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Archive for 2015

Brand and Oppenheimer Announce Management Transitions

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

RED BANK, NJ – January 27, 2015 – Brand & Oppenheimer Co., Inc. (B&O), a leading textile converter, today announced that it has appointed Edward Ricci, Ben Galpen, and Bryan Boulis, known for their work under the 1947 llc aegis, to the Office of the CEO, effective immediately. Ricci, Galpen, and Boulis were recruited by Praesidian Capital, B&O’s controlling shareholder.

The three industry veterans are known for their innovative, high-energy management styles. Ricci, who will serve as CEO and oversee all B&O operations, is a third- generation textile executive who served as CEO of Duro, the textile company his grandfather founded in 1947. During his 22-year career in the industry, he has had responsibility for more than 3,000 textile workers worldwide. Galpen brings an additional 17 years of experience in the industry, while Boulis has more than three decades of broad woven textile experience sourcing fabrics both domestically and globally for a wide variety of end users.

“We are very excited to have attracted three outstanding textile executives to B&O,” stated Jason Drattell, Praesidian’s Founder.

Jon Mansfield, Praesidian Partner, added “In addition to their deep textile expertise, they have especially strong relationships with domestic weavers of nylon, polyester, nylon/cotton and cotton substrates which should be extremely beneficial to the company in its future work.”

Ricci noted “We have known both B&O and Performance Textiles for many years and see a multitude of interesting synergies that will benefit all stakeholders. As part of our work, we will bring new MultiCam® fabric development in the U.S. to B&O, as well as international MultiCam fabric sales on an exclusive basis. We are equally pleased to have a chance to work with the B&O and the Praesidian teams as we accelerate the company’s growth opportunities.”

Wow! Congrats to all involved! An inquiry to 1947 LLC revealed that it will continue to function as a separate entity, independent from this announcement.

SHOT Show – SureFire Blast Diffuser Coming Soon

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

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This the SureFire 5.56mm Blast Diffuser unveiled at last week’s SHOT Show. It adapts to a SF SOCOM muzzle brake / suppressor adapters and pushes the concussion of the muzzle brake forward, away from the shooter and those next to him. Because of this attachment, it does kind of resemble a miniature suppressor, but it’s not.

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This is the prototype that was at SHOT Show. Everyone wanted it. I understand they had a cash offer of $600 to sell it, right there at the show. It is now in production and will be available soon.

Vickers Tactical released this video showcasing some new SureFire products including the Blast Diffuser. LAV is interviewing Jamie Wiedeman. They served together in the same Army unit for many years.

www.surefire.com

OP Tactical’s 2015 Serengeti Sale

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

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www.optactical.com/jan20cl

The Warrior’s Bridge

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

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The Warrior’s Bridge is a new nonprofit founded by Amy Tucci Jones and Scot Spooner to help fellow Veterans. It plans to provide free, long-term wellness treatment to those United States service members who possess invisible wounds due to mortal combat experienced on the field of battle, in order to facilitate their pursuit of the American Dream with a healthy mind, body and spirit.

Warrior's Bridge Teaser from AO Films on Vimeo.

thewarriorsbridge.org

SHOT Show – OCP Update

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

Naturally, when you get that many industry pros together, they are going to talk programs. Of course, there was lots of talk regarding CSASS and Modular Handgun but the sod goods folks wanted to talk about the US Army’s impending Operational Camouflage Pattern transition.

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Announced last year, the US Army plans to begin issuing the new pattern beginning early Summer 2015 to replace the Universal Camouflage Pattern initially fielded in 2004. Operational Camouflage Pattern or OCP arose from the ashes of the uncompleted Camouflage Improvement Effort which began in 2011. A developmental camouflage pattern called Scorpion W2 was selected by the Army for fielding as OCP after the Army unilaterally broke off talks with Crye Precision who had created a pattern commercially called MultiCam. MultiCam has been in use with USSOCOM for many years and was adopted for use by the Army in 2010 strictly for use in Afghanistan also under the nomenclature of OCP. The US Air Force also used MultiCam OCP for their deployed forces and will continue to use the new OCP variant as well.

A couple of items stuck out in my OCP conversations with industry.

First, OCP NYCO fabric is all that is being printed and it has only been delivered so far to NIB/NISH and Federal Prison Industries for assembly into ACUs. No commercial vendors have received fabric yet to manufacture ACUs for the Army.

Second, there is currently no plan to release fabric to companies for commercial sale. This means no commercial OCP ACUs like those offered in other patterns by companies like Propper and Tru-Spec. It’s a pretty significant issue that will affect military outfitters which service Army customers outside of Army posts as well as online.

While no one has been printing OCP Cordura, this issue will most likely affect that fabric as well, meaning no commercial OCP (Scorpion W2) equipment. This falls in line with what I expected early on with OCP (Scorpion W2) being restricted to US government use and MultiCam being used for commercial OCP sales. Remember what we told you early on; OCP is OCP.

However, these are pretty cautious actions by an Army that claims to “have appropriate rights to use OCP.” They are certainly tiptoeing through the tulips.

82nd Trains on Light Tactical All Terrain Vehicles

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

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In the U.S. Army photo by SGT Eliverto V. Larios, paratroopers, assigned to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, drive Light Tactical All Terrain Vehicles (LTATV) through a familiarization course on Fort Bragg, N.C., Jan. 22, 2015. The Soldiers will incorporate the vehicle into upcoming training events to assess the capabilities of the LTATV as an air-droppable, maneuver and small arms platform.

What Do You Think of the US Navy’s New Commercial?

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

Crye Precision 2015 Product Guide

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

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(Click on cover to open pdf.)