Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Put simply, minikatana calls themselves DTC (direct to consumer). But actually, they are a importer, a reseller and a most importantly a marketer, specialising not in swords, but short format video marketing.
They do not manufacture the products they sell, like a true DTC business does.
They import swords from Longquan, China, where they are made, and then sent in batches of 7000 fully completed swords per container, with margins of 45% (including their warehousing and shipping costs). That margin is pure profit, and doesn't translate to a better product.
It's the same sword, just at a higher cost to the consumer.
This is incidentally also why they struggle with quality assurance and quality control. It's a lot of swords to individually check, and apparently they're not doing very comprehensive checks. This is illustrated here by a recent reddit post of a sword which should not have been shipped to the customer bent, a flaw which cannot have occured dueing shipping and is indead due to poor manufacturing and poor QC.
This means you pay more, for the same Chinese replicas available directly from the makers.
They can be bought directly from a number of aliexpress / TaoBao type store fronts.
If you're happy to pay more, for the same cheap replicas, then go ahead.
#minikatana
(Thumbnail by dom1n8a - dom1n8a.carrd.co )
Put simply, minikatana calls themselves DTC (direct to consumer). But actually, they are a importer, a reseller and a most importantly a marketer, specialising not in swords, but short format video marketing.
They do not manufacture the products they sell, like a true DTC business does.
They import swords from Longquan, China, where they are made, and then sent in batches of 7000 fully completed swords per container, with margins of 45% (including their warehousing and shipping costs). That margin is pure profit, and doesn't translate to a better product.
It's the same sword, just at a higher cost to the consumer.
This is incidentally also why they struggle with quality assurance and quality control. It's a lot of swords to individually check, and apparently they're not doing very comprehensive checks. This is illustrated here by a recent reddit post of a sword which should not have been shipped to the customer bent, a flaw which cannot have occured dueing shipping and is indead due to poor manufacturing and poor QC.
This means you pay more, for the same Chinese replicas available directly from the makers.
They can be bought directly from a number of aliexpress / TaoBao type store fronts.
If you're happy to pay more, for the same cheap replicas, then go ahead.
#minikatana
(Thumbnail by dom1n8a - dom1n8a.carrd.co )
