Kit Scarcity ...

Rabid Hamster

Well-known member
Ironman
Two of our newer archers went off last week to buy their first bows. They booked their visit 10 days in advance. Nothing they were looking at was outrageous or rare yet its still going to take 7 weeks to get their stuff delivered. Just how bad is the situation countrywide? Are there any shops not struggling to get stock? SHOULD WE BE PANIC BUYING ARCHERY KIT? (ok, I'm just looking for an excuse ;) )
 

bimble

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Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
AIUK Saviour
as the main archery suppliers are based in a trading block which we're not members of any more I guess I can think of one reason why there might be delays in getting hold of stuff... especially if more Christmas based goods are getting a priority at docks.
 

dvd8n

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
I don't know about big stuff but I have noticed a lot of 'sundries' like nocks, fletches, and even some sizes of arrows being 'check for availability' or '7-10 days' etc.

Having said that, I've not been unable to get stuff; I've just had to wait a bit longer than I've gotten accustomed to.

So, I guess that you can read that as 'don't worry' or 'buy as much **** as you can get away with just in case' depending on your needs.
 

KidCurry

Well-known member
AIUK Saviour
I was talking about this with my local dealer. They said they cannot get stock from distributors as the distributors cannot get the stock from the manufacturers. I think it is currently a combination of manufacturing, trade issues and world wide container logistics.
One company I have contacts with have months of back orders, are unable to complete due to lack of parts world wide and have stopped shipping internationally due to container cost rises.
 
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Whitehart

Well-known member
Archery is not imune to the same pressures as other sectors, also some maufacturing has not happened in the last 12 months or got delayed and distributors demands on manufacturers have been lower so rather than ordering a 1000 of something they may have ordered 250. Then archery woke up and demand has just sky rocketed with most stuff coming from China in containers that now cost £20k rather than £2k, distributors need to pack in as much as they can get away with to try and smooth out the price increases which mean it takes longer to fill a container and then it has to sail half way around the World Finally yes the "B" word is causing havoc with things that used to take days to deliver now taking weeks and sometimes not even arriving. The old archery dealer model of just in time stock control does not work anymore, if people need things quickly
 

inthemiddle

Active member
I guess it depends what you're after. I have just replaced my compound bow via a retailer based on eBay ( huge saving on an old stock PSE performance x) and picked up some x10's protours in the Merlin sale.
 

Sleepy82

New member
I kinda understand, and I doubt I'll be doing a lot until spring now anyway. I think a lot of the u.s. manufacturers shut down for a while rather than risk spreading covid through their workforce (if only uk employers cared about their workers too....). I think some of the delay is waiting for them to catch up with the backlog - and their own archery hunting seasons probably compounded that too

But, I've got a bow and alsorts of ancillaries to go with it on the way and I'm looking at somewhere between 2 and 3months before I can put everything together :cry: I don't know how I'm gonna stand the excitement for that long!!
 

dave lpb

Member
From listening to several archery podcasts this isn’t just an issue in the UK, several of the American based ones (including at least one that is produced by an archery shop) have said the issues are down to the various Covid regulations in the different states (affecting how many staff can be in the factories at any time and for a lot caused them to close down completely for several months), as well as manufacturers struggling to get materials due to their suppliers being short of said materials and there apparently being a law that if the government or a government contract need that material they can jump the queue and take all of it from the suppliers. Apparently even in America there are shops still waiting (admittedly the last podcast I listened to that mentioned it was back in October) on shipments of new 2021 equipment that where ordered back around February time, causing several to get very upset/annoyed with the brands said equipment is coming from as they’ve now announced and started producing their 2022 line despite there still being a lot of people waiting on 2021 equipment. Then there’s also the fact there’s apparently a world wide shortage of shipping containers (a friend of mine purchased one about September and looked at getting another last month and the price had more than doubled). Then there’s the fact all the distributors are based in mainland Europe with all the struggles of getting things to the UK from there with things like Covid regulations in different countries affect the various postal/shipping companies, the various blockades in countries (mainly France) that stop trucks getting from Europe to the UK. I’ve also seen comments on other social media platforms from archery shops based all around the world where they are saying they too are struggling To get equipment from either the company or distributors, If I remember rightly one such comment was from the guy in Australia from Archery Supplies saying something along the lines of (apologies it was a while ago I read it so I can’t remember the exact wording) they are finding they are placing orders waiting months for a container to arrive, to the point their told a container is on the way and their asking which one of the several orders is it.
 

Rabid Hamster

Well-known member
Ironman
can confirm re shipping containers. we HAD to get 2 - a 20footer and an 8footer. financially that hurt. admittedly we had put off getting the 20footer for some time but circumstances were against us when the damn things were cheap and a mandatory purchase when the price rocketed.
 
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