PentagonLight extinguished by Surefire
November 9th, 2009 | Business News | Posted by Rob Curtis
The site is gone, the phones are disconnected. PentagonLight is no more.
Surefire sued the pants off them in district court back in April 2008. The suit was against Pentagon Scientific Corp’s infringement on Surefire’s lockout tailcap switch patent. Six months later, the court found in their favor. The company bought back some of its inventory from its dealers but never put out a statement about its demise. So, even though it’s old news, there are still people wondering if PentagonLight is really gone. It is.
Instead of re-engineering their product line or negotiating to license Surefire’s tailcap, PentagonLight chose to quietly shut their entire operation down. This is intriguing, since the judgment had no financial component. Surefire didn’t ask for a dime. They just asked that PentagonLight not be permitted to sell the Surefire tailcap.
Why did PentagonLight cut and run? Perhaps it had something to do with the other component of Surefire’s suit that refuted PentagonLight’s “Made in USA” branding. The combined loss of the tailcap and the unwanted attention on the location of their manufacturing revealed flaws in their business model the felt they couldn’t overcome.
Could this be the Gen4 Glock?
November 5th, 2009 | Business News Link | Posted by Rob Curtis
At AUSA, we tried to get a little news from Glock about their 4th generation pistol. The reps were all tight-lipped about the new features we might see when they unveil it at Shot in January. But, Richard over at gunsholstersandgear.com has pieced together a pretty good picture of what we can expect the Austrians might be doing to compete with Sig-Sauer, Smith & Wesson and Springfield. Richard based his findings on a combination of privileged sources, public documents and educated guesses.
Don’t get sucked to deep into the madness, though. Photos of a Gen3 RTF Glock (right) are getting posted on forums and blogs that are mistakenly labeling it the Gen4 pistol.
USMC looking for new packs and body armor
October 28th, 2009 | Business News Contracts | Posted by Rob Curtis
The Marine Corps just announced a couple of RFIs. The first one, for Individual Load Bearing Equipment (ILBE), hit a couple weeks ago. The second, looking for new body armor, landed just this morning. Together, the two mean the Corps knows ILBE and body armor don’t work together; and they realize it’s time to fix it.
The industry day for the ILBE program will be held Jan 22, 2010 in Salt Lake City, presumably to take advantage of a large number of pack company’s presence at the Outdoor Retailer show. The body armor industry day will be in Las Vegas Jan 19, 2010 when body armor companies will converge at Shot Show.
The Marines are looking for process and material enhancements that have come to market since ILBE’s addoption 6 years ago that can make ILBE2 lighter, stronger and more adaptable than the current system. ILBE was brought in to rescue the Corps after the audacious design of the MOLLE system (pictured above) folded under the weight of it’s own complexity and fragility.
The other RFI is interesting because it shows the Corps is not only continuing, but accelerating its march away from the modular tactical vest (MTV) in it’s recognition that greater mobility equates to improved lethality in the infantry.
It looks like even their latest system, the improved scalable plate carrier (ISPC), isn’t cool enough for the Corps.One line of the solicitation in particular gives a clear indication of the Marine Corps’ intent: “MARCORSYSCOM is particularly interested in previously unexamined, lighter weight, and innovative armor solutions equaling or surpassing current performance standards.” Off the cuff, this makes me think of the Archangel body armor system. It might not be lighter, but it’s feels lighter, and it is innovative. Let’s hope the USMC realizes that armor and loadbearing equipment need to work together when these two programs get fielded.
Photo Caption: Marines from the 26th MEU load up their MOLLE packs as they head out on a Tactical Recovery of Aircraft & Personnel (TRAP) mission at Kandahar International Airport, 1/20/02. Photo: Rob Curtis
Mystery Ranch’s Website Gets a Facelift, New Packs
August 28th, 2009 | Business News | Posted by Rob Curtis
If you’re a fan of Mystery Ranch on Facebook, you’d already know that Mystery Ranch went live with a completely redesigned website last week. They’ve got a few new additions up there. Look for the Dragon Slayer, 2200 cubes, and the Big Horn, 3000 cubes. Both new tri-zips that have some new internal compartments and fill in the some of the size gaps. They’ve also posted the new NICE Longbow, which is a 2400 cube tri-zip that attaches to their NICE frame system.
via Facebook (Yep. Who knew?)
Deal$cout- $200 ACU Combat Jackets @ Grey Group
May 28th, 2009 | Business News | Posted by Rob Curtis
GearScout friends and Fort Bragg locals Grey Group Training have built a solid business by stocking some of the most hard-to-find tactical gear brands. They burned both ends of the candle last month getting their updated site greygrouptraining.com ready to launch June 1 and they’ll be celebrating with some sweet deals and new products.
