Speed kills is a common phrase any motorist will have seen at some point driving across the U.S. Interstate Highway System. It’s a cautionary tale, or the last line in one where going fast isn’t recommended.
But, it’s also an admonition. For what, you ask? To go faster.
The first time I heard it used that way was on a campaign. In the political campaign world going fast, responding fast, acting fast is how you kill your opponent’s momentum. It’s a necessity in politics because your ability to respond quickly is what keeps you ahead in the polls or at least keeps you from falling back any further.
That’s why campaigns have rapid response teams. It’s a powerful tool, but not just for campaigns.
As we work our way into Q2-25 the firearms industry is seeing not just the predicted and expected slowdown to the normal sales volumes we had grown accustomed to in the mid 2010s, but also the volatile market fluctuations of on-again, off-again tariffs.
Where you stand on tariffs is irrelevant at the moment. The immediate concern is how we respond to them. For consumers it’s easy. We either buy now before prices go up or hold our money and wait it out. Coming off the high inflation years of the Biden Administration, holding on to your money might be a wise choice, at least until a little more clarity comes to the market.
For companies, it’s a whole other battle, and one where speed is essential.
Facing a slowing or stagnant economy where consumers are loathe to part with their disposable income, companies need to find ways to entice customer spending. For many that means discounting, rebates, or value-added promotions.
For larger companies with experience weathering times like these, it means bringing those new products to market that have been in development.
That is a decidedly more difficult feat to pull off since new products take time, and the development process limits how fast you can move. The new products we see this year, and we will see them, are the result of early preparation for this time in our economy.
But, for those companies that rely on imported firearms or components the cost increases of the Trump Administration’s tariff efforts will cause major headaches. And if those companies are not prepared to pivot to U.S. manufacturing alternatives, those headaches could last a while.
The unfortunate aspect of the newly imposed tariffs is that we don’t know how long they will last. Trump’s approach to tariffs is two pronged. First it supports the U.S. manufacturing industrial base by forcing foreign markets to open up to our products by removing tariff barriers.
The second prong is to force – though Trump might say encourage – U.S. companies to reshore production of their products here in at home. We’ve seen some indication that large international companies are planning to bring at least some of their manufacturing back to the U.S. Apple plans to spend $500 billion over the next four years in support of U.S. manufacturing. Though, don’t expect iPhones, iPads and MacBooks to be manufactured in the U.S. anytime soon. That’s a much longer transition which Apple hasn’t committed to.
Here in Arizona, just across the road from the Ben Avery Shooting Facility, you can see the massive TSMC facility where the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company TSMC is bringing their advanced chipmaking to the U.S. This wasn’t done out of concern about tariffs but out of the real fear of an invasion of Taiwan by China.
On a much smaller scale, but one important within our industry, we see companies that import also sourcing from U.S. vendors.
This weekend, James Sellers, founder and CEO of Sellmark Corporation, addressed this very issue in an open letter posted on LinkedIn. In it he outlined how Sellmark has been preparing and “proactively shifted sourcing, developed redundancy, and enhanced domestic capabilities.”
The high tariffs that remain on China will hurt Sellmark but not as much had they not been moving to mitigate such problems.
This is where companies need to adopt the speed kills manta and find their way to greater agility and flexibility to confront market hurdles. The days of coasting on legacy products and simple line extensions are long gone for most companies. At least the companies focused on growth.
Those companies that have dragged their feet on engaging U.S. vendors and building redundancy in their supplier chain, now have little choice but to seriously focus on this initiative.
The economic turmoil we face this year leaves manufacturers in the firearms, optics, archery and accessories industry with no other option than to move now and move fast. And the faster they do the faster they find a clearer path through the turmoil.
— Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network
