Only in America could a former packaged goods executive and venture capitalist see that discontinued Soviet military materiel and Russian folk crafts would sell to well-off U.S. citizens.
But Mitch Siegler says it was American consumers who contacted him about buying these products directly after unsuccessful overtures to retailers Pier One Imports and Nordstrom in 1991. Thus the Sovietski Collection was born.
The catalog features three categories of products. One, military paraphernalia, includes antique surplus such as 32-pound copper diving helmets constructed for Russian navy special forces, as well as equipment made new but with keen workmanship, like special forces night-vision goggles and brass compasses.
“Our stuff is still made the old-fashioned way,” says Siegler, the catalog’s president. “It is overbuilt because they haven’t caught on yet that they can save money by cheapening material and production. And I don’t think it’s in their mindset because many suppliers are military factories that make things one way and that’s it.”
The other categories are gift items (such as handcrafted Russian folk dolls made by two St. Petersburg sisters and their mother for the catalog) and antiques (like a Czar Nicholas II toasting chalice and antique brass samovars).
Also featured are busts of Lenin and Stalin, Cold War memorabilia, such as brightly colored lapel pins that commemorate Soviet avionics, and coins that honor the Soviet space program.
“The things we sell, for the most part, are not available anywhere else,” says Siegler. “And only a few dozen or a few hundred exist. We are not going to gift shows and buying merchandise, we’re going to some small village in Siberia.”
The mailing list, too, is uncommon, according to Siegler, because it’s skewed at 67% male. Most catalog lists are top-heavy with female buyers.
“And the men we reach tend to be enthusiastic about something: They are sportsmen or collectors. They have a passion for something. We are unique in our ability to reach men.”
They also are highly educated people who are “well-traveled and well-versed in world events and history. They understand the value of these products,” says Siegler, mentioning the customer who has 600 sextants in his collection and calls up routinely to critique the catalog’s descriptions of the mariner’s navigation tool. Some 38,000 of the catalog’s customers who ordered in the last 24 months spent an average of $150. The last-12-month file identifies 25,000 buyers and the list of last-24-month inquirers numbers 100,000. American List Counsel Inc., Princeton, NJ, became manager of the file last month.
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