Wool and Cotton Armbands - Production Years?

[Colorado]

It seems 99% of the NSDAP and HJ member armbands are made of cotton. When did they start appearing? I am assuming the earliest armbands are wool and maker marked. Then we would see wool with RZM, then cotton multi-piece, then cotton print? Did the wool armband production stop with the war?

Lastly, how much more would you pay for example a wool HJ armband over a cotton one?

[Bob Coleman]

Wool armbands were produced consistantly during the 3rd Reich era. Woll armbands are normally worn on wool tunics as the cotton are worn on the brown shirt. The exception being HJ which primarily wore cotton armbands. In fact, I have only seen a few wool armbands for this organization. I presume this is due partially due to cost.

Bob

[Colorado]

Thanks Bob, wool with wool tunics makes sense. I have a maker marked wool HJ armband that is larger than standard HJ, so I assumed it was for an overcoat, not a wool tunic. I also have an HJ that has BeVo construction that also appears to have higher quality construction.

There are huge numbers of mint with the tag cotton NSDAP and Sport Armbands that show up here on the estand/shows/eBay etc. I assume there were warehouses full of them at the end of the war. It does not appear the case with wool ones, most originals seem to have some wear on them, and are encountered far less, so I assumed they were earlier.

Every NSDAP member had a wool tunic, right?

I had just assumed that as the war progressed wool was discontinued in favor of materials more readily available.

[Bob Coleman]

A few years back at the Max, a fellow should up with a stack of unissued wool party armbands, still tied together. Like any item made by a government, these were made in such great amounts that it appears late war shortages did not impact the availability of these.

Bob