Blog: Brooklyn Tweed – Apart Together

Pay What You Choose —  Support How You Can

In the wake of the developing pandemic of COVID-19, there remains a lot of uncertainty and fear. But we have also seen an encouraging surge of compassion and generosity from our community. Though socially isolated, our hearts and minds are aligned in brainstorming ways to bolster this interconnected network of small businesses, makers and designers. 

Our industry is founded on the hard work and full hearts of beloved brick-and-mortar local yarn stores. Many are shuttering their doors to help flatten the curve and stop this virus from spreading. By looking out for their customers and employees and putting global health first, they find themselves in a potentially tenuous financial situation. We also know that many of our knitters work in public-facing industries and have no remote work options, placing their income at risk. All of us here at Brooklyn Tweed want to help.

In pursuit of that, we are launching our new initiative – Brooklyn Tweed: Apart Together. 

How It Works:

With this initiative, we are offering all of our customers who are experiencing financial hardship during this stressful time the ability to purchase our yarns at a more accessible price point while also supporting their favorite BT-carrying brick-and-mortar. Our stockists have the option to offer these same discounts as well, with credit back from Brooklyn Tweed for the discounted difference of each yarn sale. This gives you the freedom to seek solace in new knitting without additional money-stress while still supporting your local yarn store to the utmost. 

In this Pay What You Choose system, any amount you elect to pay from the baseline 30% discount up to full retail on Brooklyntweed.com will be credited to the BT stockist of your choice. This enables you to provide direct support for a yarn store that may lack inventory or shipping capabilities and those affected by poor health and closures. 

In helping any member of our community, you help all members. Knit on with love, compassion and camaraderie and we will emerge on the other side even stronger than before. 

The Details:

First, shop with your local BT stockist if possible! Give them a ring or check social media to see if your LYS is open and able to provide personal shopping, curbside pickup or shipping at this time. This global event is ever-evolving and your store may have new information or offerings to help you shop safely. If they have chosen to discount their BT inventory, you can select skeins with confidence, knowing that Brooklyn Tweed will make up the difference between what you spend and what the shop would have made. You pay less but your shop earns in full!

Should your LYS not be able to supply you with yarn, we then encourage you to shop at BrooklynTweed.com. With Apart Together, we understand the financial fears that come with crises like this and humbly offer our help through a three-tiered choice of discounts. Simply select the amount you feel comfortable paying and apply one of the following discount codes accordingly at checkout:

No Code = Full Price 

30% of the regular retail price of your yarn purchase will be credited to the BT Stockist of your choice (entered by you in the notes section at checkout)

SUPPORTYOURLYS_10 = 10% discount for you

20% of the regular retail price will be credited to the BT stockist of your choice

SUPPORTYOURLYS_20 = 20% discount for you

10% of the regular retail price will be credited to the BT stockist of your choice

SUPPORTYOURLYS_30 = 30% discount for you

5% of the regular retail price is credited to the BT stockist of your choice. 

We are humbled to help you through this difficult time and happy to provide an accessible price point for your comfort knitting. 

Moving Forward Together

With the joint goals of getting yarn into your hands and fostering greater financial security for your LYS, Brooklyn Tweed: Apart Together will be in effect from now until May 15th to help strengthen our community through this difficult period.

Now’s the time to Pay What You Choose and Support How You Can. Even a single skein supports your LYS and we have also dropped our Free Shipping threshold down to $49.

Buy a bundle of Peerie for that friend who’s always wanted to try it. Snap up skeins for your Holiday Knitting and get started early. Take the plunge on that massive blanket you’ve been eyeing in your queue. However you choose to support your LYS, we applaud you and they appreciate it. 

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Save a dollar. Share a dollar.

With the launch of our Wool People 14 collection, we are introducing a second phase of Apart Together: augmented profit sharing for designers. 

From April 8th through April 21st, all 5 patterns from Wool People 14: Odeon will be available on BrooklynTweed.com for $1 off their regular price. This dollar that you save is a dollar extra that goes straight to the designer in addition to their full commission. On April 22nd, this initiative will shift to support designers from Chapter II: Oriel. Look for the BT:AT tag, marking patterns that currently support Brooklyn Tweed: Apart Together.

Read more about this support initiative here. 

And if you’re looking for a different pattern to go with your yarn, we invite you to peruse our pattern library on BrooklynTweed.com. All pattern sales directly support our wonderful network of pattern designers, which further bolsters our community. Additionally, we have made all of our BT by Brooklyn Tweed patterns available for free on our site to ensure you have fun options for your social distancing knitting. 

The greater the groundswell, the stronger the support. Please help us spread the word to assist as many stores as possible. Share this blog post with your friends and family and post your projects using the hashtag #BTApartTogether so we can all join in the joy and comfort of community. Our projects will be even more fulfilling, knowing that we are helping local yarn stores at the same time.

Take care of yourselves and each other. Reach out to Mary at info@brooklyntweed.com if you have any questions or need a helping hand. From the entire staff at Brooklyn Tweed: we see you, we support you and we stand with you. 

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Returns and Exchanges:

In order to provide the best financial support to our stockists, all yarn purchases made from March 18th through May 15th will be eligible for exchange only. This ensures that our LYS partners are able to retain their full share of those sales and strengthen their businesses during the current closures and unforseen obstacles. Thank you for your understanding.