Important changes affecting our business and services

Its been a while since we have posted an update, so we want to share with you some very important information on what's been happening and what our vision is for the future, as well as details as to why we are making some of these changes, and how it will affect you and our future customers.

For a TLDR and Questions/Answers, see bottom of the post for a quick conclusion or further information. 

Over the last 4 years or so, we have proudly reached over a million people worldwide and sold thousands of custom keyboards, lubed hundreds of thousands of switches and been a part of an amazing online community connecting with thousands of people in our Discord server and other platforms. During this time, we have always had the goal of innovating at every opportunity on the quality and range of products we offer customers, with the intention always being to try and offer all the bells and whistles of a custom keyboard but at a price point thats more consumer friendly. 

When the company transferred ownership during the beginning of covid, we were shown so much support and compassion from our customers and community and invested all our time and effort into upholding our business model despite the logistical and financial challenges that followed. To that end, we were largely successful and delivered to thousands of happy customers across the globe. 

As we announced around 6 months ago, we were actively facing an additional set of challenges that meant sustaining our business model for the long term would become increasingly difficult and complex. Increasing costs from suppliers and manufacturers, along with more competition in the market and logistical challenges causing long lead times meant that we were under immense pressure to deliver on our usual service. Because of this, we have spent a lot of time working on how we can best adapt Ascend to be able to overcome these issues and be more future proof and financially sustainable in the future.

Therefore, we are announcing that as of the start of November, we will be shutting down some of our core services permanently. However, we will continue to operate under a differentiated business model, solely focusing on the keyboards themselves, as well as a few prebuilt options and a more narrow and affordable custom keyboard builder. We will no longer be retailing the majority of our keycap sets, accessories, lubed switches, and most of our keyboards that are currently for sale will not be available for purchase.

Although we are deeply saddened to be stepping away from the business model that we have been growing and nurturing for nearly 4 years, we are looking forward to the new changes ahead and are eager to share what we have in store for you all. It's been an incredible journey, and we want to thank everyone who was part of it for their unwavering support, contributions and encouragement, and we can't wait to show you what we've been working on soon!

- Ascend Team