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Osprey Range Day – Overmatch Concepts

Friday, January 10th, 2014

I attended the premiere range event hosted by Osprey Global Solutions and Defense Logistics Support. You may recall my story on the HCAR, a modernized BAR. Osprey boasts a great facility nestled east of I-95 about 45 minutes from Fayetteville, North Carolina. Boasting 25m out 1400m range access, the facility is the brainchild of Retired Army Major General David Grange who heads up Osprey.

Below, you can see some shots from the last range day when Osprey hosted about 50 military and law enforcement personnel as well as members of industry. In addition to a variety of weapon solutions offered by Osprey Armament, we also were introduced to new forensic evidence collection systems as well as the actual range complex itself. This next even will boast even more with the introduction of UAVs, medical systems and tactical training technologies. Expanded to two days, it gives additional opportunities for attendance and hands on experience with the systems on display. Additionally, lunch is provided. See you there!

If you are going to be in the area and are interested in attending send an to email Steve from OSPREY at sperry@ospreyglobalsolutions.com or Trevor Kräcker with Defense Logistics Support, Inc. at tk@defenselogisticssupport.com. It is imperative that you email for a reservation as it is by invitation only and you will not be given entry without being on the list.

www.OspreyGlobalSolutioms.com

Tags: Defense Logistics Support, Osprey Armament, Osprey Global Solutions
Posted in Industry | Comments Off on Osprey Range Day – Overmatch Concepts

The Ways of Industrial Espionage

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

I know there are many readers of SSD that are currently in route to Las Vegas Nevada to attend the annual SHOT Show . Some of them will be going for no other reason than to conduct industrial espionage. What better place to get an under the hood view of your competitors than a tradeshow?

While they aren’t a company we would normally mention on SSD, this video by Saddleback Leather entitled, “How to Knock Off a Bag” certainly caught our eye. In the spirit of sharing some training in the ways of industrial espionage we thought we’d share it with you. We know it will somebody out. But, if you prefer quality, you might enjoy the video as well.

www.saddlebackleather.com

Tags: Saddleback Leather
Posted in Industry | 15 Comments »

Silencerco Announces Nick Booras as VP of Sales

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

I saw this one coming from a mile off. Congrats to Nick! Kick ass in the new job. Maybe now you can afford to make an honest woman out of WB.

West Valley City, UT- SilencerCo announced today that it has hired Nick Booras as VP of Sales to augment their growing team and support the company’s strategic sales and product development initiatives. Most recently, Nick was Senior Product Manager for On-Gun Accessories at the Remington Outdoor Company, and was previously in charge of military and international sales and business development for Magpul Industries Corp.

“Nick’s experience working with a broad spectrum of domestic and international customers is a welcome addition to our team,” said Silencerco CEO Josh Waldron, “With Nick’s help we will expand into new markets and continue to develop high quality, innovative products to meet the needs of the most demanding end users.”

“SilencerCo has created a culture of innovation by forming a team of talented, passionate individuals who are driven to be the best,” Nick said, “The company is young, creative, and aggressively pushing into new markets and product categories, which makes it an ideal fit for me.”

Booras started at Silencerco on 4 January 2014.

www.silencerco.com

Tags: Nick Booras, Silencerco
Posted in Industry | 4 Comments »

An Open Letter From Wild Things to Their Military Customers

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

Dear Military Community,

All of us at Wild Things would like to wish you a Happy New Year. We thank you for all you do for our great country and we appreciate your excellence, effectiveness and dedication to duty and country.

I would also like to thank our supply chain partners with whom we weathered the Sequester – their support and efforts to continue to supply needed raw materials has been much appreciated.

2014 looks to be a better year for all of us that supply the military. A two-year federal government budget should allow the DOD to plan their buys with some degree of confidence.

2013 was a tough year for the industry and a particularly tough year for Wild Things. We are nearing the end of a multi-year transition at Wild Things – a transition that has resulted in new owners, new management, upgraded systems and processes, new and expanded product line and a revolutionary new approach to consumer product – and the Sequester hit us hard. We closed our New Hampshire office in June and let people go to reduce our operating costs. In addition, we had some production delays in 2013. Wild Things has always prided itself on our rapid delivery of quality products. We did not perform to our standards and I would like to apologize to all who were impacted by our delays.

The back half of 2013 was a dramatic improvement. Our sales bookings were strong. Our manufacturing ramped back up and we have been delivering product at a steady cadence. In the midst of this difficult year, the Wild Things team has launched an entire new line of FR products, including:
• New high performance Fire Retardant base layers made with a new wool blend that contains no Modacrylic;
• New GORE-TEX® PYRAD™ Fire Retardant Hard Shell Jacket and Pants;
• New Fire Retardant Low Loft Jacket made with GORE-TEX® PYRAD™ Fabric with Fast Pack technology shell.

Please contact Frank Tarantino or Grady Burrell (828.421.4349) regarding appointments for Military or Law Enforcement personnel at SHOT SHOW or Outdoor Retailer to review our new product line.

I would like to thank our distributor partners who work hard on our behalf and who show our products to customers around the world. We appreciate your efforts to grow the Wild Things community.

Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2014.

– Ed Schmults and the Wild Things Team

Tags: Wild Things
Posted in Industry | 1 Comment »

Announcing Cleer Medical LLC

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

For the past year, Eleven 10 LLC and Raven Concealment Systems have been collaborating behind the scenes on a new enterprise.

This new joint-venture is CLEER Medical LLC, based in Cleveland, Ohio. CLEER Medical combines Eleven-10’s operational experience and medical expertise with Raven Concealment’s advanced design/manufacturing capabilities and their expertise in developing gear for low-visibility/no-visibility missions.

Remember that Low-Viz Blow-Out Kit that we previewed in May? That is one of the products they have been working on.

