“We started exhibiting here a long time ago when we started developing our military and outdoor gear,” he said. “The interest in the tactical style of products is getting more and more interesting – these products are not only used in the military – we have found interest from people in bushcrafters, paintballers, airsofters and other outdoor lovers. I think the time for writing contracts and deals directly at trade shows is over, but shows like IWA help us get to know the right people and start relationships. It also helps inform us and find out the needs of the professionals who use our products – we have a lot of our product development team here to discuss such things.”
And finally, perhaps one of the best stories from IWA OutdoorClassics this year came from another very young Austrian company, OPOS. Its owner, Florian Tripaum, first visited the show as a teenager making his way in the industry, and the experience was so inspiring that he came back eight years later with his own company based on a pistol design he developed in that time.
“I can tell you that my first time visiting this show was eight years ago when I was 18, and this was when I decided upon my own big goal to do my own development and create my own gun and get it on the market,” Florian said.
“Today is the end result of my development journey over the past eight years and it was a great pleasure to be here. There were so many people here it was truly astonishing – I can’t thank everybody enough for their interest. We have the capacity to sell about 300 pistols a year at the moment, and they are all already gone after exhibiting here.”
