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The Aspen 2.0 | Handcrafted Leather A5 Planner/Journal Case

Created by Chad Schumacher

Heirloom quality leather case for A5 journals/planners, pens, and stationery. Handmade in Chicago by Allegory and guaranteed for life.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

That's a wrap(ish)! + a 15% journaling sale on our website and review request
29 days ago – Fri, Aug 09, 2024 at 09:06:32 AM

Hi all,

We've shipped the last reward we can for this project! Phew! Thank you all for your patience with our team while we dealt with all the various delays this summer. I hope you are all enjoying your Aspens. 😊 I wanted to let you all know:

  • Where you can get more Aspen gear (and a 15% off journaling sale on our website).
  • How you can write a review for the Aspen.
  • What to do if you don't have your rewards.

Journaling Sale (Get more Aspen gear)

Many of you have asked where you can order another Aspen or additional mods. They are now available on our website:

The Aspen (can order without a mod or with one mod)

Aspen Storage Mod (mod only)

If you want to pick up any Aspen gear, or one of our other journal/planner covers, they are on sale through the end of August for 15% off. The discount will show in your cart at checkout. 

We'd love a review!

So many of you have taken the time to write us great reviews in the comments here on Kickstarter. We'd love it if you could take a couple of minutes and leave a review for the Aspen on our website. 

Here is the link for a review. Follow this link then click the "Write a review" button in the top right corner.

If you don't have your Aspen rewards yet...

We have about thirty rewards left to ship that I'm still waiting on information on - I either don't have your BackerKit survey or an engraving survey back yet. If you haven't received your rewards (or a shipping notification via BackerKit), please shoot me an email at [email protected] so I can check to see what I'm missing from you. 

Thanks everyone! This was a blast!

Jess, Chad & the Allegory Team

Shipping Status and First Look
3 months ago – Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 03:21:36 PM

Hi all,

We've loved reading all the great feedback in the comments and messages these last couple of months! It's so nice to hear how these things that we designed and made are impacting you every day. It's such a neat connection.

Shipping Status

We have about wrapped up this project. We have one final batch of rewards to make and ship over the next couple of weeks. Our plan was to be finished by mid-June, but our final order of leather is over a month late in being delivered. We just got word on Friday that it landed in Miami and is on a truck to us this week. We have as many of the other items for these remaining orders completed as possible so that when the leather arrives later this week we can wrap up the final rewards quickly. 

If you haven't received your rewards yet, please check the following:

  • If you haven't heard anything from us via BackerKit about your order being "locked" or "shipped" or "your card being charged for shipping", this probably means that you haven't completed your backer survey yet. Please email [email protected] to check in and find your survey link.
  • If you ordered engraving but still haven't filled out the separate engraving questionnaire Jess emailed, that means we can't ship your items yet. Please check your email for a message from her ([email protected]) or just email her so she can bump it up in your inbox.
  • If you just want to check-in with Jess on the status of your rewards, please don't hesitate. Email is the best way to do that as the Kickstarter messaging interface is a bit unwieldy for multi-project creators.

First Look

We're always planning a project or two ahead so that we can plan our production calendars each year and make sure we have enough team members to make our products and enough orders to keep them busy! It's a delicate balance for a business of our size and can be thrown off by delays like our leather this past month. To the best of our ability we try to finish shipping the rewards from each of our projects before launching a new project. We hate it when backers feel like we've forgotten about their rewards! It's literally never happened, even if a backer doesn't fill out their survey for years. We always ship their rewards. 

Anyway, this time around our planning didn't quite sync up so we still have some Aspen 2.0 rewards to ship when (and here's the fun news part) our new project launches - TOMORROW! So you all get a first look! 

It's called the Grand Canyon Series and features wood we collected from around the rim of the Grand Canyon, one of the original seven natural wonders of the world. The story of the Grand Canyon is nothing short of epic, and the story of the juniper wood we selected to work with is pretty great too. We hope you'll take a look when the project launches tomorrow morning.

