Most of the Armour here at Performance Armour is produced by me, Derek Stiver, some is completed by one of my journeymen or apprentices, under my supervision. I've been making armour for 19 years now, and like most, I'm largely self taught.
I've been active in a variety of medieval recreation groups during that time, and have done an awful lot of armouring for friends and associates in those groups. I imagine that during that time I created probably 30 or more full suits of armour, and another several hundred bits and pieces, before I ever really thought about armouring commercially. (again, this is probably a really common occurance for most armourers)
We put this website up in October of 2003 to attempt to reach a wider audience for our gear than the regional audience that we were doing work for, face to face, previously. In that regard, it has succeeded beyond our wildest expectations, and we have the enviable task of trying to grow in a manner that allows us to maintain our high expectations of ourselves, while simultaneously serving a continually growing group of clients and friends.
I've seen quite a few armouries come and go, some for having the armour part down, and not understanding the business part. . . some vice versa. We're not going anywhere. . . primarily because I firmly believe that there is an appropriate and sustainable pace that we can grow, and not beyond that. . . and because I'm not willing to compromise the quality of our products for profits or timeline. The implication of that decision, at least in the near term, is that we will continue to have more folx who want our products, than we have hours in the day to produce those products, unfortunately, that's a necessary side-effect of our dedication to quality.
To insure that, we're doing things a bit differently here:
- We will continue to manage our production que in a slightly different manner than most. . . everything we're working on will be up, online, and available for all to see. The only alternative to that is to move to an "in stock" format, which I find absolutely absurd for any piece of armour more form-fitting than a shield-boss. . . given that, we'll stick with working the que.
- Based on what's in Que at a given time, I decide (sometimes on a week-by-week basis, but we -try- to plan 4-6 weeks of production in advance) what we will be working on. This decision is a combination of "who has been waiting longest", and "how many pieces like that do we have in Que". We do it in this manner because a) it's only fair, that if you've been waiting longer, you go before someone who has been waiting a shorter time period. and b) because the only way to be even semi-efficient in the allocation of our time is to do multiple similar pieces at the same time.
- We've expanded our offerings in terms of decorative treatments for your armour, engraving, etching, powdercoating, brasswork, polish levels, etc. . ., and our ongoing website revamp should make it easier for you to find all those things, and their accompanying prices, when you go to look for them.
- We're offering a selection of different construction materials for your armour to accomodate different authenticity requirements, different weight requirements, different appearance requirements, and of course different budgetary requirements.
- We do our very best to give you a straight answer to a straight question, unfortunately that sometimes means that we haveto tell you that we can't do what you want, but that's the way it is sometimes.
- We are finishing an upgrade to our online que, to make it integrate with our new workflow management system, and thereby update in a more timely and accurate manner.
- We have expanded our lineup for the 2007 season with several completely new categories of items, including woodwork, pewterware, jewelery, artwork, and tentage. This is an attempt to provide some of the things that folx have asked us for in the previous year.
Welcome to Performance Armour.
