Looks like Fishbum Outfitters has gone 'teats up'

[KawarthaAngler]

Been waiting 10 weeks now for an order I placed on their website start of January.  Went to their website just now and see they've folded.   The Better Business Bureau has a surprising number of complaints against them.  If I had know that, I would not have placed my order. I was immediately charged for my order ($150) but nothing has been delivered.    

I've reached out to my 'back-door' contact there (from when I did a lot of digging last month since they were not returning my inquiries through their customer service line) and I'm hoping this contact will get back to me and can refund my $150.

Too bad.  They were a family run business and had very cool clothing.

When they made the move to expand the business 4 years ago ->  https://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/5179476-fishbum-makes-dwight-its-new-hq/

Alas, their site is now down -> http://fishbumoutfitters.com

Edited March 15, 2018 by TheKawarthaAngler

[Jmeyer]

That is unfortunate for sure, very talented art work and some great looking clothes. Hope you get your money back 

[drwxr]

Not sure how you ordered, but the website been down for a while now (since 2015), All their left over stock was picked up by sail stores.

[Sterling]

39 minutes ago, drwxr said:

Not sure how you ordered, but the website been down for a while now (since 2015), All their left over stock was picked up by sail stores.

According to webarchive the site was up and regularly updated up until recently.

[KawarthaAngler]

When I placed my order at the start of January, the site was up and running and looked great.  They were now offering boat wraps (I don't believe that was listed on their site a couple years ago when I first visited it).  And when I did a followup in February of my order, I exchanged a couple emails with a lady there and she confirmed my order was being processed ... just delayed because their provider was back ordered.

Edited March 15, 2018 by TheKawarthaAngler

[AKRISONER]

goes to show that even with a good product, running a business takes a lot of intelligence and good business practices. One of those occasions where you have a pretty decent product, but perhaps grow too fast or get ahead of yourself and end up not being able to pay your bills.

[BillM]

How'd you pay?  Paypal or credit card?  File a claim and let them sort it out.

[Stoty]

It's very sad to see a company/product that was pretty cool go belly up from poor management.

Too many local companies have done that. From Guiding Services to Soft Plastics to clothing....

[Jmeyer]

I wouldn't be to quick to blame it on mis management, take it from me it's extremely difficult to run a small business in these times in this province. The government always touts the importance of small business leading up too an election then rapes them after elected. It may be as simple as a huge order that didn't pay or someone sued because a timeline wasn't met, no matter the scenario you can bet no bank or no  government threw them a life line. 

[Old Ironmaker]

J Meyer you hit the nail on the head.

Not all businesses that fold are due to poor management and business practices. A while back I attended a seminar where a money guy told us that of all small businesses in Ontario that start today, 80% of them won't make it to year 2. Of the 20% that do survive year 1 80% of those don't make it to year 2 or 3. If you make it to year 4 you might be paying yourself, probably not until year 5, maybe, then it might be less than your employees. Not good odds to start a business in Ontario. Statistically one of the most difficult places to open a small business in North America. You can have a MBA and fail. Markets change, the CDN dollar fluctuates, suppliers go teats up and keep your valuable capital, recessions happen, raw material prices skyrocket,  wages go up by law, rents go up, taxes go up, Comp. rates go up, off shore suppliers screw up your order, the list of what ifs are interminable. Then our government decides to put a tariff on your imported goods because the government of the country that makes your stuff has policy our Gov. doesn't like or detains a Canadian on bogus charges. Failure just isn't due to poor management I can tell you that. It is easy to drop your retail price by 50%, try raising it 1 dollar.

Edited March 16, 2018 by Old Ironmaker

[singingdog]

I am self-employed, and have seen this over and over again, across all sectors of the small business world: food, outdoor, art, music....It seems quite prevalent in the fur and fin industry, probably due to low overhead of getting started. Having a good product is about 20% of the equation of making a business work. The rest is grunt work that most folks didn't imagine themselves doing. One of the big problems is that the skill set for designing and creating is completely different than the skill  set for selling. I dabbled in selling the jigs that I tie, quickly realised that the "real" work had nothing to do with tying, or fishing (the reasons that I tie in the first place) and got out. I do really well trading my work for tackle, don't sell at all anymore.

[Sinker]

Does this mean my fish bum shirts are worth more now? 

 

S. 

[moxie]

 

6 hours ago, Sinker said:

Does this mean my fish bum shirts are worth more now? 

 

S. 

On par with those rediculous Affliction tees I bet

[woodenboater]

I dunno, sounds like they expanded too quickly and probably got leveraged beyond their capabilities. Getting big, important retail orders is great but I'd imagine big corp don't have much sympathy if skeds/orders and dates aren't met. Hope they can regroup and come back leaner and more focused on what got them started in the first place.

Edited March 17, 2018 by woodenboater

[Old Ironmaker]

It's tough on a single skew retailer to survive. Did they make anything else but fishing specific clothing? That is the very definition of a very thin single skew.

[woodenboater]

think the story above mentioned they were getting into other clothing lines that were more tourism oriented or something like that. if I read correctly