Even militaria is outsourced...

[mish]

First, I read about ATF "outsourcing" their OD wool shirts and trousers (China).

www.atthefront.com/us_uni_woolshirt_trou.htm

Materials: Imported. The mill in Canada we used in the past is (surprise!) out of business. It was bought out by a company in Mexico that wants nearly 6 months to deliver fabric. The company we have been working with in China was able to make equivalent fabric and deliver in half the time. They have done a bang-up job and these are as good as "our" shirts were.


Then I just recently found out that AEFSupply gets some of its stuff from replicaters.com (Indian).

www.replicaters.com/ww1USAEFuniforms.html

Our ww1 (world war one, wwi) US Army AEF Doughboy uniforms, webbing, field gear, badges, patches and buttons have been supplied to reenactors, living history groups, museums and collectors directly and through AEF Supply in the US.


Has anyone acquired any of these outsourced items? What's your assessment/take on them?

Edit: Added relevant quotes

[hawkins2ndcav]

In my experience with WWI stuff, I've found the quality of the outsourced items to be, for the most part, good. Where things go wrong, it seems to be more of a matter of communication- unless you are VERY specific as to what is required, the manufacturers will do "whatever" and by that time, the retailer is stuck with a bad lot. Case in point is the 1916 US shirt that What Price Glory sells- the manufacturer got it right except that they made the shirt with four buttons instead of the regulation three. Not a deal-breaker but it's annoying.

As for AEF Supply, a good part of their stuff is substandard. The US shelter halves are the wrong color, the material is too thin, and the workmanship is shoddy- I have one that started to fall apart the fisrt time I used it. The 1904 marching shoe is also poor- the workmanship is shody and the leather substandard- the soles split the first event I wore them to- real garbage.

On the other hand, Schipperfabrik is also using offshore suppliers and their US 1912 wool and cotton uniforms are excellent. Maybe not as top-notchas Great War Militaria but they've held up very well under heavy use.

Also, AEF Supply appears to be pretty much defunct (although it would be nice if the website was taken down and they stopped accepting people's money). They still owe me a shirt and set of the US 1912 cotton tunic and breeches. There's quite a few horror stories out there on the various chat boards- I'm not making it up.

Replicators is another one to stary away from- ordering from them is a real crap-shoot and for US stuff (at least WWI stuff), you can do better elsewhere. I've known at least three people who ordered stuff and it was nothing but trouble.

Caveat emptor.