Thank you, sorry, here's what's next
Hi all,
I would like to start off by deeply apologizing to all of our customers that have been impacted by untimely deliveries of our last few group buys. I never had a malicious intent in withholding product or ultimately anyone's money. I hope this post provides everyone with much needed context, and some closing thoughts.
History
ApexKeyboards was founded in 2017. During COVID (2019), the mechanical keyboard market grew significantly due to stimulus cheques and an increase of customer spending towards at-home hobbies. Detailed below will be commentary on the overall market dynamics within the mechanical keyboard hobby and on challenges Apex experienced.
Margin and quality
Several factors played into volatile and rapidly declining margins within the market. Firstly, several of our high value keyboard projects suffered significant quality issues with the manufacturer not compensating via refunds, exchanges or additional parts. This led to us cutting prices and margins shrinking. Next, overall margins for "proxying" high cost European keysets had significantly low single digit margins. Lastly increased competition from Chinese vendors forced out competitors and our own product competitiveness.
Overhead
Towards the end of 2021, we decided to expand operations acquiring a 3 year lease to an office in Markham ($2,700CAD/1440sqft/util not included). The acquisition helped to bolster logistical and warehousing footprint to accommodate increasing warehousing needs. With that, created increased overhead while our revenues did not scale in Y2/Y3.
Oversupply and production delays
As we experienced significant supply chain constraints and increased customer demand we decided to double down on certain product lines that did not end up being as popular. In addition to supply constraints, keysets took 1-2 years to sample and produce. With the longer time frame, demand shifted and we were stuck with more sets than the market needed. Ultimately, capital sat in inventory without being realized.
Burnout & Mental Health
At the peak of all the challenges above, I ultimately succumbed to burnout and mental health hurdles. One thing you'll often hear from Youtubers or creators is the challenge that is turning your hobby into your job. I was working non-stop 9AM to 9PM (or more) trying to make ends meet for 8 years. I felt severe burnout to the point where I had to distance myself from the day to day operations to keep myself sane.
Experience and team
This was my first business. The lack of experience, co-founders/team members to help/advise me led to avoidable mis-steps and expensive learnings.
Conclusion
With all of that said I do not regret pursuing this endeavor despite the amount of money I've lost and the friends I've gained and lost. I deeply thank every single customer that has supported me since day 1. I will always remember you guys for sticking around despite tough times. I have personally and professionally gained a lot of knowledge through this experience that I hope to carry through the rest of my life as for what's next for Apex please read on.
What's next?
I hope to close the business in Q3/Q4 2026. Before that, I will finish my last group buy ePBT Rin, there are around 50 orders left. I want to give myself some credit for mitigating larger fallouts that other vendors have experienced. I forced myself to stay as active as I could in communicating while trying to tie up loose ends.
Orders placed from now until an official closing date will continue to be shipped on a regular basis and I will check my emails on a regular basis as well.
I want to mention I still have roughly over $20,000 CAD in inventory that I wish to liquidate. This is much less of a need or concern but I'd like to re-coup any cost left and physical space.
Thank you, again for your support and patience.
Special thanks to Jerrold from Deskhero and Jae from Prototypist for helping me earlier last year in taking over few dozen extra keycap sets from GMK. Thank you to the people who I've met and befriended as well along the way. We may not talk anymore, however I wish everyone the best! 2024/2025 was quite a stressful time for myself and I'm glad the one time I needed help you guys were able to help with whatever you could. I will forever remember that!