers,

After such a heartwarmingly positive response from all of you, W.F.A Backpack is officially live on our website.

So for anyone who wishes they got multiple colors, or those with partners, friends, and family eyeing your latest carry with a little jealousy... we've got you covered. Shop it here.

In other news, check out some recent sightings of W.F.A Backpack!  

And here it is cruising through the streets of Paris! 

We've been carrying early samples of W.F.A Backpack around for months now. To see your photos and know you're now carrying it along with us? We're having a blast. Again and again, we can't thank this dedicated community enough for all your support.

P.S. We're touched by all the love you've shown us here, but if you like your W.F.A Backpack, it'd help us a lot if you could leave a review on our website here, too.

Thanks for everything!

The Native Union Team

Delivered! Quick updates from us.
9 months ago – Mon, Aug 21, 2023 at 02:43:03 AM

Dear Backers, 

We've now shipped out 97% of all our orders – we're nearing the finish line! While we have a few incoming BackerKit submissions and a few special cases here and there, most of you reading this have had (and have hopefully been sporting) W.F.A Backpack for a few days now. Let your everyday adventures with your new backpack begin. 

All in all, we're so happy that W.F.A Backpack has finally reached our supportive backers. We've been overwhelmed with all the positive comments, and we love hearing about all the things you can carry, where you're carrying it, and your favorite features of the backpack. Truly, wow. 

Removable customization prints

A few of you have reached out to us about your backpack customization prints being swapped between backpacks. Luckily, it's an easy fix. The customization tags are attached to your backpack with velcro so simply detach and swap it around. If you have multiple backpacks and multiple customization prints, you can even mix and match depending on what you're feeling. 

Want more? 

We've been hearing about some friends of our backers getting backpack envy or backers wishing they got the other colors. Very understandable. Guess what? W.F.A Backpack is officially dropping on our website very soon! It'll be available at full retail price in Black, Kraft, and Slate Green. Follow us on Instagram or sign up to our newsletters to be notified about the drop. 

Complete your setup 

The Summer Sale is up and running on our website with up to 25% off sitewide. So if you missed out on selecting some add-ons for your backpack order, now's your chance to get another sweet deal on all your everyday essentials. Check it out here.

A look behind the scenes 

With everyone receiving their W.F.A Backpacks, this is probably old news but it's still fun to get a glimpse behind the process of getting the backpack to you. Here's a peek at our team matching tags to bags and packing up orders. 

Share yours

If you like your W.F.A Backpack, please send some photos our way. It'd be great for us and our community to see each other in action with our W.F.A Backpacks all across the world! Tag us, send it to us on Instagram DMs (@nativeunion) or drop an email to [email protected] – we'd love to see it. 

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The biggest thank you several times over to everyone who supported this project. We're overjoyed that you've finally received what we've been working so hard for. We hope W.F.A Backpack has been riding with you everyday since. 

The Native Union Team

Shipping Update
9 months ago – Tue, Aug 08, 2023 at 02:07:10 AM

Dear Backers,

We've been jam-packed with double, triple, quadruple checking that everyone's customization prints are in order and matched to the right backpack. 

It's been a rollercoaster, but the silver lining is seeing everyone's prints and knowing that each customized backpack has a unique character and their own stories to tell. Shoutout to a particular backer who printed "NU Lover" on their backpack, that made our day.

For this update, we've got some good news and some (slightly) bad news... As usual, here's the TL;DR (too long, didn't read) version first: 

•  The good news: backers have started receiving their backpacks! 
•  The bad news: all units delivered by August 14 (three day extension) 
•  Has my backpack been delivered? You'll receive a tracking number sent to your registered email once your backpack is on its way. We'd really appreciate if you refrain from contacting us about your specific order details until we've announced that all orders have been shipped. This way, our team can prioritize shipping out all orders before we handle everything on a case by case basis. 

The Good News

All backpacks have been produced and we've shipped out orders to backers who opted out of customization. Even better, some backers have received their W.F.A Backpack and are already using them to travel the world! Here's W.F.A Backpack in Slate Green spotted in London, traveling with a backer all the way from Hong Kong. 

Thank you to backers who've sent us photos and given us feedback. After the long journey to get to this point, seeing W.F.A Backpack in action makes it all worth it. Please keep sharing your W.F.A Backpack adventures with us so we can share it with this community! 

The (Slightly) Bad News

We've had to extend the deadline so that all backpacks should now be delivered by August 14 versus the previous August 11 date. We say slightly bad news because we're shipping out backpacks in batches so luckily most backers won't feel the effects of this delay. Nonetheless, we know it's important that we give you the full picture and be upfront with you about the challenges we've been facing. 

