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KEN NOLAN INC., Vietnam Era Military Insignia Mfr.


Cmr3
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I have a watch That was made by KEN NOLAN INC., I been trying to find information on this company and only found a little information that it made military related items like in the 60's. Does any have any other information on the company or the watch?

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They started in about 1960, advertising in the back of men's and military magazines. They were in San Clemente CA, adjacent to northern Camp Pendleton.

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Interesting I was only familiar with their IRON ON subdued patches from the Vietnam era.

 

They made several SSI, enlisted rank and advertised for CIB, Jump wings and US Army as well. I have not actually seen them.

 

See example. The instructions were even done in Vietnamese

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I still have on the sales card Ken Nolan trouser blousers. They are metal springs that hook around the lower legs to blouse trousers over the boots. They are not the ones I used in 1970, but some I found later in a thrift store.

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Here's his catalogue. I believe I received it in the early 70's. They have some watches listed but they don't appear to have his logo on them like yours.

 

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By chance does the catalog list/show the Iron insignia available? I think most of the Iron on SSI were done early in the war prior to the subdued twill patches being available.

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I'm pretty sure that at some point Ken Nolan's catalog either became or was merged with the "sportsman's guide' I used to get nolan's catalog in the 80s but it started coming as the sportsman's guide at some point

Tom Bowers

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They went out of business at the beginning of 2005. Here's some screen shots from the Internet Archives, including their goodbye notice:

 

2003

 

nolan2003.jpg

 

2005

 

nolan2005.jpg

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In the late 1960s to 1970s Ken Nolan, Inc., made plastic US Army chevrons and Iron-on chevrons. The plastic shirt collar chevrons were just slightly larger than the standard metal collar chevrons. The plastic chevrons were very brittle and did not hold up well.

 

I don't know if the iron-on chevrons were used very much, I have never seen a field uniform with iron-on chevrons.

 

Here are some from my collection.

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And Iron-on chevrons.

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In the late 1960s to 1970s Ken Nolan, Inc., made plastic US Army chevrons and Iron-on chevrons. The plastic shirt collar chevrons were just slightly larger than the standard metal collar chevrons. The plastic chevrons were very brittle and did not hold up well.

 

I don't know if the iron-on chevrons were used very much, I have never seen a field uniform with iron-on chevrons.

 

Here are some from my collection.

 

You're missing a few of the Spec chevrons. You can order them from here:

 

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Here's his catalogue. I believe I received it in the early 70's. They have some watches listed but they don't appear to have his logo on them like yours.

 

attachicon.gifKen Nolan.jpgattachicon.gifKen Nolan 2.jpg

 

 

Boy Kurt you sure did save a lot of the old catologs, that's really cool, true to form I got rid of the ones that I did have long long time ago, like the old The Soldier Shop catalogs I had from the late 70s early 80s (The Soldier Shop on Madison Ave NY NY). Interestingly they are on EBay, but not Weiss and Mahoney's, I just checked :( .

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Boy Kurt you sure did save a lot of the old catologs, that's really cool, true to form I got rid of the ones that I did have long long time ago, like the old The Soldier Shop catalogs I had from the late 70s early 80s (The Soldier Shop on Madison Ave NY NY). Interestingly they are on EBay, but not Weiss and Mahoney's, I just checked :( .

 

I saved all of them. They're really fun to read some 40 to 50 years later. I'll have to start a thread on some of them one of these days. My favorites are for ZM Militaria that was in Englewood, NJ. It was amazing what you could buy (and the prices) in the 1960's. Only problem was I was a kid with hardly any $$$.

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I saved all of them. They're really fun to read some 40 to 50 years later. I'll have to start a thread on some of them one of these days. My favorites are for ZM Militaria that was in Englewood, NJ. It was amazing what you could buy (and the prices) in the 1960's. Only problem was I was a kid with hardly any $$$.

Oh yeah definitely, sure would appreciate the effort, as you'll want to post each page from the catologs. I,m sure a lot of older members from these parts would love to see them, then you'll have the younger members, and those older members who remember similar stores from where they live or lived, who can only wish like the rest of us that these stores are still around AND with the items are at the same prices. I believe the correct forum for this might be the Ephemera & Photographs Forum.

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I remember subscribing to a company that sent packets of patches out on approval options, similar to how postage stamps were marketed in the 1960s. Every month I would receive a packet of 15-20 patches and pay for the ones I wanted and return the rest. I don't remember the company's name however.

 

They were so reasonably priced that I don't remember ever returning any of the patches. I sold my patch collection in the early 1980s and don't have any of them now.

 

Anybody remember P&S Sales out of Oklahoma? I used to buy bayonets for around $2.00 to $5.00 from them. They also had insignia if I remember correctly.

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I used to buy bayonets for around $2.00 to $5.00 from them.

 

There's a local picker who use to buy bayonets by the dozens from those old mail-order houses. He has them from 15 or more years ago and most are still in the plastic bags they were shipped in, and the blades are heavily greased. I've pretty much bought out most his stock in the past year. One box of them had one of the old mail-order flyers. I wish I'd kept that.

 

Between mail-order catalogs and the classified ads in men's magazines, buying militaria was certainly different pre-interweb. On the internet we can often look at dozens of large, clear color photos of what we want to buy from some stranger, but in the good old days the "photo" was a small grainy halftone image that usually bore little resemblence to what arrived in the mail. If the seller ripped you off there was no Pay Pal to intercede and get your money back.

 

But the prices in those old ads and flyers.........

 

Of course, back then an extra $5 was as hard to get as is $50 today so we still drooled over things we couldn't afford.

 

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Well, we have created the world's largest repository of Ken Nolan Co. trivia. :)

 

They were in San Clemente adjacent to the north end of Camp Pendleton, then moved a few miles north to Irvine CA. They went out of business almost 11 years ago, but I wonder if their remaining inventory is still stashed away in a storage locker in Orange County? Maybe the STORAGE WARS people (is that still being filmed?) will find it one day.

 

I once bought the remaining inventory of a military uniform and tailor shop in San Diego. The son of the owner had it stored in his garage over 30 years after the shop closed. San Diego also had the Wosk store, whose WWII patch inventory was being sold by family members more than 60 years after their shop closed: https://www.google.com/#safe=off&hl=en&q=site:usmilitariaforum.com+wosk

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There were several things in the Ken Nolan Catolog I wish I had bought back then. He had Vietnam subdued Air Force ranks and badges and he had leather flight suit ranks. I did buy campaign ribbon bars back to the Civil War, I knew they weren't original but they were cheap. I mounted them on a matt board and it was kinda neat looking. I was going through my Dad's stuff after he died and found he had bought restrike medals back to the Civil War and the appraiser my sister picked priced them super cheap so I bought them, and then mounted the ribbons with the restrike medals. A neighbor's Dad gave me one of the iron on Seabees from there.

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When I was a kid I hunted for pop and beer bottles every Saturday morning then turned them in at 2 cents each. On a good day I would earn $1.00 to $1.25. I then went to the local mom & pop store to buy 6-8 comic books, bubble gum, a candy bar and a coke. Great living for a ten-year old.

 

Now I wished I had bought bayonets and insignia with that money.

 

We ought to create an archive of all those old catalogs. It would be a good reference as well as making a lot of collectors drool.

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