Status Update: Year 1

On June 26th, almost exactly 1 year ago we sold our first product ever. It was the Unloader Tool for SSG24. A lot has happened over the past year and I felt like it was a perfect time to reflect on our first year of operations and give you a look behind the curtain.

Those who don't know, TRIDOS is basically a one-man-army operated by me, Mikus (also known as Mike). I've been a self-taught product designer and I built my first 3D printer at the age of 16. For the past 4 years I worked as a product engineer and UX designer for a startup based in Riga, Latvia but in 2019 I felt like I needed a change. I needed a place where I could create and test my ideas on how I see products and customer service should be done without any walls or friction. And so TRIDOS Airsoft (now TRIDOS.DESIGN) was born.

I've always wanted to make products and brand that provide value to customer and make their lives easier and TRIDOS.DESIGN has proven to be the culmination of that with numerous products we released over the past year for the airsoft community. During the summer and fall of 2019 we released several new products - including the SSG24 speed loader adapter and unicorn adapter, which are two of our top-selling products by far. And for a reason - I honestly don't know how to load magazines up without them 😅!

December of 2019 also marked a big event for me personally - I quit my full-time job. Creating the products for airsoft community at that time already had been bringing me more joy as the startup I was working for at the time (don't get me wrong, I loved to work there because I believe in the products and the concept however there were quite a few things that frustrated me) so I took the plunge to make this a sustainable business and make a living for myself and on my own terms.

And so far it's been working out! Thanks to you guys who keep supporting us!

Some time in March another big thing happened. I started working remotely part time for the one and only - Christoph Neuwrith. 🤯. I'm under NDA so I cannot tell you much but I can tell you this - the products we are working on will be freaking game-changing for the whole airsoft community and hoping they will see daylight within this year. I also have huge respect for those guys having seen what they are working on and how much they've been able to achieve in such a short amount of time.

The first year has been a blast and I'm overwhelmed by the positive feedback we've got on the products. Heck, half of the reviews on our shop look like they were fabricated in an over the top positive way - but I shit you not, every single one of those is a legit review from our customers and every word in them is theirs! Mad respect to those who take their time to write a review on our shop 🤜🤛!

Here's some numbers to put our first year into perspective - we've sold a total of 1970 products and shipped 823 orders to 47 different countries. I would never have thought I would ship so many products straight out of my ex-bedroom which has now been fully transformed in a proper workshop. Even with this pandemic going on, you guys kept us going (to be honest, everyone was sitting at home so it was a perfect time to do some upgrades, heh). Seriously, THANK YOU! 

Oh and one last thing...

We've been working like crazy over the past few months on one particular product - TDC 2.0. This is our first product where we took some of the manufacturing to China - we made anodized aluminum parts, springs and stainless steel turned parts that you can barely even see. This was made entirely possible by you guys and we feel like this TDC will be out of this world. It's going to be our biggest product launch by far.

To an insane rest of the 2020 and may the BB's fly straighter than ever (with TDC 2.0 that's the case for sure)!

Cheers,
Mike.