How a viral sofa pushed a Brooklyn store to the edge of bankruptcy

Last month, a depressingly familiar complaint began popping up on Reddit: “Where’s my sofa?” In this case, the sofa was the Teddy, a low-seated and stylishly plush piece by Danish brand OMHU. Buzzy online, it was everywhere on social media, but it wasn’t showing up at customers’ doors. According to the Reddit chatter, a Brooklyn store named Teak was to blame. It had taken payments, but it wasn’t delivering sofas, and emails were going unanswered.

These types of stories have become sadly common in the design industry over the past few years. Turbulent business conditions—the DTC hangover, Covid, tariffs, take your pick—have sunk more than a handful of companies, leaving thousands of customers in the lurch . But in this case, the product was a runaway hit, and the store, Teak, had bee