I’ve been pretty open about my preference for performance. I’ve also referred to it as quality. Tactical Yellow Visor recently published an article on the phenomenon he calls ‘moar.’ It’s kind of th opposite end of Performance.
The Author of that story is a bit more in tune with the gun culture than I am, and I find the similarities, and differences fascinating. But the Moar concept goes one step further. The Author says that the market ends up distracting the true user community with crap. And, he may be on to something.
Interestingly, his readership is focused on SureFire lights while mine is currently going apeshit over Arc’teryx, yet the issues are the same regardless of commodity. When I wrote, I was thinking far beyond clothing to all items such as lights, armor, hand wear, eye pro, etc. Yet, interestingly many fixated on a single brand in a single commodity.
It’s funny to me that mil guys don’t complain about SureFire yet they may go on and on about Arc’teryx. Why do ou think that is? Well, I’d hazard a guess that it’s because they’re issued SureFire lights. Everybody gets nice flashlights. Everybody gets pretty nice duds too, but folks love complaining about that which they do not have.
So is there something to this concept of Moar? I think it may be as much a function of business as demand. There are still new businesses entering the market, even as the defense budget shrinks. I think some folks missed the boat. What remains to be seen is if the retail market will pick up the slack.
So, Moar, what do you think?
Tags: Tactical Yellow Visor
There is something to this. For example, how many different kinds of rifle mag pouches are made now? One offers a low profile, or immediate access, blah blah blah. I think a mag pouch should do 2 things. Stick to my rig and hold a mag. So there are companies constantly trying to re-invent the mag pouch. Spending who-knows-how-much to design an all new, why didn’t I think of that, this is going to be huge-mag pouch. How did we survive wars without state of the art mag pouches?
Ok, so maybe my mag pouches should do 3 things. Stick to my rig, hold a mag, and come in multicam. Oh, and if it has a place for a morale patch that would be good too. While we’re at it, design one with some shock cord. Maybe some of that new “quiet” velcro I’ve seen. Perhaps a drain hole should be put in the bottom of the mag pouch so my rifle mags don’t sit in water. Oh, and make sure the mag pouch has a very low IR signature. That’s important too. Wait, I guess I want MOAR!!
“Moar” is coming from basically how customizable the current gear and weaponry is. You can look back to past wars and see the typical “this is your rifle, this is your gear, this is all you get cause its all you need” but when you start coming out with ARs with pictinny rails and Molle vests, and hell now helmets with rails attachments even the army gets in on “Moar”
“well we can fit flash lights to a rifle cause that will help in so many ways”
“while we’re at it, lets attach a flash light to the helmet so they can do all these tactical things in the night!”
and when the army starts wanting all these things, the commercial market starts to follow. It starts at first with them trying to win army bids for new equipment and ends with them selling their new creation to the masses in a civilian variant.
I’m currently serving as an infantryman with one tour done in Afghanistan. I was given the option to buy my own vest (from a select list of companies) and deck it out as long as I met certain requirements (ie medic pouch located thar!) but then I was also given a whole slew of laser pointers, flash lights, IR strobes and stickers, headset walkies, new ballistic lens inserts, additional armor coverage, (at one point even riot gear for my helmet) I could probably go on and on. But too me, it wasn’t all bad, I knew why we had what we had and everything had a purpose. I’ll admit it, I want “Moar” cause it gives me a slew of tools and options, BUT I want compact too. I want something that combines my surefire and my laser PAQ together so I don’t have two different pieces of kit attached to my rifle end. Hell I’d only have to carry spare batteries for one device not two! I want my helmet light to also have the IR strobe (i know those exist im just not that lucky) And I would love it if my platoon and company nets could be on one headset not two different ones that somehow have to fit under my helmet.