As you've probably noticed by now, customization has been harder than we realized. Customization makes each backpack a unique product which means we can’t simply match the backpack color to your address and have your backpack be on its way. Combine that with over 1,000 backpacks and many manual updates for customers who didn’t follow the customization guidelines from the get-go, and you can understand how the customization process has been a little bit of a challenge for us. 

Handling each customization tag one by one is no easy feat but it's times like this where we're even more grateful to have a resilient team who are pushing through to check, double check, then check again to try our best to make sure we get the right one to you. While we're working hard to meet the original timeline as best as we can, we also don't want to rush this process at the risk of accuracy so please bear with us a little longer. 

So has my backpack been delivered? 

Now to address the questions you've been waiting for – has my backpack been delivered? When can I expect to receive it? Can you check my order status for me? Can you change my delivery date?

If you didn't choose to customize your backpack, it's an easy answer. Your backpack has been delivered and chances are by the time you read this it's already in your hands (yay!!!)

For everyone else, it's a little more complicated. For the most part we're done matching up everyone's customization tag with their backpack and other add-ons, and there are a handful of customized orders that have been shipped out or are ready to be shipped out very soon. But as we mentioned above, it's not easy and we're thankful for your patience in this process. 

Unfortunately, due to the complexities of sorting and fulfillment, it's hard for us to guarantee when we're shipping out your specific order. We realize that it's frustrating to not have a precise date, but due to unexpected complications with customization, the August 14 timeline is the best estimate we can make right now. 

You'll receive your tracking number sent to your registered email as soon as your order's been shipped out so kindly hold off from contacting us about your shipping details as much as you can until we announce that all W.F.A Backpacks have been shipped.  If you need to change your delivery arrangements, such as time or location, please use the tracking email you'll receive to contact your local courier and rearrange your delivery. 

Getting there

Thank you for making it to the end of this update, and more importantly thank you for your support, patience, and understanding as we get everything in order to get your long-awaited backpack in your hands. Please know we're doing all we can to uphold the quality of your backpacks and be transparent about the whats, whys, and hows of everything going on. We can't wait to see W.F.A Backpack s carried all across the globe! 

The Native Union Team

UDPATE: Shipping Timeline + Address Lockdown Date
10 months ago – Wed, Jul 19, 2023 at 02:59:30 AM

Dear Backers,

We're sorry to keep you waiting! Thank you for your patience as we gathered all your survey information, reached out to everyone we needed to, and finally started on getting everyone's customization prints in order. 

It's been a minute since we gave you an update and we're really sorry about the delay. There was a bit more to collecting everyone's customization responses than we had anticipated but we're happy to be moving along in the production process now. 

We'll keep things short and simple with this update: 

•  Shipping Timeline: Shipping will start on July 31 as planned. All backers who filled in their BackerKit surveys on time will receive their backpacks on or before August 11. 
•  Address Lockdown: We'll lock shipping addresses on July 27 so you have one week to amend your details. Please do so ASAP to avoid your backpack being sent to the wrong address.
•  Slate Green: Good news for those who ordered a Slate Green backpack! We managed to pull some strings to push forward the Slate Green timeline so there will no longer be an additional one month wait. It'll get to you within the same time as those receiving Black and Kraft backpacks! 
•  Customization: We reached out and followed up as much as we could to ensure everyone receives their customization patch the way they want it. To that end, as we mentioned when we contacted relevant backers, if we didn't receive an updated customization text from you then we omitted your customization option entirely – we thought it would be better for you receive it blank rather than altering it ourselves to an outcome you may not be happy with. 

Mass Production is in Progress! 

Now for the fun part. We're thrilled to share that mass production is well under way! We should be receiving them in our warehouse soon, where we'll be adding your customization patch and other add-ons you may have ordered, then packing them up to be sent your way.

We managed to get a few pictures of the production process for you to get a bit of a peek behind-the-scenes. It's exciting for us to finally see all the pieces come together and we hope you're just as excited to receive W.F.A. Backpack! 

As always, we really appreciate everyone's support, patience, and understanding. We know it's taken us some time to share this but we assure you it's because we were busy making W.F.A Backpack the best backpack we can give you. We're only weeks away from W.F.A Backpack getting in your hands and we're full of anticipation. Thank you everyone for making this possible.

The Native Union Team

BackerKit Survey FAQs
11 months ago – Mon, Jun 05, 2023 at 01:59:00 AM

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