I’m exhausted to say the least. I was blessed to be associated with a couple of the busiest booths at the show, which didn’t give me much time to visit with other reps and manufactures as previous years.
Here is a recap of new products that you will see filtering into the market this fall of 2016 and into 2017 that had a huge success at the show.
1. Breakthrough lubricant/cleaners – https://www.breakthroughclean.com/why-breakthrough/
The days of rem lub and Hoppe is fading quick. This booth averaged 20 people deep for every day at the show. Law enforcement and Military buyers were at the testing for this and it drew huge numbers of buyers to the booth.
• Breakthrough® has no odor compared to the volatile chemical odor in Traditional firearm cleaning solvents.
• Breakthrough® has been granted a toxicity clearance by the Army’s Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine.
• Breakthrough® has been extensively tested by the US Department of Defense.
• Breakthrough® has been selected by the US Department of Defense as an authorized product for cleaning of small arms.
• Breakthrough® has no listed components or characteristics of hazardous waste per the EPA; and worker exposure is not regulated by the OSHA Z-list- Traditional firearm cleaning solvents traditionally contain Kerosene, Ethyl Alcohol and Amyl Acetate that have been assigned occupational exposure limits by OSHA.
• The flash point of Traditional firearm cleaning solvents is typically around 55 deg. F, making it a hazardous material before use. Breakthrough® has a flash point of 150 deg F.
• Traditional firearm cleaning solvents will evaporate faster than Breakthrough® requiring more product to be used to complete the same task
2. Stealth Operator – http://www.stealthoperator.com/Stealth-Operator-Compact.html
Very remarkable concept and product. The single compact holster is currently capable of fitting over 150 different handguns. For customers that own a variety of different guns, a single holster option to essentially eliminate the need for individual holsters for each gun. They use a proprietary blend of nylon instead of Kydex so the form and fit will last for years. At the show they were dropping them on the ground and stepping on them. Very durable and wouldn’t crack were the kydex would be more brittle.
3. Athlon Optics Bino’s, Scopes, Red Dots, and range finders – http://athlonoptics.com/
For a very young optics company, I was shocked at the attention they got at the show. By far, this was the sleeper that grabbed everyone’s’ attention. The owner (former director of procurement) , all the engineers, and others came from other major optic companies to form this company. They brought a simple plan to build the best, with more features, and a better price point for the consumer. They put in place a very strict marketing plan & dealer program to help eliminate excessive costs, without the need to reduce features to maintain very competitive price points. They had so much success in the first two days that most of the other major optics companies came to the booth to see for themselves. The quality of these are outstanding and they all have a transferable no questions asked lifetime warranty.” No receipts, no registration, no questions. ”
They use Light Optical glass for a number of their lines which is the same used by every high end scope line with every manufacture. The upper mid range of the Athlon family was probably most comparable to the Vortex or top of the line Burris, but less in cost. This company will be growing by leaps and bounds fast.
4. Great American Tool Company – http://www.gatcosharpeners.com/javelin/
Besides all the knives and sharpeners that they are traditionally known for, has a LED strip in their Gas Monkey line up. I thought this was very versatile for a lot of uses. They are water resistant, flexible, magnetic back, variable LED settings, and a hanging ring/hook. Easy to put in a fanny pack, flip overs, hubs, and so on.
5. Radians eye and hearing protection – http://www.radians.com/radsite/index.php/retail/radians-sporting-goods
Radians is one of the largest companies for safety products and they private label for a lot of companies. If you use ear plugs, muffs,… good chance you have used their products. I didn’t get through all their new stuff, but found a few things I really liked. They have a couple of lines of glasses that can multi-purpose as polarizing, shooting, and light-weight safety that retail for under $20.00 I don’t normally wear glasses, so most are uncomfortable. I found a couple of their lines are adjustable and super comfortable. For about what we pay for inexpensive polarizing glasses, you can get a better fit and Anti-fogging lenses.
In their hearing protection muffs, they have a couple models of youth sized muffs. Most with younger kids have a difficult time finding smaller sized. They have a good line up and multiple levels of protection.
I didn’t get through any of the major gun booths other than ATI. (American Tactical Importers). They were all ridiculously busy as to be expected. ATI has a line of AR that are very economical. For the guy that wants to buy, but not get too deep, there is a good option. They also had a line of 1911’s that were selling at astronomical rates. They have RUKX bags in tactical packs and gun cases that i took a liking to. Super heavy duty and the retail cost is at or less than most of the others that I have looked at. Their twin gun case was one that I had to own myself.
Sorry I couldn’t get more information up here. We were so dang busy that I just didn’t have the time to walk the entire show. There was over 64,000 people in attendance and 1000’s of exhibitors
