UPDATE 2023: I was a naive little nerd when I wrote this blog post back in 2019. At the time, I loved the ANOVOS Starfleet uniforms I had purchased and received. I loved the quality and attention to detail. In my mind, I felt like I was owning production-quality uniforms from the various Star Trek shows and movies. I felt that waiting on the things I ordered was acceptable if it meant getting these really cool high-quality unforms. And I had thousands of dollars in pre-orders for more. I wanted to say thanks to the company for their work. They didn’t ask me to write this as I did so on my own. Then in September 2021, it seemed ANOVOS had completely disappeared with what appeared to be members from ANOVOS going on to form this other company called DENUO NOVO. TrekCore reported on the situation. Star Trek fans, including me, who had pre-orders waiting to be fulfilled from ANOVOS were told nothing with absolutely zero communication from ANOVOS about what had happened. It’s 2023 now and there has still not been any communication regarding the outstanding ANOVOS pre-orders. This has been a lesson for me in writing blog posts that seemingly endorse companies like I did here with ANOVOS and looking like a shill and then ended up looking even more stupid. Sadly, the new company DENUO NOVO has the Star Wars license. If you are a Star Wars fan, I highly recommend NOT buying anything from this new company, despite their insistence they have nothing to do with ANOVOS. Clearly, something shady happened with ANOVOS and DENUO NOVO and you should not trust ordering anything from them.
Yesterday, the co-founders of ANOVOS published an article on their website explaining what has been going on with regards to significant delays to many of their products pre-ordered by customers. The cause, they say, is due to “complex burden of accuracy”. The company is making some adjustments to be better at getting products out into the hands of customers. As a customer who has several products pre-ordered that has been delayed (some of which delayed quite a bit…), I wanted to write a letter of support for the company because their products are simply stunning and amazing when you get them and completely worth the wait.
So, who is ANOVOS? ANOVOS
is a small company that specializes in producing screen-accurate and highly
detailed replica costumes and props from Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters,
Marvel and a few others. Their products are very popular, especially with Star
Wars and Star Trek fans with many fans wearing their product to conventions. Through
their licensors like LucasFilm or CBS, they get access to the exact costumes
and props used in the TV and movies to create their products allowing them to
truly specialize in creating products that are incredibly accurate. And this is
what attracted me to purchasing ANOVOS products: accuracy.
As a Star Trek fan – I’ve always wanted to own screen-accurate
uniforms from the TV shows and movies. When it comes to Star Trek, I am
extremely detailed orientated. DETAILS MATTER! A Star Trek uniform from
Rubie’s isn’t going to cut it for me. I want to feel like what I’m wearing
is exactly what they wore on the show. When ANOVOS came to the table with their
uniforms for Star Trek – I was excited someone was finally doing this and
specializing in accuracy. My very first ANOVOS purchase was the Captain Picard
jacket as seen being worn by Captain Picard in the later seasons of Star Trek:
The Next Generation. And I was blown away by the quality and accuracy. I wore
it around work like Captain Picard wore it around the Enterprise.
The way ANOVOS works is they solicit a product and then open
it up for pre-orders. Usually when they solicit the product, it’s in the
prototype stage with development of the product on-going. The pre-orders are
limited to a certain number or sometimes in waves. Filling that number ensures
they can produce the product. Often, you’re in a waiting game on a product you
pre-order as ANOVOS develops the product for manufacturing. I currently have
several pre-orders – some of which I made nearly two years ago. What has caused
delays in getting products to customers is the process of producing these products
can ben immensely complex due to the focus on accuracy. ANOVOS hopes to make
changes that avoids having to decrease their focus on accuracy but shrinks the
time it takes to get products out to customers.
I completely support ANOVOS in their efforts. But I also don’t
mind waiting. The products I’ve purchased from them have been amazing. I mean,
simply incredible. I’m not upset I have pre-orders going back almost 2 years
because I know what I’ll get will be stunning and reflect incredible quality. The
main issue for me is simply lack of transparency on the ongoing development of
the products I pre-ordered and resulting delays. I want to see ANOVOS do a better
job communicating with customers because I think that will make a HUGE difference.
When you order products from ANOVOS, you’re getting the best-of-the-best so its
best to reset your expectations of having something be immediately available
but know you’re getting something awesome.
I’m currently waiting on several products from ANOVOS I’m
really excited about including:
I am so excited about these products and can’t wait to show them off! ANOVOS has my complete support and as long as they continue to make awesome costumes and props from Star Trek and Ghostbusters, they have my business.