Now as much as Trampas and the US-based crew head to SHOT
to look at all the shiny shooty and sharp things, my aim at IWA
is to concentrate on the “soft” side of the industry, namely
clothing, gear, and footwear. Having worked alongside some of
the “big names” in the performance gear market I do tend to be
quite hard on people, especially when they try to blind me with
the “science” I’ve worked with for many, many years!
I have absolutely no clue (they say it takes 100 inklings
to get a clue, and I don’t even have an inkling…) why some
manufacturers assume that they can get away with quoting
spurious performance statistics/numbers in the tactical world
when those very same “facts” have been debunked in the
outdoor performance market years ago. Because we work
with things that go “bang” very loudly I’m assuming that they
somehow feel this erodes our mental capability to “call BS”; the
last time I looked most of the guys I know in the tactical world
are also pretty solid outdoor practitioners…
Sorry, rant over, but I do hope that some of the “names”
will stop trying to beat us up with numbers and actually get
round to creating new and genuinely useful designs… which of
course leads me neatly into UF PRO who REALLY do get it, but
are humble enough to not shout about it. This is a really great
shame, because in my opinion these guys do have something to
holler about, and their design guru, Armin, totally understands
every stitch and every piece of technology they use to achieve
SH
HALL 9
trade visitors from about 130 countries gave the 45th edition
of IWA Outdoor Classics even more of an international flavour
than last year. This year, eight out of ten exhibitors and almost
two-thirds of the trade visitors travelled to Nuremberg from
locations outside Germany which shows the draw of what is
fast-becoming “EURO-SHOT”; this event is exclusively for trade
visitors; children and young people under 18 years of age are
not allowed to attend. Tickets for the IWA Outdoor Classics are
issued only to visitors from appropriate specialist suppliers,
official bodies and security companies on submission of relevant
credentials
Hitting Nuremberg late on Thursday after a 500 mile drive,
the doors to the show proper opened bright and early on the
Friday morning, and after a brief visit to the professionally run
Press Room (I discovered I’m not the only one on the PMCI team
to run on caffeine and cake!) it was time to get rolling; as much
as I like to see as much as possible when I visit IWA, experience
has taught me that you need to make a schedule and stick to it.
It’s simply just not possible to see everything, but with so many
friends in attendance there was a constant “heads up” flow of
information in relation to exciting new products.
pmcimagazine.com