ETAs on out of stock products - where is all the gear?

You may have noticed over the past few months that there are more products out of stock on the website than usual. This is not our fault, I promise ... but the situation is starting to slowly improve.  

I know the Coronavirus is being blamed for everything right now but I'm afraid it has had a massive impact on the planet; most tragically in the number of awful, sad, untimely deaths. There is no doubt everyone has been impacted by this, everyone has lost someone and we extend our sympathies to any of our friends and customers who have lost loved ones. 

In addition to the tragedy, there have been the economic implications. You all know that shops have been closed, pubs, gyms, paintball sites ... businesses have been physically unable to open and we have been able to see this through closed doors and empty high streets. What has not always been physically visible however are the issues behind the scenes, the shortages of labour, materials, even shipping containers, and this is having an impact on the world as a whole. 

For our own industry, there are shortages in some of the materials needed to make paintballs. The increased need for syringes for vaccines has led to a worldwide shortage of plastic. Increased need for PPE has led to all kinds of material shortages and all this extra equipment moving all over the world has led to a serious shortage of shipping containers so even if the goods are made they're either impossible to transport because there's no space on the ships or the cost of shipping is so expensive the suppliers just can't afford to move the goods, or if they do manage to move them they have to cover the increased cost of shipping by charging more - which is understandable.

This is a global issue which is having an impact on every industry but we are starting to see things slowly coming back to normal. We've tried our best over the past few months to not raise prices except where we've been asked to by suppliers and we've tried to place pre-orders to make sure any stock that comes into the country is available to us, and subsequently to you. Things are starting to improve and we are seeing more and more products coming back into stock. Please do bear with us though as we try and get as many of the products you love back into our inventory and if you're waiting for anything in particular please sign up for the 'back in stock' alerts and you'll receive an email as soon as it's back in stock. Alternatively, give us a call or email if you can't find the product you're looking for as we may have an alternative that is the same - or maybe even better!!