I've been interested in selling shields that I enjoy making on Etsy for a little extra money on the side. The shields I make are very durable and even after hitting it with a hammer with full power the most it did was make a dent. I'm not 100% if its going to be a good business in which I will profit so I just wanted to get the opinion of the people here who are into medieval and primitive things.

The shields I make are made of birch plywood, so although they aren't 100% authentic they are very strong, I bend them and then cut them to shape. After the basic design of the shield is finished I cover them with canvas and add leather straps, as well as padding, to hold onto that are riveted through the shield. Once that's all done I line it all with rawhide. Since it takes a while to get it all done I was thinking of selling the shields at $150 a piece. The rawhide is also quite expensive to get.

I was thinking of making a made to order system so I don't have to be working on making surplus shields all the time. I'm just spit balling here and since I'm young I don't really have the experience in this type of stuff. What do you guys think? Do you think I'll be able to sell or is the demand just not there?

We hobbyists tend to underestimate the value of our time. How much time does it take to make one? Could you do it faster per shield  if you made 10?

MirkoSling wrote on Feb 8^th, 2021 at 11:24pm:


One piece of advice... and yes Kick is right listen to NOOC. Guy does tons of business online.

But ya for me anyways I will not sell my stuff for less than the price I think its worth. For two reasons actually. One - One ,you have to make a profit and at that price I wonder what your net returns are going to be. And secondly there have been studies done that show when a person pays more for an item they perceive that item has having more worth regardless if it does or not. Think Beats headphones...

The catch here is this should most definitely be a side job. I have a little experience selling primitive arms and unless a miracle happens you will starve if you dont have a name or big customer base built already. Thats the sad fact of quality hand crafted gear for most craftsman in America 2021

Morphy wrote on Feb 9^th, 2021 at 11:50am:

Without the rawhide the total comes out to be around $90 for the materials required to produce. I feel like $120-150 would be a reasonable price as I looked at other shield makers on Etsy and they had their prices set around $200 and over, but I have no idea if they are doing well or not. I was also thinking of adding extra cost fees for custom paintings or a custom shield design people would want.

joe_meadmaker wrote on Feb 9^th, 2021 at 10:37am:

Here are some pictures of a flat heater shield I made. Its all dirty and rusty because its the shield I use for target practice and I leave it outside in the rain and mud.


The bottom most picture shows the damage that's done to it if its hit on the rim of the shield which is why I wanted to cover it in rawhide to make it more durable. All the dents in the front come from full strength hammer hits, slinging rocks and other things I test on the shield. As you can see it doesn't look very damaged for what its been through. The rivets that are used to hold the leather straps in place are all twisted because I very quickly put them in so I could use the shield, it doesn't reflect the final quality of what I want to make.

Looking back at it you can't really see the damage in the front because the white comes off as very bright in the photo.

Oof... so if I remember correctly many custom fiberglass trad bow makers could spend that much time or less for a bow that costs many hundreds more. Many of the more popular bowyers have long, long waiting lists so they are constantly making weapons with no down time.

With a $60 dollar profit for 4 days work thats going to be a tough margin depending on how much overhead you have. And the market has to be there.

Theres a couple things you might consider. Make that shield your middle of the line shield, up the price to 200 and make a cheaper shield for 40 dollars less. Make a more fancy shield, very fancy in fact and make that one 375.

The really fancy one becomes your pictures on your title page and also the pictures people on forums will pass around saying "Wow check this guy out!"

So the fancy one is your advertising, drawing people to your site, the cheap one gets people ready to buy and pushes them towards the upsell since "its only 40 more" and the middle is your main seller.

Also and dont take this wrong way but the fit and finish needs an upgrade.

This is one of the problems modern craftsmen have. With factories and cheap foreign labor being what it is it has to be very special looking but also within the time/cost/profit window that you need. Its a tough balance to achieve.

Make different types of shields and time each one. Divide the cost by the time. Continue doing that and tweaking the process until you manage the highest return for the time and money spent.

Just some ideas.

Well, I tried to give an in depth answer and got flagged as spam. I’ll try again later.

MirkoSling wrote on Feb 9^th, 2021 at 12:42pm:


One thing I've learned from e-commerce is that it's really difficult to predict the market or what the demand will be.  The best thing to do is just test some things and see what works.  As Pat Flynn always says: The riches are in the niches.

I would start by looking locally to see how big HEMA is in your area.  You may also have a market with the LARPing crowd and Cosplayers.  Those last two groups will not be as picky about historical accuracy because they are fantasy roleplay communities.  HEMA could be a hit... or your particular shield might be from the wrong time period for the particular schools of study nearby.  You just have to look into it and see what people want.

Renaissance Fairs are a good place to gauge your market too, and you will have more of a mix of historical genres  and a slightly broader audience of potential buyers.

If you're going to make something that is approximate but not historically exact, I would consider using modern tools, materials, and techniques and make the thing absolutely the best quality you can muster at a reasonable price within a reasonable time ("reasonable" is left intentionally vague).  Small details matter a lot too, so I would say yes to studs unless the market tells you otherwise... again, just test it and see what sells.  Silk screen a custom coat of arms on there.  It's fast, inexpensive, and it will completely change the look of the shield... unless you are marketing this as a canvas for HEMA folks to add their own coat of arms to.  Customization is yet another way to differentiate yourself in the market.  The problem with small markets full of hobbyists is that other people will not value their time either, so you need to do something that makes people want to buy YOUR shield, not just "a" shield.

Another idea is to make it a functional replica of a shield from some popular video game.  That takes away all complaints about the historical accuracy of the materials.  Video game replicas will appeal to a larger audience than any authentic historical replica... plus this gives you a lot of crossover with the cosplay crowd.  You'd be hard pressed to find a better marketing strategy to sell those shields than to have professional photos posted all over Instagram of your shield being held by a pretty girl in elf ears.

You could also do something like covering the shield with embossed copper, tin or tooling leather and go high-end with the look.  If it looks fancy enough, that $150 shield might sell for 10x that instead... but that show piece also draws in other people who view your work as high-quality and then buy the cheaper version like Morphy mentioned.

Find a niche and target something specific.  Instead of "shields" find out what fantasy your customer is fulfilling by buying that shield and target the emotional satisfaction that caused them to go shopping for a shield in the first place.  Shields are a vanity purchase, and vanity purchases are emotional purchases.  Figure out how to tap into those emotions, and you can do better than all those hobby sellers on Etsy who are just selling generic "shields" and driving prices down by not valuing their own time.  Sell the fantasy, not the shield, and those other guys won't be able to compete against you at any price, because your customers will want YOUR shield. 

As far as setting your price point... I definitely think you are  way too low.  Most retail products in stores like Walmart have a markup of 5x the manufacturing cost if not more.


I could keep going, but I'll just stop there and let all that soak in for a while