They’ll have ACU-pattern Arc’teryx Combat Jackets for $200, and a small run of special-edition, Grey Group custom Tom Krein Double-Eight field daggers. No price on the Kreins, yet. Those jackets MSRP for $350, and are a good deal at $270. $200 is probably the wholesale price.
The new site will feature a live inventory system, lots of new products, better navigation. Grey Group has also taken on dedicated customer service reps, added a warehouse and generally taken things up a notch.
Grey Group Training is one of the few places you can find gear in stock from the likes of Mayflower Consulting, Ops-Core headgear, MSA helmets, 215 Gear, Crye Precision, Arc’teryx LEAF, and 5.10 tactical footwear and Kiku Matsuda knives.
Marine’s New Gore-Tex (But Don’t Call it Gore-Tex)
May 6th, 2009 | Business News Programatics | Posted by Rob Curtis
I had an hour to wander the floor at the Navy League’s SeaAirSpace Expo. While there was plenty of DoD level toys, there was precious little in the way of personal gear.
What little I found was at the Gore Technology booth. Wally Nelson from Gore shows the Marine Corps’ new Lightweight Exposure Suit to a showgoer. With 17k of the contracted 35k delivered, it’s a safe bet that the whole 2nd MEB should have some lightweight Gore weather protection when they roll into Afghanistan shortly.
The program started back in 2007 when the Marines decided to split from the incremental improvements made to the ECWS system and build a shell from the ground up. The jacket is made from a 2-layer system that has performance qualities similar to Gore-Tex PackLite, but with a tougher laminate to protect the membrane.
Gore is careful to point out that this isn’t Gore-Tex, though. Since the military is harder on their gear than skiers and Lalapalooza attendees, they won’t guarantee it’s waterproof. Legal semantics aside, it’s the same stuff –just in MARPAT, and it’s cool.
Infighting Stalls $3m Worth of Lightweight Infantry Gear
March 28th, 2009 | Business News Programatics Quick Post | Posted by Rob Curtis
In a green-on-green dust-up, the go-getters have been foiled by the do-gooders. The Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group came up with a plan to outfit a battalion in Afghanistan with lightweight gear for an evaluation. They safety certified, bought it, and had it on the dock ready to ship before Big Green threw the bureaucracy flag.
Matt Cox has the full gouge in Monday’s Army Times, but these are the Cliff Notes. The army spent nearly $3 million on high speed gear from the likes of Surefire, Mystery Ranch, Aimpoint, and plenty of others to shave 20 lbs. from the kit that dismounts are humping up and down the mountainsides of the Hindu Kush.
Seems the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics and technology (ASAALT) isn’t too happy about trading mobility for protection and has stopped the evaluation so they can perform their own test of the kit’s body amor. That leaves the armor along with the remainder of the gear sitting on a shipping dock in Virginia Beach. Why wouldn’t they just hold the armor and ship the rest?
Kifaru Busts Out New Packs and New Site
February 24th, 2009 | Business News Product Announcement | Posted by Rob Curtis
Kifaru deployed a new line of packs featuring their Armor Grip system. The system, found on the brand new AG1, 4000 cubes, and AG2, 6500 cubes, is a set of pads that roll out to create a space that cradles your back armor plate. When not in use, the pads lay flat across the back and don’t interfere with the fit or function of the pack’s suspension in any way. Pretty cool.
Most of the other packs in the Kifaru line have gotten some upgrades, too. The EMR and MMR have both gotten a new frame attachment system, more attachment points for external loads, new lumbar pad with PackLock grip panels that hold the pack in place.
Lots to look at as they continue to update the site at www.kifaru.net.
Pelican Eats Hardigg, Metabolizes CEO
February 9th, 2009 | Business News | Posted by Rob Curtis
Pelican, the US manufacturer known for it’s broad range of hard plastic storage and transport cases and portable lighting products, has thrown down serious money and bought out competitor Hardigg in a $200 million deal that went down right before Shot show in January, 2009.
The press release tries to paint a rosy picture for any employees who think their job might be redundant. There’s some language that describes Hardigg’s case manufacturing process as roto molding, while Pelican’s cases are made using an injection molding process. This seems aimed at assuring workers on both sides of the fence that nobody will be losing their job since the manufacturing processes, machinery, etc. is different bewteen the companies. But, Hardigg does make a pretty sucessful line of injection molded cases called Storm Cases.
Read the press release after the jump. But, for those that can’t be bothered here are the bullets-
- Pelican will keep the Hardigg brand and products around.
- The combined company will have 1500+ employees, 22 offices, 6 plants and operate in 12 countries.
- CEO Jamie Hardigg will drop his day job at Hardigg and join the board of Pelican.