This is heartbreaking news to share but after 15 years of working on tonlé alongside many, many incredible team members, and contributors, it’s time to say goodbye, for now. Though something might bloom in the future out of what our team has created, tended, and nurtured, for the time being we are closing the tonlé business as it currently exists. In the following letter I would like to share next steps and express my gratitude to our community for all your support over the years. 

Why

I plan to share a follow up with the reasons for this decision and some of the systemic challenges we’ve been up against, but in short, we’ve been fighting against the grain of a capitalist system which is not designed for mutual thriving. We had hoped to challenge these systems from within, and have done so in many ways to a certain extent, but the financial strains brought by the pandemic along with a market in which large brands are becoming increasingly monopolistic, we have not been able to be financially sustainable for quite some time, despite having an incredibly supportive customer base. As such, I am proud of what we’ve accomplished as a community, and I do not consider this a failure on our part, or on the part of our customers, but instead I see systems that have failed our team and our customers. My hope is that in sharing some of our journey I can encourage all of us to think about how we can put pressure on the larger systems to change and to create structures that really can ensure mutual thriving. 

I also know that the work we’ve done at tonlé will live on in many ways and that there are ways for the resources we’ve built to be shared and to support the industry. For that reason, you may see our platform (including our social media, email lists, and website) used to share information and/or as a platform for others in the future. We’ve realized that running a single small brand and a single small manufacturing facility doesn’t financially work at this time, but that doesn’t mean the resources and platforms we’ve built can’t be used in some other way to support the broader industry and our goals. We haven’t defined how this may work yet, but we wanted to give you a heads up and we hope you’ll stick around for that. 

Next steps

In the next week we’ll be having a big sale on the website, and we will also be selling our products wholesale to retailers at a discount. If you are interested, please get in touch by email. All sales will be final and non-returnable. If you have a gift card, we hope that you’ll use it this week as well. We will also be distributing inventory to selected non-profit partners who align with our values as well as members of the queer and trans community who would benefit from gender affirming clothing. If you or someone you know could use a little extra support right now, please let us a note and we will send them a gift card.  

Important dates

June 23rd – Last day of website sale, last day to use or request a refund on gift cards

July 1st – Last day of wholesale sale

July 1st – All products shipped or refunded by this date 

July 10th – closing customer service 

Customer service

In the next few weeks, it will be only me doing customer service, and I plan to prioritize any questions about orders or shipping first and foremost. Any other inquiries may or may not be responded to. We will not be able to process any more returns or open closet return requests after June 22nd, so please submit any returns prior to that date. 

We will not be able to respond to most Instagram DMs. Please email me for the fastest service at hello@tonle.com.

If you have an outstanding order that has not been fulfilled, we are either working on it or have sent you a refund already. We have had some inventory that was held up in Cambodia for quite some time, refunds are being processed for any outstanding product that has not shipped. 

Gift Cards

If you have a gift card, we would love it if you used it by June 23rd. If you do not want to use it and it was not a free gift card, please let us know by the end of June so we can process a refund for you. We will not offer refunds for free gift cards (gift cards that were not purchased or where points were used.) 

Points

If you have points accrued on your account, please use them by June 23rd. Once we have shut down our site, these will expire. 

Shipping times

We will aim to ship all orders within one week of receipt, but if we are backed up, it may take up to 2 weeks. We will have all orders shipped or refunded by July 1st. 

Refunds + Inventory

We have had some mistakes in our inventory over the last few months due to technical difficulties and being short-staffed. If there is a mistake in our inventory and a product is not in stock that you purchased, we will send you a refund as soon as we discover the issue or at the latest by July 1st. 

Subscriptions 

We have cancelled all subscriptions at this time and all outstanding boxes have been shipped. If you have a question about your subscription, please let us know. 

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Sending my deepest gratitude to our amazing community of friends, supporters, customers, and team. Without all of you none of this would have been possible.

- Rachel, tonlé co-creator