28/07/2026
The topic of communication difficulties between reenactors and producers/artisans has been the subject of extensive debate recently, starting with an issue raised by Flavius Stilicho/Geza Frank.
We know Geza Frank personally, with whom we have a relationship of friendship and mutual respect, and we know many of the reenactors who participated in the discussion as our clients.
So far, we have not intervened and do not intend to delve into specific cases; the topic is clearly a deeply felt one, so we believe we can offer our contribution, which will be useful for mutual understanding.
Res Bellica has been operating since 2009, initially with the collaboration of a native Indian-speaking colleague. Since then, we have been in contact with Deepeeka, DSC, AHTP, and other producers; we have personally met both Alauddin and Gagan, and we are in video contact with Humair.
There have certainly been communication problems, but they have almost always been resolved with patience and mutual attention. Europe and India are two different worlds, linguistically, culturally, and professionally.
How does this business work?
We are artisans too, perhaps that's why we understand our suppliers better.
The first thing to consider is that all the time spent on communication (email, social media) is time that no one pays for directly. In this industry, margins aren't very high, so the hours spent on communication must somehow be absorbed by the price of the products.
For this reason, it's not always possible to dedicate all the necessary time to communication itself. Nor is it possible to have a person exclusively dedicated to this task. A delicate balance must be found between effective and timely communication and production efficiency: every hour spent on emails or other activities, however necessary and useful, is an hour that doesn't produce direct results, delays deliveries, and increases costs. At Res Bellica, we've always favoured communication that's as timely, transparent, and honest as possible. But all this comes at a price—a high price.
The goal of every manufacturer is obviously to find a balance between a price that allows them to derive the necessary profit from their work and the purchasing power of potential customers. This is by no means an easy task: we believe that almost all historical reenactment products are underpaid. It's a job that requires highly specialized skills, rare craftsmanship, historical and archaeological knowledge, investment, trial and error, and continuous learning. However, these items cannot be offered on the market at their true value, when for the customer they are certainly very important and appreciated objects, but certainly not essential, not indispensable.
Considering all this, with mutual understanding and patience on both sides, effective communication is possible.
