Today, most of the industry is either erecting trade show displays or shivering in the desert during Industry Day at the Range, the sanctioned event that presages the opening of SHOT Show. Not too-many years ago, lots of companies held individual preview events, inviting the media, buyers and other invited guests to see the products they’d officially be revealing when SHOT opened its doors for business.
Those outside events were “quietly discouraged” -to the point that today there’s the massive “Industry Day” and very few other events staged by companies who, honestly, have more product and interest than could be accommodated at the big event.
We’re hoping to get some small amount of time on guns we’ve already heard about, but haven’t previewed. We’ll also explore the range for things that might be overlooked in the massive exhibition halls. I’ve already seen the new M &P 2.0 pistols from Smith & Wesson, but there are new guns from Ruger, GLOCK, SIG and others that have piqued my curiosity.
There are some items in today’s news no one (else) has seen. We’ll be bringing you the first look at some of them later this week. One announced today is the Ferro 9mm pistol from DRD Tactical. I’m thinking it may be one of the SHOT Show sleepers.
Normally, today’s combined special edition is dedicated entirely to the “Newbies” first- year SHOT Show exhibitors, companies on the SHOT NEXT list who have tabletop displays but no booth space (yet). We also give a nod to the sophomore class of 2018- those companies who were “newbies” last year and are back for a second year.
But there’s enough significant news to delay our look at the “newbies” for a few hundred words.
First, it’s been widely whispered that (at least) one distributor was been in serious financial difficulties. When short term financing won’t convert to the long term, it makes for serious problems. By the end of business tomorrow, we’re hoping to be able to release details, but we’ve learned that unfortunate distributor will not be shutting down. And we’ll also bring you news of a business expansion into an area that may surprise many in the agency side of the industry. It would appear the bloom has started to disappear of the “social media” rose for retailers who have huge “tribes” but few “sales”.
Not positive news for the magazine biz. Bonnier’s a major players in the outdoor magazine industry, and they’ve made some serious cuts on the eve of SHOT. Last week, they shuttered the print portions of five magazines (motorcycle titles Baggers and Dirt Rider, Sport Diver, Wakeboarding and WaterSki) and dismissed more than 70 employees.
Appears they’re not done yet. We’ve confirmed that Outdoor Life editor Andrew McKean is among the most recent casualties- and there are still others who will be getting notices - soon. It’s no secret magazines are feeling the pinch, although we’ve been hearing that some companies - after “disappointing” results with many of the “new media” and “social communities” - are heading back to “traditional” media.
We’ll keep you posted.
And now for the good news.... Between the first year and NEXT exhibitors, we’re going to be welcoming more than 150 new companies to SHOT 2018. And we’re happy to report there will be more than 90 members of the sophomore class. That points to the fact that we’re not doing too-badly as an industry, although we’re not running at the record levels many might have become accustomed to. All industries are cyclic, although our industry seems occasionally to have extra challenges.
Between those nearly 250 companies we have a cross-section of the United States and nearly a dozen countries from virtually every continent.
OK, some of the “newbies” like Orbital ATK aren’t really new -unless you’ve never really heard of the Lake City ammunition plant outside Independence, Missouri, but many of them are small companies like Phone Skope (www.phoneskope.com) , makers of interface devices that allows you to attach smart phones to spotting scopes and binoculars. “Digiscoping” is one way to enter the world of long-distance image capture using equipment most hunters and shooters already own.
Others companies, like Metal Impact (www.metalimpact.com) make pressurized industrial tanks, along with components for a variety of other things -from M203 barrels to aluminum riflescope tubes.
One company that caught my attention is Doom and Bloom. Doom and Bloom is actually a husband-and-wife business run by Dr. Joe Alton (M.D.) and his “nurse” Amy (an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner). They authored “The Survival Medicine Handbook” and offer classes on disaster medicine as well as medical kits for everything from basic first aid to high level trauma. Somehow, I figure you’ll be able to find them by following the laughter because, well, they look like they enjoy their work.
There are, as you would expect, plenty of serious companies like Tri-Tech - which offers POS and Management systems specifically designed for gun stores and ranges, or Hesco, the British company that offers Hesco barriers, framework that allows for very rapid construction of earthworks for anything from flood protection to shooting ranges.
If you’re into it, you can also stop by Marina Vape and check out vaping juices (the 2018 equivalent of the cigar craze of the 90s?) or Torque Precision to see their “FC Hook” a device that locks magazines into AR style rifles, creating “fully compliant” (hence, FC hooks) rifles for unfortunates still living in California.
I’ll wander through the apparel areas (my body type seems to make them nervous that I’ll stop by) and check out Silver State Apparel’s products. They make fashionable concealment clothing for women, and I’m also going to check out Canada’s Rifle Caddy- they have one ingenious product- a gun or bow holder that straps onto a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota, Nissan, Jeep or Suzuki console.
Like everyone else who’ll be queued up tomorrow, I’ll be entering the miles of displays with a bounce in my step that quite likely will be all gone by the end of the day. And I’ll be repeating the process through my time at SHOT Show 2018.
If you happen to see me there, I hope you’ll say hello. After all, SHOT’s a great place to see friends, too.
-- Jim Shepherd
EDITOR’S NOTE: You can click here to see a list of “The Newbies/NEXT Companies of 2018”