RECOIL Talks With One of the Loudest Voices in the Quiet Revolution
Kevin Brittingham doesn't care if you read this.
He doesn't care if he comes off as a saint or an a**hole. He's going to do his own thing. He'll be the first one to tell you he's a mixture of both of those attributes. No matter what, he's always motivated by two primal urges: love and a deeply primitive sense of competitiveness.
The 42-year-old multimillionaire started selling guns when he was in high school, opened an NFA shop selling silencers, and then incorporated Advanced Armament Corporation when he was 19.
His marketing prowess mated with an uncanny sense of innovation alone would get him going in the right direction. But, his nose for talent and a relentless drive to prove everyone who may have doubted him wrong all combined to make him the Sun King in a firearms industry run by powder-wigged nobility who wouldn't know cool if it were a rapier against their collective throat. And, it was.
He spent 16 years growing AAC into a money and tax stamp printing machine when Brittingham sold his baby to Remington Arms Company in late 2009. AAC was the coolest company in the firearms industry, hosting parties at SHOT Show with Mini Kiss (a dwarf Kiss tribute band) and inspiring silencer aficionados to tattoo the brand on their bodies in return for a free can.
Brittingham sold his company for nearly $18 million in a can't-beat-them, join-them (and-beat-them-from-the-inside) move. The problem was the suits at Remington wanted the cachet Brittingham brought, especially his contacts in SOCOM, but they got more than they bargained for. The whole story is laid bare in court documents you can find online. Let's just say that signing off on the cost of a (kick-ass) Star Wars Tie-Fighter themed conference room wasn't something that washes down with a two-martini lunch. Brittingham was airlocked in a way that would save Remington from paying nearly half of what the company agreed to pay him for AAC, but the strategy backfired and Brittingham was paid, with interest.
He may have won the fight with Big Green, but he didn't walk away clean. The battle sidelined him from the work he loved for a couple of years, it took years off his life, and likely set the wheels of divorce in motion.
Once released from non-compete purgatory, Brittingham settled into a new home with SIG SAUER in New Hampshire. The Americanized European gun company was growing fast and had just invested in a brand-new manufacturing facility that was probably the most modern firearm factory in the country. The company wanted silencers and military contracts, something Brittingham could bring. In return, he wanted back into the industry with his own handpicked team of all-stars and the resources to do what Remington wouldn't let him do — make the best silencers in the world.
Alas, the second time wasn't the charm. Brittingham became frustrated by the politics and bureaucracy he perceived at SIG. The breakup wasn't nearly as ugly as the one with Remington. But, when he was walked out of the office this past winter, a handful of SIG's key talent walked with him to start his new venture, Q. That tells us Brittingham might be a royal pain in the ass to manage, but you don't endear that kind of loyalty without being right about a few things.
We sat down with Brittingham for a bit at Q's offices.
(More at link)
https://www.recoilweb.com/kevin-brittingham-the-original-honey-badger-96947.html
Kevin Brittingham doesn't care if you read this.
He doesn't care if he comes off as a saint or an a**hole. He's going to do his own thing. He'll be the first one to tell you he's a mixture of both of those attributes. No matter what, he's always motivated by two primal urges: love and a deeply primitive sense of competitiveness.
The 42-year-old multimillionaire started selling guns when he was in high school, opened an NFA shop selling silencers, and then incorporated Advanced Armament Corporation when he was 19.
His marketing prowess mated with an uncanny sense of innovation alone would get him going in the right direction. But, his nose for talent and a relentless drive to prove everyone who may have doubted him wrong all combined to make him the Sun King in a firearms industry run by powder-wigged nobility who wouldn't know cool if it were a rapier against their collective throat. And, it was.
He spent 16 years growing AAC into a money and tax stamp printing machine when Brittingham sold his baby to Remington Arms Company in late 2009. AAC was the coolest company in the firearms industry, hosting parties at SHOT Show with Mini Kiss (a dwarf Kiss tribute band) and inspiring silencer aficionados to tattoo the brand on their bodies in return for a free can.
Brittingham sold his company for nearly $18 million in a can't-beat-them, join-them (and-beat-them-from-the-inside) move. The problem was the suits at Remington wanted the cachet Brittingham brought, especially his contacts in SOCOM, but they got more than they bargained for. The whole story is laid bare in court documents you can find online. Let's just say that signing off on the cost of a (kick-ass) Star Wars Tie-Fighter themed conference room wasn't something that washes down with a two-martini lunch. Brittingham was airlocked in a way that would save Remington from paying nearly half of what the company agreed to pay him for AAC, but the strategy backfired and Brittingham was paid, with interest.
He may have won the fight with Big Green, but he didn't walk away clean. The battle sidelined him from the work he loved for a couple of years, it took years off his life, and likely set the wheels of divorce in motion.
Once released from non-compete purgatory, Brittingham settled into a new home with SIG SAUER in New Hampshire. The Americanized European gun company was growing fast and had just invested in a brand-new manufacturing facility that was probably the most modern firearm factory in the country. The company wanted silencers and military contracts, something Brittingham could bring. In return, he wanted back into the industry with his own handpicked team of all-stars and the resources to do what Remington wouldn't let him do — make the best silencers in the world.
Alas, the second time wasn't the charm. Brittingham became frustrated by the politics and bureaucracy he perceived at SIG. The breakup wasn't nearly as ugly as the one with Remington. But, when he was walked out of the office this past winter, a handful of SIG's key talent walked with him to start his new venture, Q. That tells us Brittingham might be a royal pain in the ass to manage, but you don't endear that kind of loyalty without being right about a few things.
We sat down with Brittingham for a bit at Q's offices.
(More at link)
https://www.recoilweb.com/kevin-brittingham-the-original-honey-badger-96947.html
