Kendo Equipment Suppliers

[Ross]

Here is South Africa we battle to get Kendo equipment. Just for an example, at the moment you cannot get Shinai unless you by on-line.

I want to look into importing Kendo equipment to offer to the Kendoka. Could anybody help me out with suppliers I could contact and try to arrange something with.

My father-in-law imports Sporting goods so the actual importing and distribution would not be a problem.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Ross

[nodachi]

Places that I have heard of quite commonly are e-bogu and bogubag.com

They both have good stuff. I've ordered from bogubag.com and I like their stuff. However, for shinai, some people cannot choose shinai without actually holding them and seeing how they like the feel. I know you can't do that with your situation. I recommend if you have people like this that you order a few different shinai from the different web distributors and that way people can sample and see which they prefer. Of course if it's for a beginner it won't make a difference. But as things progress, people begin to have their preferences.

[berghaan]

I have had very good experience with bogubag.com
I would certainly recommend them.

[LNGUYEN]

I ordered my bogu from Bogubag, my shinai from E-bogu. They are both excellent.

[Ross]

Hi

Thanks for the info but this is not quite what I mean.
I have been purchasing stuff from e-bogu.com but would now like to find a supplier / manufacturer that can supply me directly so that i can offer the products to kendoka here at a good price.

Ross

[slidercrank]

Hi

Thanks for the info but this is not quite what I mean.
I have been purchasing stuff from e-bogu.com but would now like to find a supplier / manufacturer that can supply me directly so that i can offer the products to kendoka here at a good price.

Ross
www.bogubag.com is the American agent of Koei Budogu of Japan. The American agent carries no inventory; he only takes an order and sends it to Japan, where the order is filled and shipped by EMS to the customer in the US or anywhere. The shipping box has the name of Koei, with a sticker bearing the name "BoguBag.com" and the name of the customer.

It looks like Koei Budogu has agents only in the US (bogubag) and the EU (eurobogu.net), so I don't see why such a business model would not work for you in South Africa.

If this deal can work out for you, it will be a boon for the South African kenshi's. Koei's products, offered through bogubag.com, are excellent in quality and lower in prices. The only fly in the ointment is that in my experience, the shipping department at Koei makes a lot of mistakes in shipping (wrong product, wrong quantity, etc).

www.e-bogu.com has a different business model. It has its own OEM supplier in Asia (Korea and Japan) and sells products under its own brand. It carries a lot of inventory in the US and has branch companies in Mexico and Brazil. So you can seek to become its South Africa branch/agent.

www.eguchi.net is yet still different from the two above. It is the direct child company of the Japanese bogu company of the same name. It also carries a lot of inventory on site, and has a limited capacity for customization (embroidary, repair, etc). You can also see if they would like to have an agent presence in South Africa.