Looking for suppliers for survivalist gear in the USA/China

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A merchant is seeking dropshipping suppliers in the USA and China for survival gear products.

A Shopify support representative provided three supplier recommendations:

  • Doba (US-based)
  • Alibaba (manufacturer direct)
  • AliExpress (Alibaba’s dropshipping platform)

A community member clarified that AliExpress and Alibaba are the same company, with AliExpress serving as the dropshipping arm. They noted that AliExpress typically charges a premium over manufacturer prices, with markups sometimes exceeding $100, though margins may be smaller for survival gear specifically.

The discussion remains open with no final supplier decision made.

Summarized with AI on November 13. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi,

I am working on a store in the survival gear/ survivalist neich. Can anyone recommend some suppliers in the USA and China for Dropshipping Survival gear?

Thanks in advance!

2

Hi @JoHannah ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community! I’m happy to provide some assistance with locating a dropshipping supplier, to ensure this gets resolved.

To share some insight, we have curated a great list of Top Rated Dropshipping Suppliers that I recommend checking out. These are some of the most well-known suppliers used by merchants across the platform. As you are looking for a specific type of supplier however, I’ve gone ahead and made a few suggestions listed below that you can look into:

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

1 Like
3

Well put? One thing I would like to point out, is that AliExpress is Alibaba. AliExpress is the Alibaba dropshipping site for the manufacturers. You will typically be paying a premium, might be small, but I’ve seen +$100 mark ups.