Guys sorry for the lack of communication and absence on here this year. Dont think that it was in vein! Weve been working hard on trying to obtain what we need to get where we want to be going, for us and the reenacting community. We had some ups and downs this year and decided to basically start from scratch and reorganize. We ended up gaining a new partner: My best friend of years, long time Nam collector and soon to be retired Army Captain. We reorganized how the business is set up and contacted all new Manufactures for our contracted out items. We have finally been able to obtain/are about to obtain the loans though great and understanding friends and family members needed to purchase most of the almost $50k worth of equipment need to just get started, sans material needed. In the spirit of the new fresh start, we decided to also rename our business. Saigon Surplus is a good name for a militaria dealer, but not so much for a manufacturer, which will soon be our primary business. We wanted to go with something that sounded like it could be a wartime manufacturer and also denoted where it came from. Thus Jayhawk Military Textiles was born. Some may note that during the year we took down our website. There was just too many issues with the web cart and checkout that we could just not over come. Were working on a new one and it should be hopefully up and running after new years when some of our contracted out items should start arriving pending our approval of the prototypes. Now about some of our reorganizing. Originally we wanted everything we have to be homegrown, made in the US of A. But unfortunately its just not possible, At least if we want to stay in business for more than a few months. The prices we were quoted from US mills for production of materials needed was so high we would have had to charge the same and in some cases more than what originals are worth. While some may pay that to ensure not destroying originals, most would not. So while following the route of several other reproduction businesses we decided to do our products in 2 categories: All uniforms and soft goods will be produced through contractors we selected using all the original government specifications just as we were going to from the ground up. All field gear sans a few complex items will be manufactured here, in our shop using custom webbing made per the original specifications and hardware from the original manufacturers for the government. With the amount of raw material on order, we could theoretically remake any and every equipment item issued out during the war, One day we hope that we will be able to supply a head to toe quality reproduction impression of anytime frame of the war. Since uniforms and such are out there, be it original or what we consider sub-par museum quality repros, were putting ours on the back burner for now. Mainly because of the cost associated in investing with what we already have/are purchasing and theres other items we feel the market would want and need first. Why be another guy selling something when you can be THE guy. We have several items out with our sub contractors at this very moment that we should receive the prototypes back for approval before new years. If approved and meet our expectations we should have them 30 days there after. With us being this close, weve decided to take pre-orders once the prototypes come in. This will help ensure we can make sure the items come to market on time and on schedule just in time for this next reenacting season. More info to follow on these. In the mean time, we created another page for Jayhawk. We currently have a load of original items of several eras in addition to the Nam listed along with OUR very first repro item we had custom made JUST for us. Check it out, like the page, and keep your eyes peeled on us over the next few months to start seeing the good stuff finally start rolling out.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 23:36:52 +0000
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