The focus of CLEER will be to make TCCC-compliant medical products that are smaller, lighter, and more effective than anything presently on the market, without compromising effectiveness.

Making life-saving items smaller and lighter means those items will be able to be taken to more places, and in greater quantity.

CLEER Medical will be unveiling their first product at SHOT 2014. You can find their products at booth #561 (with Raven Concealment Systems). Those who wish to learn more can sign up for their email newsletter at www.cleermedical.com.

They can be found on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/CLEERMed

Tags: Cleer Medical LLC
Posted in Industry, Medical | Comments Off on Announcing Cleer Medical LLC

Vertx to Incorporate Fighter Designs’ Airflow Technology

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

Congrats to Adam Slank and the whole crew at Fighter Designs. You may recognize the name from their “Magnetic Velcro.” We have had some interesting conversations about the development of the Airflow Technology. Some of you make trousers made by Fighter Designs but I am looking forward to seeing how the technology works with the Vertx aPhantom pant.

(Cincinnati, OH 08 JAN 14) Vertx Apparel, the tactical brand and innovation design arm of Fechheimer Brothers, is proud to announce they have signed a licensing agreement with Fighter Design of Austin, TX. This new partnership will allow Vertx to incorporate Fighter Design’s proprietary Airflow Technology into new models of the world’s best tactical pant.

“Fighter Design’s ‘Airflow Tech’ has been on my radar for a while now,” says Vertx Director of Sales Darrell Morrow. “As an apparel feature there’s nothing else like it. It’s proven to keep you cool. Adding it as a feature option to Vertx tactical pants is frankly just an awesome evolution.”

Fighter Design’s Airflow Technology has already garnered well-deserved attention for shooters, athletes and operators who must work in high temperatures. It’s an aggressive, well designed system that utilizes extremely tough mesh material in strategic locations like the inseam of the pant legs and cargo pocket interiors to create a cooling flow of air into the pants.

“We’re very excited to be working with Vertx on this,” says Fighter Design’s Adam Slank. “They’re an amazing company and we’re all big fans of the Vertx brand. Of all the brands in the market, we really wanted to work with Vertx. People just need to try the new pants in order to feel the airflow for themselves. Some things need to be experienced.”

Though the partnership is a young one, an initial project will be debuted at the NSSF SHOT Show, Booth #126. This will take the form of a limited run of ‘Phantom Ops Powered by Airflow.’ Note that a small number of these pants will be available for preorder at the Vertx booth and on line—and doing so may very well guarantee participation in some otherwise invite-only after-business-hours Vertx SHOT Show events.

www.thefighterdesign.com

www.wearvertx.com

Tags: Fighter Design, VertX
Posted in Clothing, Design, Industry | 6 Comments »

Survival Armor Welcomes Gary Hughes

Wednesday, January 8th, 2014

Survival Armor is excited to introduce the addition of Gary Hughes, Director of Special Projects as a full time member of the Survival Armor team. Gary Hughes has been affiliated with Survival Armor since its inception and brings with him over 20 years of experience in the body armor industry.

Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Kurt Osborne says, “Survival Armor is committing resources to continue our growth and market penetration with the
ultimate goal of becoming the number one body armor supplier in the US, Gary’s vast ballistic and armor knowledge will lend support to the entire Survival Armor sales team and help us accomplish this goal.”

www.survivalarmor.com

Tags: Survival Armor
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Announcing SIERRA HOTEL MANUFACTURING Under The Guidance Of Jamie Wehmeyer

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

03 JAN 14 Austin, TX – You already know Sierra Hotel and you don’t even know you know it.

Sierra Hotel is the new marketing, R&D and direct commercial sales arm of a 1ST Tier DoD manufacturer. Though the parent company has been building equipment and parts “on spec” for decades, they had an inability to touch the civilian firearms market. They reached out to Jamie Wehmeyer, the co-founder and former designer from Legion Firearms and Sierra Hotel Manufacturing was born.

“Our parent company builds everything from humvee parts and .50 cal pieces to Mk 19 mounts,” says CEO and Sierra Hotel co-founder Wehmeyer. “They also build firearm components people have no idea they’re using, particularly bolt carrier groups. People literally do know Sierra Hotel and don’t know they know it.”

Those bolt carrier groups are being manufactured at a rate of up to 30,000 per month. A $20 million dollar machine shop and stringent quality control standards have allowed them to provide BCGs to a startling number of rifle manufacturing brands. NDAs are in place to protect corporate identity, which prevents specific brands from being named. However, at 20 to 30,000 BCGs per month for a very long time now, it’s just shy of a virtual certainty rifle owners have one in their possession (particularly if they own more than one rifle, of more than one brand).

“Widespread as they are, BCGs are only one small part of what we’ll be doing,” continues Wehmeyer. “We have plans for numerous innovative products that will really impact the civilian market—and we ‘ll be able to supply them in quantity. In house process- and design-engineers along with serious manufacturing capability allow us to be the sole manufacturer of our products. That’s just one reason we’ve been selected as an OEM by companies who want to keep their QC at an impeccable standard.”

Among the new products Sierra Hotel will be building are the modular MuzzleHub and a billet heat-treated fire control group. You will be able to see these things and others soon.

“Sierra Hotel products will be in several places at SHOT,” Wehmeyer advises. “Some will be in or on products at Crye Precision, some at London Bridge Trading, others at BattleComp and Legion Firearms. If you’d like to know more about them, or—for vetted journalists and reviewers—discuss T&E applications, e-mail us or come see us at SHOT Show.”

www.sierrahotelmfg.com

www.facebook.com/sierrahotelmfg

Tags: Sierra Hotel Manufacturing
Posted in Industry | 1 Comment »