Sarah Jayne and I started Unbound as two common-sense midwesterners who understand the value of a dollar. To us, affordability has always equaled accessibility. If a vibrator costs $200, what message does that send? That pleasure is only for those making $100k or more a year? Absolutely not. 

However, the last two years have pushed that belief system to its brink. Costs are rising across the board and we are not immune to those price increases. We do not have the scale or purchasing power of a Proctor and Gamble or Unilever. We are constantly faced with the choice to increase prices or cut costs, and there's nowhere left for us to cut costs without sacrificing quality and safety. 

Flick, our wearable ring vibrator, is going to be out of stock for a while.

It's because the metal Flick is made of has gotten very, very expensive. The cost to make Flick went up ~60% in two years, and the metal parts alone nearly doubled. To keep selling it, we'd have to roughly double the price to over $100. We're not going to do that to you.

So here's the whole thing, with receipts (literally). 

What happened

Flick's body and rings are zinc alloy, electroplated in 24k gold and silver palladium. It's what makes Flick look like jewelry instead of those hideous Meta glasses, but it's also the part of the product that just went through the roof in cost.

Our factory in China sent us an updated quote in August 2026, broken out line by line against what we paid in August 2024. Here's what changed:

• Zinc alloy and plating materials went up, and so did the cost of the electroplating process itself. The top and bottom housings each more than doubled.
• The motor costs 50% more, because the tungsten steel inside it went up.
• The magnetic charging pins cost 44% more, because the magnet material (N35, if you're into that) went up.
• The circuit board costs 19% more, thanks to pricier resistors and capacitors.
• The Chinese yuan got stronger against the dollar (7.14 to 6.7), so every yuan we pay costs us about 6.5% more in dollars before anything else even happens.

What didn't change: the battery, the screws and seals, the packaging, the assembly labor, and the factory's own profit (which we care deeply about protecting). Our manufacturer is making the exact same they made two years ago. Nobody's gouging anybody. Metal just costs more now.

The actual numbers

This is our factory's cost sheet for one gold Flick, August 2024 vs. August 2026. Silver tells the same story.

All the metal parts together went from 45.61 to 82.37 yuan (+81% gold; +94% for silver). Add the stronger yuan, and one gold Flick now costs us $22.00 to make instead of $13.85. Silver went from $12.35 to $20.07 (+63%).

And that's just the factory price. It doesn't include shipping, tariffs, warehousing, increased fuel costs or the payment processor taking its cut, all of which scale with it.

Why we're not just doubling the price

Once you stack tariffs, freight, and everything else on top of a factory cost that jumped 60%, the math says Flick would need to go from $64 to $100 for Flick in Palladium Silver and from $68 to $110 for Flick in 24k Gold. We could do that. Plenty of brands would, quietly, and hope you just don't notice.

We'd rather not do that to our customers and community. The product isn't improving in any way and we can't accept charging twice as much for the exact same vibe. Furthermore, we're a small, independent company, so we can't eat a 60% cost increase on every unit and still be here next year.

So we're pausing reorders of Flick until the costs reflect a sale price that we feel aligns with our values as a small business. 

What happens next

• If you already have a Flick: congratulations, you own a collector's item. Nothing changes for you.
• If you want one: grab it while current stock lasts! You can also sign up for a restock alert on Flick's product page, and you'll hear from us the second there's news. 

But the honest truth is this: I don't know when or even IF prices are going to come down. The global economy is not looking too hot nor is the forecast for inflation. I wish I had a timeline I could share, but I don't have a ton of faith that our government is going to be able to work together to bring costs down any time soon. 

I don't love writing this post. I hate that I have spent so much time this year communicating bad news to our community. But you trust us with some pretty personal stuff, so the least we can do is show you the books and be honest about what we can and cannot do. I hope you'll stick with us throughout it all, because Unbound wouldn't exist with you.