It started with an exploratory meeting at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA, in January 2020. Now, with some elbow grease, a few marathon brainstorms, and collaboration with the A+ crew at Disney/Marvel, the big day is finally here.
Welcome to Marvel Week at RSVLTS! We have three epic product drops coming at ya: today (3/22), Thursday (3/24), and Sunday (3/27). Marvel x RSVLTS has been years in the making and we're only just getting started.
In the past, we've heard your frustrations about product availability, fast sell-outs, app glitches, the secondary market, and more. Believe us, we're working diligently on all of these aspects, trying to fix any issues as fast as possible so the buying experience can be super easy.
As we continue to grow and evolve, and because Marvel is such a massive and beloved property, we're going to spice things up by revisiting the pre-order method that was so well received when we tried it for Disney Villains.
Our goal is to make sure everyone can get their favorite Marvel shirt, because a collab like this should run as smoothly as Spider-Man effortlessly slinging his way down a city block. After all, the Infinity Gauntlet is only as good as its Stones, and your wardrobe is only as good as the awesome Marvel gear in it.
So, with that said, we're going to try a pre-order experiment that opens during launch and continues 48 hours after the launch.
In the interest of being as transparent as possible, we're going break down everything a bit further below so you can get a grasp of what we're trying to accomplish, how it will all happen, and all that good stuff.
Note this pre-order process takes some work to connect all the various mechanisms, so we can't do it for every launch right away, but this could be a natural next step for RSVLTS down the line.
Here's how it's going down:
When the product collections go live on Tuesday and Thursday (going live 3:55 PM ET as all the Insiders have come to learn; there's sometimes a cache lag, cuz technology... working on it), we'll have about 50% more inventory than a typical drop in stock. Those who are quick on the check-out draw will have their orders shipped as usual, but when (and if) we sell through the initial batch of inventory, we will continue taking pre-orders that will ship on or before May 21, 2022. Hopefully much sooner than that, but we want to bake in extra time to manage expectations.
So, why are we trying this today? Glad you asked...
• To provide more shirt options! Included in this week's drop will be our standard KUNUFLEX™ cuts and select products will have Women's 2.0 KUNUFLEX™ cuts and also youth options.
• A better experience in the future! Pre-ordering our most popular licenses could open the door to future pre-order options, hopefully giving everyone a stress-free way to get the styles they want.
• Yes, stress free! Doing this pre-order will allow you to lock in your RSVLTS shirt without having to worry about getting it on the secondary market or when limited inventory is released to some of our retail partners next month. Yeah, we think Marvel items will be a hot commodity across the board.
• This is just a test! Pre-order will allow us to test this idea and figure out how to speed up the logistics of future pre-orders. One day, we believe we can get the preorder window down to 3-4 weeks.
What are concerns we've considered?
• 6-8 weeks could be a long time. As Tom Petty has told us many times, "The waiting is the hardest part." We know this timeframe will affect some, but at least the option to lock in Marvel will be possible.
• Sometimes the messaging is lost. People are so excited to order they don't realize it's a pre-order, no matter how many buttons and underlined words we put on the page. We're trying to be transparent in advance.
• Shipping sometimes sucks. Logistics delays may push our expected delivery date. This isn't likely, but always a possibility and something we really had to map out. But, we feel very confident in the projected date.
• You might get this somewhere else. As with many of our drops, some of our retail partners are receiving limited quantities of this shirt in a few weeks. We know people might want to roll the dice there instead of doing the pre-order. Totally encouraged; that's the point of Shop Local. However, this is a great way to lock in your purchase in advance and know you have what you want!
• This is just a test! This process takes a ton of work. Pre-orders are highly manual from our end, with many moving parts and a fair amount of risk. We're running this test to find out if we want to move forward with this process and how to make it better each time.
One big question we know our Customer Service Lord, Pete, will get after launch is, "how do I know if I got a standard order or pre-order?" Orders ship on a first come, first serve basis. If you don't get a shipping confirmation from us within 5-7 days, assume you have a pre-order item. We'll try to build some tech for our email confirmations that offers more clarity if we try this again in the future, but we don't have that ability just yet, so please bare with us.
Since day one at RSVLTS, we've dedicated ourselves to one simple motto: DARE MIGHTY THINGS.
We've heard you all loud and clear about launch day mechanics and stresses. In the spirit of evolution, we're giving this a shot, and hope it works and opens doors for future launch options!
As always, we appreciate your feedback and ideas on making this process more straightforward and more reliable in the future.