For our Aspen 2.0 backers whose items haven't shipped yet, check your email for a message from Jess for some more information. 

As always, thank you for your support!

Chad

All Surveys Sent + Important Note for Apple ID Backers
6 months ago – Sat, Mar 02, 2024 at 05:18:46 AM

I just hit send on all the surveys! We're excited to get your responses back and start shipping rewards. We've been hard at work already on Aspens these last few weeks and are expecting our large shipment of leather to arrive late next week. 

If you can't find your survey link, please check your spam and promotions folders. If you still can't find it, shoot me a message at [email protected] and I'll email your link directly. The survey links just don't play nicely with some email carriers.

Apple ID Backers

Backers who have pledged to the campaign using their AppleID but haven't completely set up their Apple Pay account (linking their email address to their Apple Wallet) will have issues receiving their emails from BackerKit. You have a @privaterelay.appleid.com email address and will need to reach out to me or BackerKit Support to update your email address in BackerKit. 
 
You can reach out to BackerKit Support by clicking the "need help" link from the Lost Survey page:  https://www.backerkit.com/are_you_a_backer. When you write into Support, please provide your name and your Kickstarter pledge number, which can be found in your Kickstarter pledge confirmation email.
 
Thank you all for participating in this project. We can't wait to get your rewards into your hands!
 
Jess, Chad and the Allegory Team

Surveys coming this weekend
6 months ago – Fri, Mar 01, 2024 at 01:08:03 PM

Hi all,

We just finished up the survey. A small handful of you will have just received a survey link. We send to a small batch first to make sure the survey doesn't have any issues. Assuming all goes well with the test, the rest of the surveys will be going out tomorrow.

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Thanks!

Jess & the Allegory Team

Thanks for your support! Here's what's next.
7 months ago – Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 01:54:30 PM

Hi all!

Jess here from Allegory, Chad's wife and Allegory co-founder. Many of you have already chatted with me via comments, messages, or email; but I'll be the main point of contact while we fulfill this project. We're excited to get started! And, we've already in fact started production. 

We have a number of new backers for this project, so, if you're new to Kickstarter or even just to working with Allegory on a Kickstarter, please keep reading.

What's Next?

Over the next two weeks, Kickstarter will be processing all your payments via Stripe. This gives everyone time to update their cards and for us to build out the post-project survey in BackerKit. This survey is how we will gather all your shipping information and final specs for your rewards (leather colors, storage mod selection, pen customization, etc.) You'll also be able to add any add-ons you didn't select on Kickstarter as well as finalize and pay for shipping. Don't stress about getting any of that information to me before the survey goes out. Until all of the surveys go out, I don't have a good place to track that information for each of you anyway.

The funds from the project will be transferred from Kickstarter to us on February 29.  At that point, we'll send the survey. To make sure the survey is working correctly, it will go to 5% of you on the first day. BackerKit calls this the "Smoke Test." We'll make any changes to the survey that are necessary, and then send to the whole project. I'm planning on sending the "Smoke Test" on March 1 or shortly thereafter and then the full survey on March 4.

Over the next two weeks, we'll be building out the survey and continuing to work on the first batches of Aspens. We got started last week and have about 50 in process already. We expect our next shipment of leather to arrive in early March based on your post-pledge surveys so we're in good shape so far.

How can you help us fulfill the project quickly?

  • Get your survey filled out as soon as possible after you receive it. Having surveys back quickly helps us build our batches for production and shipping most efficiently.
  • Send any questions, special requests, or concerns directly to me at [email protected]. Tracking comments and messages on the Kickstarter platform, especially on a project this large, can be quite difficult. It's very easy for things to slip through the cracks. Email lets me respond quickly and have a searchable record to track our conversation.
  • Communicate, don't wait! If you have a gifting deadline another reason you need your rewards by a specific date, please let me know as soon as possible once you've filled out your survey. I'll use this information to put our production and shipping batches together.

Ok! I think that about covers it for now! You can expect another update from me when the surveys are ready to send.

Thanks!

Jess and The Allegory Team