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In brief, UIMA (United International Martial Armory) is an open platform for responsible martial arts equipment procurement. UIMA aims to include vetted, honest gear producers in order to make equipment procurement Open, Fair, Caring, and Safe (OFCS) for Clubs and Retailers. In the past 6 months alone, UIMA has delivered over 600 pieces of training equipment – including more than 200 steel swords (see CA, FS, WW, and YI on the sheet!) – directly to clubs and retailers across four continents, and we will keep working into the future! Furthermore, don’t forget that UIMA is not business-oriented, but focused on helping the community! To foster fruitful, inclusive, and maximally free conversation, please feel free to join our proud Discord community (our primary hub for questions and conversation)! Here, we strive to constructively discuss all equipmental martial arts topics without prejudice or hostile discrimination!
UIMA began with a member-led HEMA club in Montreal, Canada, named Uni Instrumental Martial Arts. In fact, this “UIMA the Club” that shares the discord has grown to host over 100 members along with dozens of full sets of in-house equipment, dozens of steel, and nearing a hundred sparring instruments! Founded by a group of McGill University alumni (myself included) and joined by many McGill students, it started as a non-profit club with a passion for Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and other weapon-based martial arts such as other HMAs, Daqiang, Archery, and more. Despite being known for its discipline and instrument inclusivity, we have prioritized safety from day one, but this was not an easy process! In fact, we encountered MOUNTAIN LOADS of problems… Without mentioning the names, this included:
Hidden costs and surprise fees: I was often hit with random extra charges (shipping, customs, etc.) that weren’t clear up front. These felt like scams and made budgeting a nightmare.
Vague or misleading marketing: Many products came with overhyped or unclear descriptions. It was hard to tell what I was really getting because of marketing fluff and a lack of technical details.
Unsafe or low-quality gear: Some supposedly “good” equipment turned out to be subpar or even unsafe to use. This was not only disappointing, it was dangerous – a risk to my club mates that I was not willing to accept.
Lack of support or warranty: If something broke or went wrong, there was often no proper warranty or support. We were left on our own with defective gear, and that really showed me how little some sellers cared after making a sale.
All these frustrations ultimately pushed us to take action, and soon enough UIMA-the-Hub was born, becoming the United Instrumental Martial Armory! Initially, this “supply depot” was only to UIMA-the-Club members since we did not wish to deal with the complexity of commercialism, and preferred to stick to the supply and production side of things… (this is also why we still only work with Club & Retailer orders!) However, our door was gradually pried open by other friendly clubs as well as honest retailers that believed that they suffered from the same frustrations and struggling with the same problem. UIMA-the-Club as a whole gradually realized that the severity of which clubs and retailers go through the same costly trial-and-error, leading the UIMA-the-Hub to transform into the transparent, community-first platform that it is today. In fact, this entire equipment depot was literally borne from my tough journey of club orders, with the supply sheet being inherited down.
In short, UIMA’s goal is to unite all the quartermasters of the world with less frustration with scams and better understanding of equipment themselves! To this end, UIMA will strive for four critical attributes on all of our communications and items: Openness, Fairness, Care, and Safety.Openness: UIMA will insist on full transparency in product details and communication. Every bit of technical information about gear is laid out plainly – no misleading claims or secretiveness. You all deserve to know exactly what UIMA knows with honest descriptions: if something is a budget option, we will let you know; if an item is a luxury treat, it will be marked; if a listing is a prototype with new tech, that will be marked!
Fairness: UIMA maintains a fair, direct, haggle-free and upfront pricing model. All prices are publicly listed and already include typically “extra” costs like shipping, warranty shipping, and taxes, so you won’t be surprised by hidden fees. In line with our Openness goals, there are no secret backroom deals or exploitative exclusivity agreements (though custom proprietary production is fine! See FAQ!) – everyone gets the same transparent treatment. Since UIMA works only with batch, club, and retailers, the sheet price will be accurate. If you’re ordering in a huge batch, we’ll simply work out the potential price reduction that results from supply side factors such as actual shipping or production conveniences, we promise nothing sketchy or “profit” driven on UIMA’s side!
