2025 in Review: Road to Somewhere

I promise this photo will make sense after you finish reading.

When I sent my 2024 year-in-review to the team to proofread, I proclaimed, “I already can’t wait to write the 2025 version.”

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy living in the moment. I genuinely love the ups and downs of the day to day and I do my best not to think too far ahead. But there was something about putting all of 2024 on paper that made me excited for the day I’d get to do the same with 2025.

Well, that day is finally here.

As I write this, I’m flying across the United States with the XL in the overhead and a Voyager sample (more on that later) at my feet, grinning like an idiot as I finally get to unpack 2025.

For those paying attention, 2025 started a lot like 2024. We sold out. The difference this time was that our bags weren’t stuck in customs. 

We actually ran out.

Selling out looks great on paper, but cash flow still matters. With a major inventory order coming up, we had to figure out how not to march toward zero.

Insert Gavin.

He looked around his house, noticed an unopened box of our 2023 - 2024 product line and suggested, “Why don’t we just sell the Weekend Warrior 1.0 at a discount? We still have some left.”

So we did. 

Gavin and I actively shipping out the Weekend Warrior 1.0. Fun fact, I opposed selling the 1.0. Safe to say he gave me a good "I told you so."

We found about 80 bags and sold them out in a week. We were literally hunting these down because of how fast they were flying out the door. 

In late January, we launched a pre-sale for the 50L Weekend Warrior. In mid-February, we did the same for the 40L. Anything to keep sales moving while inventory was thin.

The photo of our container that carried our April 2025 restock. I have never wanted a container to move faster (until the January 2025 restock - more on that below).

As winter turned to spring, things slowed, but we had a plan and were moving steadily…

On March 23rd, we placed our inventory order for the 2025 to 2026 season. 

On March 24th, I moved out of NYC.

On March 26th, I went in for surgery.

On April 2nd, still somewhat high on pain meds, I thought I hallucinated when Trump announced a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam.

What a 9 day stretch. 

I don't even remember taking this photo. 

While we suspected negotiations would eventually soften things, the timing was brutal. I was planning to go full time in mid-May, and panic set in fast.

So we came up with a plan. A novel idea. 

An SBA loan. We would fight tariffs with…debt. 

With a plan in hand, on May 9th I gave my two weeks notice. Diamant’s first full time employee. 

Now that our “CEO” was full time, we started pursuing that SBA loan and quickly learned it would not be easy. Requirements had changed and we were far from the only brand trying this approach.

June arrived. Sales slowed to a crawl, costs continued to jog, and the SBA loan still felt far away.

Insert Ernie.

We tried a summer photo shoot. We barely ever used any of the photos.

“Why don’t we run ads in Australia? Don’t they ski in June?”

Turns out, they do. On June 24th we launched ads in both the US and Australia.

After nearly posting a donut in June, we bought ourselves breathing room with a strong July. We learned two things. Australians do, in fact, ski in June, and Americans will absolutely buy ski gear in the middle of summer. 

I love  this country.

July was strong, August started strong, and even without the SBA loan secured it felt like the tide was changing. In early August, Gavin decided to take the leap and go full time.

Two. Two full time Diamant employees. 

This was taken long after the Meta crisis you'll read about below.

Then August 11th happened.

After shifting our URL, our Meta ad account broke.

Paid media, especially Meta, is the lifeline of a young brand. Sales stopped immediately. For two weeks, Gavin and I lived in Meta support hell, forced ourselves to keep preparing for the upcoming season, and threw a football around while daydreaming about ads turning back on.

Yes, that's us on a call with Meta support. It was an hour call and no it didn't help.

Bankruptcy started knocking again. We had spent days with zero progress and the fear of having to sell all these bags without ads started to creep in. 

On August 21st, right in the middle of the chaos, we held our offsite in Boston. Most of the agenda went out the window. We had  to fix the Meta account.

We combed through every corner of Business Manager, read endless Reddit threads, harassed ChatGPT, and dug through Meta’s documentation.

Then on Sunday, August 24th, Ernie spotted it.

“A URL must include the company’s full verified name in order for you to be able to run ads directing customers to said URL.”

When we moved from diamantskiing.com to diamantgear.com, I had removed “Diamant Skiing LLC” from the site because of our rebrand to Diamant. 

Meta did not like that. That night, ads went live again.

And when it rains, it pours.

By the end of August, using a loophole I will not document here, we secured SBA funding.

Fast forward four months. We are down to our last 8  Weekend Warriors, have posted our strongest months ever, and are about to bring on the third musketeer.

Thank you to our 3PL, UPS, and Fedex. This country runs on the people that move the freight. They are our silent heroes. 

On January 2nd, Ernie will officially join Gavin and I as full time number 3. All three boot bag kids enter 2026 on the dark side (self employed).

First and foremost, none of this happens without all of you. Your trust and support is why we’re able to keep building better products. We love you. 

Second, this is still just the start…

Yes, this is what he sent me. And yes, this is how it feels to all be employed together. 

So where does that leave us?

Practically speaking, things are about to get wild.

Mid-January we are restocking the 50L. Preorders open January 1st. Three new colors are coming. 

From my visit to Vietnam back in June. Never gets old seeing all our bags in one place. 

That ski and snowboard bag I teased last year is nearly ready. Preorders open in February.

And in April, we’re launching the Voyager Series. Two personal items built to go from the office to the far corners of the earth. Yes, I know these have been delayed a bit. They will be worth the wait. 

Mind you, this is just the first few months of 2026. There is so much in store - you better buckle up and make sure you’re along for the ride. 

At the end of 2024, Diamant was standing on its own.

In 2025, we hijacked a car and started driving.

In 2026, we plan to replace the engine with a V8 and see how fast this thing can really go.

See you out there.

–Shai