Founded in 2012, Loot Crate was the most popular subscription box service in the world offering mystery boxes. The features of the boxes, or ‘the loot’, ranged from t-shirts and action figures, to snacks and badges. At the beginning of 2016, Loot Crate made it to the cover page of Inc. Magazine as the fastest-growing private company in the US, with more than 650,000 subscribers. In order to combat competition, Loot Crate offered 27 specific niche crates, such as WWE, Harry Potter, and Star Trek. Although customers loved the new crates, the company was forced to order a wide variety of items in small amounts, instead of doing bulk orders on a few items, reducing the profit margin. After a layoff to improve the profit margin, Loot Crate faced backlash over late box deliveries, bad quality products, and boxes not getting to their destinations at all. In 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy after amassing millions of dollars in debt to companies such as Marvel, Facebook, and Trend Setters.
