4.  STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION

The Tandy Leather Factory, Inc. 2023 Incentive Stock Plan (the “2023 Plan” and, together with the 2013 Plan, the “Plans”) was adopted by our Board of Directors in April 2023 and approved by our stockholders in June 2023.  The 2023 Plan initially reserved up to 800,000 shares of our common stock for a variety of equity awards (including, but not limited to, RSUs, the only type of awards that have been granted to date) to our executive officers, non-employee directors and other key employees.  In June 2023, as part of their annual director compensation, certain of our non-employee directors were granted a total of 12,993 service-based RSUs under the 2023 Plan, which will vest ratably over the next four years, subject to each participant’s continued service on the board as of each vesting date.  In June 2025 and 2024, the Company granted 17,554 and 12,527 shares respectively to various members of the Board of Directors, which will vest ratably over the next four years, subject to each participant’s continued service on the board as of each vesting date.  In February 2025, in connection with hiring Johan Hedberg as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, the Company granted Mr. Hedberg 100,000 RSU, which vested in February 2026, and 900,000 RSUs, which will vest upon the Company’s achievement of certain performance and market targets.  In June 2025, the Company’s stockholders approved an increase to the plan reserve of an additional 900,000 shares of our common stock for the potential vesting those performance-based and market based RSU grants to Mr. Hedberg.

A summary of the activity for RSU awards as of March 31, 2026 is presented below:

The Company’s stock-based compensation relates primarily to RSU awards. For these service-based awards, our stock-based compensation expense, included in operating expenses, was $0.1 million and $0.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and March 31, 2025 respectively.

As of March 31, 2026, there was unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested, RSU awards of $0.1 million, which will be recognized in each of the following years (dollars in thousands):

We issue shares from authorized shares upon the lapsing of vesting restrictions on restricted stock and RSUs.  For the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, we issued 71 thousand shares net of shares withheld for tax obligations resulting from the vesting of RSUs.  We do not use cash to settle equity instruments issued under stock-based compensation awards. The payment of the employees’ tax liability for a portion of the vested shares may be satisfied by withholding shares with a fair value equal to the tax liability.