Dear Honeydew Family,
When we started making pillows, we never thought that we would ever sell them, let alone become a business.
All of this began as a passion project in our family, hand sewing pillows on a dining room table on our multi-year quest to make the perfect pillow for ourselves.
After finally making our dream pillow, we made some as gifts. From the handful we gave to our friends and family, we suddenly had people reaching out asking how they could buy one. Before long our inbox filled up with your messages and stories – and right away we knew this was bigger than us.
You told us that our pillow changed your life and that it gave you relief from decades of chronic pain. You told us that for the first time in years, our pillow allowed you to live your life in a way you had thought was no longer possible. You thanked us for easing the daily pain you suffer as a disabled veteran. You told us how you were wounded on the job as a peace officer and the pain and surgeries you have suffered through since. You told us over, and over, and over again that you couldn’t live without our pillow. Do you see where I am going with this?
The idea for Honeydew Sleep came from YOU. You inspired us and gave us a purpose. You told us that what we were doing was important. It was your messages that made us realize we needed to make our pillows available and accessible to everyone who needed one.
From the very beginning, we have always said that when you buy a honeydew pillow you become a member of our family. We often say how much you are loved - in our packaging, in our emails, and I want to stress how much we mean it. We love you, we do this for you, and you are what has given us the strength to persevere during some of our most challenging times.
In a recent podcast interview of Evita and I, we were asked if we had always been entrepreneurs. My answer was that we have never been entrepreneurs, and still aren't. We are passionate, creative perfectionists, meticulous to a fault, who will stop at nothing until we achieve our goals when we believe in them. The products come easy to us – running a business, not as much. We have never hit the margins or the volume we would need to be a successful company, but year after year we have continued to push forward because our commitment to our products and our customers has always been our top priority. When we founded Honeydew in 2017, we actually decreased our prices because we wanted our pillows to be as accessible as possible. This has been a point of pride for us over the years. Unfortunately (as we all know), it’s not 2017 anymore.
I know every single person reading this has had long conversations about the events that have changed our world over the last couple of years, and I won’t rehash them here. Suffice to say, some of these have significantly affected our business. In everything from our foam to our fabric to the paper for our cardboard boxes, our component costs have as much as doubled. This has been a particularly challenging year for us (as it has been for all small businesses), and there have been many sleepless nights. We have racked our brains trying to figure out how to keep going without increasing our prices or affecting the quality of our products (outsourcing our pillows, using different materials, etc.). The unfortunate truth is that this is simply not possible - One of these things has to give.
We have always said that we will never release a product unless it is special. It can’t be merely good, or even great – it has to be the best. We have stood by that with every single addition to our catalog since that very first pillow all those years ago. Guess what? That will never change. We will never sacrifice the quality of our products. After all, it was that very stubbornness, that refusal to compromise, that motivated us to keep making prototype after prototype for literal years before we were happy with it. Ultimately, it was this level of (can quirky be a synonym for insane?) perfectionism that eventually led to the creation of Honeydew in the first place.
So, where does that leave us? As of September 6th, we will need to increase our prices. It is with heavy hearts that we are forced to do this, but ultimately the survival of Honeydew and the continued existence and availability of our products is our top priority. We are as dedicated and passionate about this as we ever have been, and have been working around the clock the past few months to bring you some new, exciting things, that we promise will be launching before the holidays. No matter what, we aren’t going anywhere, and we will continue to be here for many, many years.
The reason I am writing you this (way too long) letter, is because I wanted to give you a head’s up, and a chance to get whatever you need before the price increase takes effect. We have even created a discount code for you that gives our pillows one heck of a send-off at the $99 price point. Here’s how it works: Add two of our pillows to your cart (any 2 – feel free to mix and match), enter the code: at check out, and we will take 50% off your second pillow. In addition, any orders who use this checkout code will also get FREE pillowcases included in the box with their pillows – automatically! (Doesn’t this sound like a perfect gift package for the upcoming holiday season? – wink, wink) This is a bigger discount than we have ever run before and expires at midnight on 9/5.
We also want to reward our faithful customers who have believed in us since the beginning, so moving forward we plan on running more short-term promotions as well. If you aren’t already on our mailing list (that’s a joke - you are) sign up now!
I also want you to always feel free to reach out to us. We really are here to help however we can, and we love connecting with you. I know this message is long and a bit sappy, but it felt important. The overwhelming amount of gratitude we feel is deep heartfelt, and genuine, and it is all thanks to you. Your honesty and candor with us over the years have truly moved us, and it just wouldn’t feel right for us not to share with you in return. After all, we are family. 😊
Love,
Jonathan, Evita, & Fred Kunke
