Here at Tentsmiths we pride ourselves on offering an incredible variety of historical tents, with the ability to customize even further within all those different styles. That build-your-own approach is dear to our long-time customers and confusing to our newer customers, but it is part of who we are. We make every tent to order, so it is exactly what the camper wants.
We also get requests for tents that fall outside our current catalog. These include tents from more obscure historical times or geographies, tents designed by our customers, or tents designed by other tent companies. Out of respect for our fellow small businesses we have never made tents designed by other tent companies.We are always researching further historical tent designs. We currently have two 20th century tents not currently available on our website that we are patterning out with modern cotton canvas and our customer’s expectations of secure, dry shelter. If there is a type of historical tent not on our website that you would like to purchase please send us an email or give us a call, we might already have the patterns for it, or be willing to add it to our offerings.* But patterning is a slow process that we undertake in slower times. Mostly we are too busy sewing existing orders to pattern many new offerings.
We occasionally entertain tent ideas our customers have designed. However, we have been engineering shelter out of canvas for almost 50 years, so we often have to heavily amend those designs. Tents sound simple, but making the best tent for our customers isn’t easy. Even after months of communication, the final product often differs from what the camper hoped we could make from cotton canvas.
Because of the amount of time, communication difficulties, and the general complexity of engineering canvas shelters we are no longer accepting orders for custom designs. We will finish what we have promised to make (for people who already have deposits in) but will not undertake new custom designs. This will hopefully lower wait times going forward and make it easier for customers who depend on us to make tents in time for their events.
We are not removing any currently available options. We can still make your walls longer, your awnings wider, and your trim any color you want. Please continue to reach out to us, but understand that sometimes we have to say no.
*This does not include yurts or gher. We’d be happy to point you toward other fabulous makers.