Friday, April 11, 2025

Why we’re pausing events in 2025

Gentle tidings, You Blissful Baklava!

In 2024, we focused brand awareness initiatives on in-person connection. Trying on armless sunglasses in person, that 'Where have these been all my life?!' moment, is sooo much better than scrolling past them whilst doom-scrolling with your legs asleep on the toilet.

So, we unleashed Tommy and Hector (our bodacious events duo) upon 18 outdoor events around the country - think Pacific Crest Trail Days, International Climbers Festival and Paddle Fest. Equipped with limbo contests, 80's dance parties, and big rock competitions, Tommy and Hec seeded Ombraz to glorious humans and offered sweet discounts to everyone they met.

The price tag for this eventure? A whopping $150,000.

When we crunched the numbers, we wanted to crunch our drywall. We figured at each event we got in front of 500 people (overly optimistic). So 9,000 people found out about Ombraz through our event strategy in 2024. But for $150,000? That's around $17 for a single impression! To put that into perspective, we pay 1.4 cents per impression on the interwebs.

Sure, online impressions can't compare with Tommy and Hector's magnificent charm or the experience of actually trying Ombraz on in person, but at 1,200 times the cost? So when sales, organic online searches, and overall marketing returns all took a slight dip in 2024, we made the difficult decision to put our event booth into storage this year.

The digital world may offer less personal connection, but it remains a relatively effective pathway for helping people discover the armless design.

We are, however, excited to announce our first-ever popup shop in Boulder, Colorado, running this April through June. If you're in the area or planning a trip to the Rockies, stop by to try on the full collection or chat with our team. We'd love to see you.

And of course, our inbox is always open. We're here for any questions or thoughts you may have!