What Changed at Papertess
What Changed at Papertess
I want to tell you what really happened.
Not the polished version. Not the one that sounds like a brand statement. The real one. The one that kept me up at night.
There was a moment in 2025 where I sat in my studio, surrounded by products I had spent years building, and genuinely didn’t know if any of it would still exist a few months later.
The year that changed everything
2024 was the best year Papertess had ever had.
Orders were coming in from across the US, from Canada, Australia, Japan, and all across Europe. The community was growing. I had more products than ever. Planners in B6, Pocket, A6, Traveler’s Notebook formats, inserts, notebooks, accessories.
It felt like everything was working.
And then, almost overnight, it wasn’t.
When it stopped
Tariffs.
New import duties on goods entering the US made my products significantly more expensive for American customers before they even reached them.
And then, as if that wasn’t enough, Deutsche Post effectively suspended affordable international shipping to the United States.
The US had been my largest market.
And it was gone.
The hardest year
I don’t say this lightly: 2025 was the hardest year I’ve known as a business owner.
There were months where I made almost nothing.
Days where I refreshed my shop dashboard and saw nothing. No orders. No notifications.
Just silence.
And in that silence, I had to ask myself questions I had been avoiding for a long time:
Should I close the shop?
Clear the stock?
Walk away?
Why I stayed
I didn’t walk away.
But I had to be very honest about why I was staying.
At first, the answer wasn’t what I wanted it to be.
I wasn’t just staying because I believed in Papertess.
I was staying because I didn’t know who I would be without it.
That wasn’t a strong enough reason to keep building.
So I had to find a better one.
The paper question
For three years, Tomoe River Paper was Papertess.
It was the thing that set us apart. Thin, luminous, fountain pen-friendly. I had built an entire brand around it.
But it had always been a fragile foundation.
Produced in Japan, shipped onward through Asia, then to me in Germany, then to customers around the world. Complex. Expensive. Vulnerable to changes I couldn’t control.
And over time, something else had changed too.
What once felt special had become crowded.
More brands. Same paper. Same formats.
The difference was disappearing.
Letting go of Tomoe River Paper wasn’t just a product decision.
It felt like letting go of an identity.
For a while, that was uncomfortable.
And then I realised:
A chapter.
Not the whole story.
What I learned from almost losing everything
When the orders stopped coming, I had time.
Too much time, some days.
And I used it to look — really look — at what I had built.
I had spread myself too thin.
Too many formats. Too many sizes. Too many slight variations of the same idea.
I was trying to be everything for everyone.
And in doing so, I had lost the clarity that made Papertess worth building in the first place.
I had also built on fragile foundations.
A supply chain stretched across continents.
A primary market that could disappear overnight.
That needed to change.
For every customer — everywhere
I want to be clear about something.
This is not a story about losing one market and finding another.
Every customer who has ever ordered from Papertess — whether from the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, or anywhere in Europe — matters.
Every order. Every message. Every person who chose to plan with Papertess.
I see you. And I’m grateful.
What changed is not who I’m building for.
It’s how I’m building.
Made in Germany. A decision, not a marketing line
The new planner collection — the heart of what Papertess is becoming — will be produced in Germany.
The production. The binding. The making of each planner.
The materials are sourced where they are best suited for the product.
Paper chosen for how it feels under a pen.
Cover materials selected for durability and use.
Everything comes together in one place.
Not because it sounds good.
But because it gives me something I didn’t have before: control.
What is coming
I’m not ready to show you everything yet.
But I can tell you this.
Two products.
Designed as a system.
Produced in Germany.
On paper chosen for how it feels — warm, calm, unhurried.
New colours with names that describe a feeling, not a season.
And a philosophy that has always been there, but is now at the centre of everything.
The right moment is not January first.
It is now.
Whenever now happens to be.
This is not a reinvention
This isn’t a reinvention.
It’s a return.
To clarity.
To intention.
To what Papertess was always meant to be.
begin anywhere. the rest will follow.
— Theresia
Comments
Amy Gregory —
I completely understand! My husband and I ran our own IT company for 30 years—until I was too sick to work. But too intertwined to teach any one person how to my job and anticipate his asks before asked, fix this before it saw his desk, handle this and that, none of which were teachable things. In the end we sold it and he went work for someone else. The ups and downs oof the company like recessions and horrible supply chain conditions and such, were nothing compared to the “new normal”.
Especially since I have some wacky ass crazy list of stuff that isn’t — oh, cancer and everything is in an order of how to treat. And what to expect. Yes cancer is devastating and unfortunately we have seen too much of it. As hv most families. But what I have is just a perfect storm and there is a time stamp. Just no one can forecast that for me. Yay!!!!! Exciting I know! But enter wanting to put stuff down on paper for each of my grown kids. A journal of sorts because I didn’t scrapbook when they were little I was slammed helping at the office and running kiddos etc. But I can make books for each of them going forward, lots for of the writing and a few decorative stickers and pictures. But I have been searching for the perfect books to use and omg help me! I can’t find it.
That was a stupid long story just to say “I understand. I have been in your shoes.”
But sometimes, all it takes is one person to make you feel like you’re not in the free fall and aftermath alone. And I am a US customer that’s been affected and seen several small shops close or have to suspend selling to us. And I can’t be mad. I get it.
But I’m excited to see what you’re going to offer! Because I am constantly looking for new bound books and now have I think everything on the market I swear.
Good luck, I wish you good health, try to not stress, and excited to see the retooled future!
—Amy Gregory
Claudia Märtsch —
Das hört sich gut an, für mich und auch für die Umwelt.👏🏼✌🏽🫶🏻
Emery Lourinne —
Good luck, I’m eager to see your next step! Forging your path in this saturated market is a heavy task! I wish you well :))
Karen —
Thank you for sharing. I feel for you. In the planners market I wish I could buy European products. What a brave decision. Good luck, Tess, I am eagerly waiting for the next update.