2025 has been a year of many changes and choices. Some of them were very good. Some of them were honestly terrifying.
This is a personal post.
We have put together a cute little “Wrapped” if you are mostly interested in numbers and business facts. What follows here, though, is from me. From Lena.
penumbra has been my baby for more than ten years now. Writing that still feels a bit unreal. I know I repeat this a lot, but I truly never imagined that “this” could become a real thing. A thing that pays my rent. A thing that supports my life. A thing that even involves employees 😱
Running a business comes with a lot of joy, but it always brings challenges along with it. For me, the biggest one has always been choosing the right people to work with. “Right” does not just mean competent or skilled. It also means being a good fit to work with me. That applies to employees, freelancers, partner shops, shipping partners, and pretty much everyone involved.
2025 brought a lot of movement in exactly that area. It also forced me to rethink how orders are organized and handled overall.
Many of our structures were built years ago, back when penumbra was a much smaller operation. Now we are in a strange in-between space. We are too big to be a one-person business, but not quite big enough to easily build a full team. And still, we need structures that actually work with multiple people involved.
I have to admit something here: I hate IT. I really do. I hate organizing digital data properly and filing things in a way that makes sense long-term. It is still a struggle. But this year, we made some smart changes and switches. We also had to move our website to a new provider, which was a massive undertaking on its own.
And then there is marketing. Oh boy. I talked to some truly strange companies, agencies, and freelancers this year, with very loud ideas that did not fit me or penumbra at all. I know, we absolutely still have lots of room for improvement in that area. But I would much rather move slowly than do things that feel overly sales-driven or just wrong. So yes, our marketing has been a bit inconsistent at times. By now, however, I have found someone wonderful to work with, and we consciously decided on a slow approach that gives me time to adjust.
All of this happened while running business as usual.
And then there was the whole US tariff situation. Many of you might not know this, but we actually sell a significant amount to the US. Thank you to all our lovely customers overseas ❤️
When that suddenly came to a halt, it was a real shock. Losing roughly a third of your income is not something you can just shrug off. Things are now very slowly picking up again, but that period was genuinely scary.
Still, we made it work.
Through all the restructuring, people coming and going, uncertainty and rethinking, we are still here. And we are still excited to tackle a new year with new challenges.
One thing I noticed very clearly this year is how much I miss being creative in a very free way. I love working with your ideas and seeing the color and design combinations you come up with. But I have not really had the space to create something entirely from scratch in a while.
I was also wearing more hats than one person reasonably should, which made it harder to engage with you the way I would like to. And yet, hearing your stories is still one of the most joyful parts of my work.
That is something I want to change in 2026.
I want to bring creativity back. I want to start a few projects simply because I love them. And I want to create more opportunities for you to share your stories with us ❤️
We will also be back at obscene (Karlsruhe) in 2026, which I am really looking forward to. We will, of course, be at BoundCon (Munich). And maybe we’ll try for KWS again in November 🇳🇱
Another goal for 2026 is to find more partners to work with. I often get asked where people can see our products in person. I completely understand the wish to touch and actually see things before making a decision. But penumbra is a small brand, built on care with certain values in mind. That means we want to work with partners who share those values. People who care about their customers and understand the importance of genuine interaction.
So: If you have favorite shops where you would love to see our products, let me know.
No big chains, please. That simply does not align with our ideas.
To wrap this up:
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for supporting this strange, beautiful journey.
Here is to 2026 🥂
Lena