The company, which sells monthly subscription boxes for"geek" culture, listed the reason for the layoffs as due to the"closure permanent" of a location in Vernon, California. As of Wednesday, 192 LinkedIn users listed Loot Crate as their employer, so these layoffs would seem to affect a majority of its staff.
However, in a statement to Business Insider, Loot Crate says that the company is alive and kicking — but that it's closing its in-house warehouse operations and moving to a third-party logistics provider, and that the layoffs were"predominantly our on-call shipping and receiving staff.""This isn't closure for Loot Crate's business, and instead is the company transitioning out of our current warehouse operations to a third party logistics company.
Part of the themed subscription box boom that produced jewelry-focused RocksBox, makeup-themed Birchbox, and clothing-centric StitchFix, Loot Crate was founded to cater to fans of, with boxes including swag from movies and TV shows like"Game of Thrones,""Star Trek," and"Star Wars." In 2016, Loot Crate raised $18.5 million from Upfront Ventures, Time Inc., Sterling.VC, M13, Downey Ventures, and Breakwater Investment Management,