De la porte blindée au gilet pare-balles, une bien belle histoire d’adaptation à la demande.
Kiev Armored Door Company Goes Where the Money Is : Flak Jackets - Businessweek
▻http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-05/kiev-armored-door-company-goes-where-the-money-is-flak-jackets
Omelchenko says he sells 2,000 to 3,000 Class 4 flak jackets every month, at $350 each. Class 4 jackets have plates made of Kevlar and steel. He also sells more sophisticated Class 6 models, which include metal breastplates, side plates in the kidney area, a neck guard, and a groin guard. Those sell for as much as $800. Omelchenko says he moves about 300 Class 6 vests each month.
A World of Armored Doors is one of four or five large flak jacket retailers in Ukraine. “I’d say that about 20 percent of the vests that we see on TV, they’re ours,” Omelchenko says.
Because of the long-term financial neglect of the Ukrainian army following the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, its military has had to rush to update or purchase new gear. New recruits, along with new members of Ukraine’s recently formed parliamentary battalions, have had to gear up, sometimes from scratch and often on their own dime.
The wait for a new jacket can sometimes take as long as a month, says Omelchenko. Mindful of the urgency some soldiers face, A World of Armored Doors now houses stacks of metal plates and fabric casing. The company also limits civilian buyers to two jackets at a time.
Sometimes, parents from villages will scrape together enough money to buy their newly enlisted son a flak jacket—no small feat, considering the least expensive jacket starts at $350, roughly equivalent to two months’ wages for the average Ukrainian. Other times, volunteer organizations will collect money to purchase the jackets for different battalions.