To our friends and supporters:
It's with a heavy heart that we tell you Loto Labs is no more. Just kidding (sorry). Sadly, Evoke shipment has been delayed by a few weeks, and we will fail to meet our goal of Q1 shipping.
We are very sorry about this, and for not delivering this update sooner. The news of the potential for a delay was accompanied by a cloud of confusion and conflicting, tenuous info. So, we had to wait for more clarity, while exploring possible solutions before making any projections with some semblance of certainty.
At this moment, it looks fairly certain we will initiate Indiegogo fulfillment and public on-sale no later than early May. We are intentionally padding this projection to be on the safe side, and trying as best we can to account for additional unforeseeable issues.
Here's what happened: Evoke is comprised of just over 100 individual electrical components, many of which are interdependent; all of which have to be sourced for manufacturing at certain prices and lead times. Evoke is a very sophisticated design, so any necessary change, no matter how small it may seem, has the potential to cause major ripple effects through the production process.
In our case, one tiny component was abruptly discontinued by its sole supplier three weeks ago, and this halted production. We were able to source another part (replacement components are known as a "cross" in electrical engineering vernacular) rather quickly. But, crossing that one component, given a board this complex, required changing two other dependent components. All of this translated to additional engineering efforts, costs, sourcing, and of course time. As frustrating as this has all been, the end result did improve the design of Evoke and has allowed us to insulate its manufacturing from any future discontinuance issues. But, it is painful still.
We know how it feels to hear this, and again, we are extremely sorry. Up until the end of last month, we were confident that we'd exceed our goal by a couple of weeks, and over-deliver (for once). In fact, we were planning to announce some other, exciting news around this time. So, realizing that we'd likely fail to ship by even the end of March hit us right in the gut. Please know that with every update, we are passing along the very best and most reliable information available at the time, and that getting clarity and the accuracy needed to project things months in advance is a challenge. Also, please keep in mind that no one wants to be shipping Evoke more than we do, and overshooting dates only to deliver this kind of update is the last thing we expected or desired.
We tried everything possible to avoid not reaching our goal. Still, we accept full responsibility for these sourcing issues and lead times. For us, everything has been building to giving you an EXACT SHIP DATE. We will have a date by the end of next week or early the following week, and will share it with you all as soon as it's clear and set in stone. For now, please expect early May. We also expect to get a very limited few off the lines in April and will hopefully be able to share them with a few online reviewers and earliest supporters.
At the end of the day, despite not meeting our shipment goal and having to write this agonizing update, we do feel at least fortunate that our dream of unleashing upon the world its very first magnetic induction vaporizer has never been closer to coming true. On this long and winding road, we are taking heart in the fact that good things are coming. Again, please expect a hard ship date announcement very soon, and some other good news to boot.
Peace, Love and Vaping,
The Loto Labs Team
It's with a heavy heart that we tell you Loto Labs is no more. Just kidding (sorry). Sadly, Evoke shipment has been delayed by a few weeks, and we will fail to meet our goal of Q1 shipping.
We are very sorry about this, and for not delivering this update sooner. The news of the potential for a delay was accompanied by a cloud of confusion and conflicting, tenuous info. So, we had to wait for more clarity, while exploring possible solutions before making any projections with some semblance of certainty.
At this moment, it looks fairly certain we will initiate Indiegogo fulfillment and public on-sale no later than early May. We are intentionally padding this projection to be on the safe side, and trying as best we can to account for additional unforeseeable issues.
Here's what happened: Evoke is comprised of just over 100 individual electrical components, many of which are interdependent; all of which have to be sourced for manufacturing at certain prices and lead times. Evoke is a very sophisticated design, so any necessary change, no matter how small it may seem, has the potential to cause major ripple effects through the production process.
In our case, one tiny component was abruptly discontinued by its sole supplier three weeks ago, and this halted production. We were able to source another part (replacement components are known as a "cross" in electrical engineering vernacular) rather quickly. But, crossing that one component, given a board this complex, required changing two other dependent components. All of this translated to additional engineering efforts, costs, sourcing, and of course time. As frustrating as this has all been, the end result did improve the design of Evoke and has allowed us to insulate its manufacturing from any future discontinuance issues. But, it is painful still.
We know how it feels to hear this, and again, we are extremely sorry. Up until the end of last month, we were confident that we'd exceed our goal by a couple of weeks, and over-deliver (for once). In fact, we were planning to announce some other, exciting news around this time. So, realizing that we'd likely fail to ship by even the end of March hit us right in the gut. Please know that with every update, we are passing along the very best and most reliable information available at the time, and that getting clarity and the accuracy needed to project things months in advance is a challenge. Also, please keep in mind that no one wants to be shipping Evoke more than we do, and overshooting dates only to deliver this kind of update is the last thing we expected or desired.
We tried everything possible to avoid not reaching our goal. Still, we accept full responsibility for these sourcing issues and lead times. For us, everything has been building to giving you an EXACT SHIP DATE. We will have a date by the end of next week or early the following week, and will share it with you all as soon as it's clear and set in stone. For now, please expect early May. We also expect to get a very limited few off the lines in April and will hopefully be able to share them with a few online reviewers and earliest supporters.
At the end of the day, despite not meeting our shipment goal and having to write this agonizing update, we do feel at least fortunate that our dream of unleashing upon the world its very first magnetic induction vaporizer has never been closer to coming true. On this long and winding road, we are taking heart in the fact that good things are coming. Again, please expect a hard ship date announcement very soon, and some other good news to boot.
Peace, Love and Vaping,
The Loto Labs Team
![:\](/i/s/hmm.gif "Hmm :\")
