So so so many of you have DM’d or commented asking a lot of questions about what happened to our rug line – why am I not on the site anymore, and do some of our rugs have a new name? It’s been confusing, and until now I wasn’t able to share (and hoped to not need to) but here goes.
Why Aren’t You On The Website Anymore?
Well, I’m no longer collaborating with them – they cancelled the line, mid-contract. After 2 lines with Rugs USA (2 years), the second one in particular selling very well, they made the decision to break it off.
Why Was It Cancelled?
Leadership change and financial shifts. They rehired their former CEO (who sat on the board while I was there), and collaborations weren’t part of his vision for the company before or now. Different CEOs get to change the direction of the company under their watch to meet their goals (usually under pressure from their board of directors, debtors, and investors). Essentially, financial shifts changed their marketing budgets, and collaborations are always part of the marketing budget, so we are always vulnerable to this when there are large leadership changes. Pretty standard business, honestly. The line was doing very well, but Rugs USA needed to make some changes, and so I’m sure a lot was on the chopping block, including their influencer/designer collaborations.
Did You See It Coming?
Kinda. Again, when we heard about the changes at the top, you have to wonder if they’ll retain the relationship. Our line was doing so well that I thought at worst we would just renegotiate the profit share for the third line. At first, we were told about the marketing personnel changes (always a warning), then bigger marketing shifts, and then a lot of stalls on the samples, as well as the potential shoot dates of the next line. So I knew something was up. Sure enough, a week later, they/we were all cancelled, “effective immediately”. Drama! lol.
Are You Bummed?
Sure. We worked really hard on these, and the revenue was great for EHD – myself and the team. We were really proud of them, and the entire process was a super positive experience. Had it been fraught, we would likely have had a different reaction, but it was really great, so we are sad to not work with them anymore. But I also know that businesses have to be healthy in order to stay alive, and sometimes you have to make hard decisions. Zero hard feelings – it’s just business.
Was It Because They Didn’t Sell?
Nope. The sales were high. In fact, I think because they were so high that they made the decision to take them in-house, which was their right. Listen, Rugs USA brought a lot to the table, including a massive population of people who shop from them regardless of them knowing me or not, and it was great marketing for us. I get the need to cut costs in hopes of retaining more of the profit. I’ve done similar moves in the past when I was in financial stress – misguided calculations based out of fear and skyrocketing overhead – you think you can do the same volume with fewer people (and sometimes you can). I have no insight into their business beyond what I read in a Wall Street Journal article. When companies aren’t healthy, everyone is vulnerable and hard decisions have to be made, so I really do understand the reaction, and only time will tell if that was the right thing to do.
Do You Regret Doing It?
No! We learned so much, met such awesome people (their marketing team was so incredible – totally changed the brand to be way more design forward, cool, stylish), and my team got to develop and flex different muscles. Plus, we made money, which is the whole point of running a business, so it really was a win, regardless of how it turned out.
Are You Looking For Another Rug Partner?
Yes!… As of today. We couldn’t until now due to some contract stuff, but because it was such a success, we feel confident that we can work with another company we love and produce as good, if not better, rugs for us and you. We have a lot of revenue streams, thank goodness, so this is just one that is down for a bit, but we are genuinely excited to find the right partner and give it another go.
The Biggest Bummer…
I designed (and already shot) my brother’s river house to sell these rugs. It’s going to be in a big magazine spread (with rooms you haven’t seen yet), so not making any money off of that design and marketing work on our end is a huge bummer. Sure, we can link to them and make a tiny affiliate commission (usually 3-5% of the retail cost, depending), so we’ll still link to them (I think). But when you literally design a house based around your own line, excited to show people how good it looks in this home that you’ve spent 4 years working on, and then it’s not your line anymore…well, yeah, that’s a bummer. I still stand by the rugs – they look so good in my brother’s house, and I’m not changing them out.
Can They Still Use Your Photos And The Names Of The Rugs?
Yep. If they paid for the shoot and the production of the rugs, they get usage (even if it’s in my home and named after my kids or my maiden name – Starke!). So if you see photos of them at the mountain house or our house, it’s all legal and on the up and up.
If We Buy Them Does EHD Benefit?
Not really. We can still use affiliate links when we feature the rugs here or on social (links that pay out the influencer a tiny percentage of the sale price from the retailer, at no cost to the consumer). So we’d be dumb not to link to the rugs when we feature them on past or my brother’s project, but it’s not the royalty that we used to get, and it’s very minimal. I still think they are great rugs, and right now they are on a massive sale (they might be discontinuing them, which is why they are on such a huge 40% off sale).
Man, it’s fun to see them all together like this.
I’m seriously so proud of my team for their hard work on this, especially Jess, who helped lead the design process. The line did really well, we had a ton of best sellers that we loved, and again, we learned so much about the design and manufacturing process. And listen, running a business, especially a business rooted in digital marketing, we have to be fluid and willing to pivot pretty quickly (lord, we know how much TikTok and AI are disrupting otherwise historically solid platforms – ha, I use the word “historically” very loosely). It requires us to be nimble and also to have a lot of different revenue streams, so if a solid one (like this) gets cut in one day, we are totally fine. It’s always a great reminder to stick to our core values and audience, and while growing forward is great, growing bigger comes with its own risks. A huge thanks to all of you who bought the rugs, love them, and cared enough to ask.
We’ll keep shopping from Rugs USA when we need an affordable rug, that is until we have a new rug line and then, you know, we will support our own line. 🙂 Onward and Upwards!!
Unless Otherwise Noted:
*Styled by Getteline Rene
**Photos by Mark Weinberg