That’s just my two cents, but you never saw this when you were given webbing and an FNFAL. You didn’t run to the store to buy that new canteen pouch with built in straw, or try and buy a mount for a flashlight to you FN, cause it wouldn’t work. The option wasn’t there so the need to get “Moar” was never there. Tell me you don’t look at a blank AR with a quad rail and go “nah its good bare ass” you probably instantly want to add at the very least, a pad for the rails to “protect denting the pictinny and make it more comfortable”
Isn’t this just the cycle of consumerism? To quote Tyler Durden: “advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” I think it sums the point up nicely. As we move farther and farther away from our dangerous tribal roots to our networked, coddled modern selves, men (males namely) still want to seek out that adrenal rush, that fight or flight feeling that confirms to the animal part of our brains that we are, in fact, the brave hunter that we think we are. To that end, we arm ourselves with the latest and greatest shit we can buy. However, because, of course, we no longer kill our own food, no longer survive on our wits and reaction time, we know, in our heart of hearts, that we’re not that hunter. So we feel empty. We are empty. But our wallets aren’t. Well not yet, anyway.
Wel put sir!
When I envisioned the kit Impact Weapons Components would offer as a company, the last thing I wanted to make was MOAR! For AR’s, I could have made a tubular fore end with slots (TRX,VTAC,Etc) or another rail mounted QD Sling Mount or an offset light mount for rails. But I didn’t. I looked for opportunities to make solutions for what operators and internet geeks said was missing. Then I applied the concept of LEAN to determine if the part requested could be done for a fair price and meet the functional requirements of saving weight, space or improving the weapons function. WHen the part met these criteria, we’d make some. And sure enough, our kit improved people’s ability to run their gun. BFG’s Helium Whisper is a great example. It saves weight, improves reliability and saves space. Innovation like this is what we need… ZEN type innovation… not MOAR!
Male competitiveness+Popularity of Military Culture+Internet Latency+the shortening Cycle of Innovation=More “Moar.” Motor sports guys, audiophiles–and yes, gun guys–have been doing the “Moar” thing since the dawn of the industrial age when the working class began to have leisure time and “hobbies.” But you used to have to troll at the gun shop/bike shop/stereo shop, and you were no more well-informed than personal experience, the print product you could consume (libraries, news stands and “Reader Service Cards”–remember those?) and whatever wisdom you could get from a well-placed shop tech. Now, you don’t have to leave your corner office/cubie/mom’s basement. Then, but to a greater extent now, PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and PERSONAL EXPERTISE continues to be the x-factor. But the anonymity–combined with the pervasiveness–of the internet gives some surprisingly inexperienced people surprisingly broad reach. Not sure it’s Surefire vs. Arc’Teryx so much as a cyclical thing where Surefire (as it’s preparing to do as we speak) brings the products it teased at SHOT to market, and Surefire’s fanboys do battle with fanboys loyal to other makers (or technologies). Only 10% of that market–if that–will ever bet its life on its light, but you wouldn’t know it from what these guys argue about. Even funnier, there continues to be a group of doubters that doesn’t want a high lumen LED because LED light supposedly doesn’t cut through the kind of dust that gunfighting produces as well as Xenon (presuming that your batteries are VERY fresh). One of the ultimate realizations of “Moar” was the Costa/Larue collaboration, which shows how crazy “branding” can make things. Well known CNC parts maker builds fanatical loyalty by giving you a bottle opener, a hat, a sticker and a bottle of chili powder when you buy his stuff (note: of three three makers I queried, only his staff answered my inquiries) teams up with a prominent instructor (first guy to make a WATCHABLE video program) to sell a prestige gun. Half the crowd goes wild, half screams that an AR shouldn’t cost that much and points out, correctly, that only a few of those buyers will ever be able to out-shoot that gun. No more than buying a Jimmy Page Signature Les Paul guitar would make you a better player in the 1970s. Moar, against EXPERIENCE and EXPERTISE. You can waste a lot of money on “Moar,” or do some research and focus your budget on something that may enhance your experience, build your expertise, save your life and sustain innovation in the marketplace. “Moar” brought us the 2-MOA Aimpoint, “Moar” brought us the Zombie EOTech. “Moar” brought us the Gen 3 Glock, and yes, “Moar” brought us the Gen 4 Glock.
And before the Arcteryx bird, there was TAD hoodies, etc, etc.
“The Author says that the market ends up distracting the true user community with crap.”
It depends on how the author defines the “true user community.”
Some people play with guns for fun and some people do it for a living.
The truth is that the industry can’t sustain itself on military money alone. And as a great man once said, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
Not everyone has what it takes to put it on the line and do it professionally; for those that don’t but like to play the part, you can always dress up, arm yourself and obtain the training.