Care: UIMA is community-first, and it is an effort to generate happiness for everyone involved. This means that UIMA truly cares about the equipment themselves and about you first and foremost. This platform was built by producers & practitioners for the community at large, rather than as a venture to swell one’s coffers. UIMA not only listens to feedback, but we truly LOVE them! (join discord now). In fact, due to the supply-side nature of UIMA, most producers we work with can tailor orders to specific club needs, and UIMA always will take care of you if something seems wrong – if any gear has issues, UIMA will be in charge of warranties or replacements and make sure you’re not left stranded. We’re all in this together, and UIMA will have everyone succeed and be happy.
Safety: Nothing matters more than keeping people safe, and the painful experience of having a gullible member bringing in a deadly sword is one of the things that drove the creation of UIMA. We only work with producers who are committed to maintain quality and safety, and much of the gear is rigorously tested in UIMA-the-club before it ever gets listed, with all footage publicly available for inspection. UIMA-the-club’s near perfect track record (withstanding huge pressure put on our equipment too!) over years is proof of how seriously we take this. We want the same safety for you – every item we distribute will have its attribute detailed, and we are always happy to stream you up with our own copy at hand to show you anything you want to know. Needless to say, UIMA strives to ensure that the equipment you get is safe, durable, and battle-tested so you can train with peace of mind.
We completely understand that some of the clauses above may be against the interests of some: for example, it is certainly reasonable to suggest that our rejection of commonly found exclusivity agreement would reduce the incentives for retailers to “grab” items as soon as possible; or if publicly making the supply price known will make the process “too transparent,” but please understand that our decision to uphold the principles above is after careful consideration.
As mentioned earlier, UIMA insist that there must be ways to make all stakeholders happy without reducing transparency and without including arbitrary deals: we are happy to coordinate the differentiation of retailer catalogs to prevent hostile competition; we are more than eager to support your proprietary designs to go into productions and to have them remain yours only (and thus they become de-facto exclusive, and that is okay since they won’t exist without you!); and most importantly we are happy to refer individual customers to your shop when they are looking for a particular item if you are already stocking a particular item!
In fact, it is our belief that there must be a way to make everyone happy, and with proper arrangement of policies outlined above, to make the producer-supply-retailer-individual relationship no longer hostile, but symbiotic!
UIMA is about inclusivity and community-driven development. Just like how we made UIMA-the-club training and gear accessible to everyone with minimum charges so that students can join in regardless of financial background, UIMA-the-depot wishes to make everyone welcomed. If you would like to join us to have your items tested, simply contact us using any of the contacts above! We believe that the best way to grow is together, by sharing knowledge and supporting each other.Furthermore, UIMA is to be evolving with the community. We are not some top-down business; it’s a collaborative effort. Your voice truly matters here. We always invite you to share your opinions, ideas, and even criticisms – they directly influence what we do next. If you have an idea for a new piece of equipment, a suggestion for improving our process, or just want to chat about anything, please join the conversation. The easiest way is to hop into our Discord server where I (and the rest of our friendly community) hang out every day, discussing and developing all things martial arts. Don’t hesitate to reach out and join your voice to ours – UIMA thrives on community input and I love hearing from you!UIMA exists to make martial arts equipment procurement open, fair, caring, and safe for everyone. Those OFCS values aren’t just buzzwords; they are the heart of everything we do here. I hope you’ll be part of our next chapter – together, we can continue to build a better, more inclusive martial arts community. By building UIMA around these values, we hope to turn the bad experiences we had into positive policies. What started as a small club’s internal project has grown into an open marketplace and community resource where we all know what we’re getting, we treat each other fairly, we look out for one another, and we keep each other safe. This journey—from getting burned by shady suppliers to creating a trustworthy platform—has been challenging but incredibly heartwarming, and thank you for reading!