In September 2020, just a year after Stephen and Alena purchased Tentsmiths from Deborah and Peter we had to write a heartbreaking message to our customers. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to close down orders while we managed the chaos caused by event shut-downs, school closures, staff needs, family considerations, and all the complications of 2020. We never stopped making tents. We dedicated our time to working on existing orders and building up our capacity so that once we re-opened orders we could meet our customers’ expectations: the best quality tent, made to your exact specifications, in just a few months time. We got through 2020 and have felt blessed every day that we continue to be able to make tents for you.
Folks, 2026 has been hard. Ask any small business in the United States right now and they will likely tell you the same thing. Our struggles are not as easy to explain as 2020 when “worldwide pandemic” summed up the whole mess, so bear with me while I tell you about a few. The big obstacles we’re dealing with can mostly be summed up as supply disruptions, increased demand, and employee burnout.
To make tents we purchase massive quantities of high-quality canvas. To make poles we source very specific, flaw-free lumber for our woodworker partner. To make stakes our blacksmith partner works relentlessly to find the best steel at affordable prices. Over the last two years sourcing materials has become a nightmare. All raw materials participate in a global market, even if they are U.S. materials that remain in the country. Our canvas, wood, and steel raw materials are not U.S.-produced. While large corporations have the funds to largely ignore such difficulties, national and global changes have made it difficult for a small shop like ours.
There were three months in early 2026 when no canvas tent cloth was available in the United States. It is now arriving in smaller amounts at higher prices and with fewer quality assurances. We have had to re-make almost a month’s worth of tents due to canvas issues. We have implemented more rigorous quality tests which adds time to the process of making every single tent. Poles and stakes are less complicated, but little better. Consequently, every order we fill must be evaluated over and over again to determine when we can fulfill it.
And the orders have not stopped, or even slowed. Normally this would be a good thing, but we’re a really small business. The 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War has us fielding more inquiries from both our regular customers and folks that have no idea what it takes to use (let alone make) a historic canvas tent. Several of the other businesses that used to make tents historical tents have closed their doors in the past couple of years. Those of us still in the business are trying to pick up the slack, but we each operate a little differently. We serve different customer bases, offer different products, and have different business models. We have been dealing with the waves as they reach us, but folks sometimes forget that we are still a very small company.
That brings me to the last topic: our people. Stephen and Alena have a great group of people working here at Tentsmiths. They are all incredibly good at making tents and amazingly dedicated to working with us as we navigate the difficulties of 2026. People with stitching experience, who are willing to work at a small workshop in New Hampshire with a bunch of quirky, nerdy, history lovers are hard to find. We care immensely about all of them. We’re all struggling. We all have family members that we care for, health issues that insurance doesn’t want to cover, cars that break down, and concerns for the future. As employers in an uncertain economy we do the best we can to compensate them fairly, but we can only charge so much for our products.
All this leads to the fact that, in fairness to customers with existing orders, those dreaming about a new historical tent, and the folks here at Tentsmiths we will be suspending new tent orders. This will probably continue through the end of the year. This applies to orders placed through our website and orders requested by phone or email.
For everyone who has placed an order with a deposit, we continue to work on your order. We will reach out to you over the next few weeks with an updated timeline for completion that better reflects the current working conditions here in the shop. For those communicating over email or phone about an upcoming order, all requests initiated before September 15th will be honored. We will still have a number of items available for sale. Oilskin tarps, watchcoats, poles sleeves, and some stakes will be available through our website. We will try to make it clear which items are in stock and which are unavailable at the moment. None will be available for sale outside the U.S.
We plan to be back in 2027 on stronger footing offering the same high quality product and dependable customer service that we have for the last almost 50 years and will for the next 50.