A few people contacted Zebralight in late 2020 when there was the usual annual speculation they were going out of business, because of lack of availability as well as the looming international shipping restrictions. They claimed they would finally be releasing one of the "budget" models that have been in their spreadsheet for the last few years, with some kind of ultra-efficient driver using SST-20. They also claimed the regular line-up would be receiving a refresh, starting with the headlamps in late 2021, adding built-in charging.
Obviously none of that happened, and in fact Zebralight has discontinued quite a few of the less popular model variants this year. They seemed to have some major manufacturing issues at the beginning of the year, and popular models like the SC64c LE were unavailable for 4-5 months, plus there was that whole screw-up with the CRI 70 LH351Ds they barely acknowledged. With the XHP35 end of life, the remaining inventory of their well-respected CRI 80 4500K XHP35 HIs were apparently reflowed to SC64w HI drivers in the summer, and it recently received two price increases from $79 to $88. They're also running out of LEDs like the hideous 90+ XP-L2 EasyWhites they originally used for the SC64c. Overall it seems like their main issue is just the general chip shortage exactly like they told Firelight2. I regularly work on several of their models, and many of the major components like MCUs, voltage converters, and MOSFETs I can identify have factory lead times over a year at major suppliers right now. I assume they're mostly just focusing on being able to manufacture existing designs with available inventory rather than deal with potential supply volatility when they need tens of thousands of units for new components.
I don't think they're "winding down". Almost every year there is speculation they're going out of business, but they keep chugging along. They have a fairly unique place in the market with their compact designs, and it's telling that even 4 years later a lot of their current line-up is highly recommended against newer competition. That also means they don't have much motivation to innovate or update, and they seem to be completely uninterested in increasing their production capacity to meet demand, but that's a separate issue…
