We don’t get too many emails that catch us off guard here at the Outdoor Wire Digital Network, home of, among many others, The Shooting Wire.

But Monday was one such day. That’s when Springfield Armory’s Mike Humphries sent over yet another press release. They tend to do a lot of PR because they are always introducing new products.

One may or may not be announced sometime next week—though, you didn’t hear that from us, and we have no idea what you’re talking about.

Assuming this was yet one more new Springfield Armory product being announced in time for the Sports Inc. or NBS trade shows, I immediately scrolled down to the attached product photo to see what the new-new was.

It was not a product at all. It was a shooter. And not just any shooter. It was Julie Golob, wearing a red and black Springfield Armory team shirt.

Photo courtesy of Springfield Armory

This was, indeed, a total surprise because it was not the blue and white shirt of Team Smith & Wesson, a company Julie had been with for the past 19 years and was the company’s second most notable shooter after the legendary Jerry Miculek.

My immediate reaction was shock because I would have bet good money that Smith & Wesson would ride with Julie for the rest of her time in the industry. Apparently, I was wrong.

I don’t know exactly why S&W would let Julie move on. There are always a number of variables that go into supporting competition shooters, not the least of which is somebody in the company championing the shooter and knowing how to use them to further the company’s marketing efforts.

In a video posted yesterday, New Beginnings with Springfield Armory, Julie announces the change and lightly touches on her motivations for moving on.

But, the fact that she is now with Springfield Armory says a lot. If you have paid any attention to Springfield Armory over the last eight years, you may understand why.

It was back in March of 2017 that Springfield Armory’s CEO Dennis Reese announced that Steve McKelvain would take over as President starting on April 1.

For those unfamiliar with McKelvain, he came over from the Beretta Group where he spent 14 years as Benelli USA's Vice President. If you remember anything about Benelli’s advertising and marketing during that period, then you know it was hands down some of the best in the industry, including within the Beretta Group itself.

Since joining Springfield Armory, the company has been rolling out new products like nobody’s business. And it’s not just the new products but how they are launched that has fueled Springfield’s growth. Each major introduction builds on the success of the previous launches and adds new angles, so no two launches are identical in their execution.

Knowing this, it’s safe to assume that McKelvain, and Steve Kramer, who worked with McKelvain at Benelli and joined Springfield Armory as VP of Marketing in October of 2017, aren’t interested in sponsoring shooters for the sake of sponsoring shooters.

Those days, at least for the major manufacturers, are probably over. Now a sponsored shooter/brand ambassador has to bring more to the table than travel expenses and match fee reimbursement requests.

And that, my friends, is where Julie Golob ‘enters the chat.’

Julie is far more than a shooter. She is a helluva shooter, make no mistake. She’s spent eight years in the U.S. Army, and part of that time with the famed Army Marksmanship Unit, three years with Team Glock, and the past 19 years with Team Smith & Wesson. She’s also been part of Team Safariland, and a longtime partner with Federal Ammunition and Trijicon.

But, Julie is also a content creator. She did a deep dive into social media early on, and is probably one of the first to try new platforms—think something like Substack—and be able to explain how to integrate the platform into your marketing mix.

Not a lot of professional shooters do much beyond shooting, winning guns, and, well, promptly selling those guns. It is all about the Benjamins, after all.

Their contribution to a company’s marketing starts and ends with entering shooting matches. That type of shooter is a force multiplier, but only when it comes to marketing expenses.

Julie is a force multiplier for your marketing team.

Side note: real quick, the aforementioned Jerry Miculek is in a class by himself and an essential part of the product development process for the engineering team. He’s the face of Smith & Wesson. The same is true for Robbie Leatham, who is and has long been the face of Springfield Armory. His contributions extend well past the many, many, many titles he’s won in competition. Spend five minutes with Robbie and you’ll know why.

There are a handful of other shooters—one in the Miculek clan comes to mind—that have a true value-add impact on a company, but that list is shorter than you might think.

In a world where more and more women are becoming first-time gun owners, having Julie on your marketing team is essential. Julie is not just a shooter, she’s a wife, devoted mom, hunter, author, and a total foodie.

Women entering the universe of gun ownership are doing so for far more complex reasons than men. For men, it’s often ‘me like gun, me buy gun.’ Trust me, I know.

Integrating a bona fide industry personality, who happens to be a woman—an accomplished woman, into Springfield Armory’s marketing gives the company the ability to speak in an authentic voice to the women considering Springfield Armory products.

I doubt we’ll see Julie simply shooting matches. She’s not one to do the bare minimum, and she has ideas…good ones, I know.

Tuesday’s announcement just might be the play of the year when it comes to signing a top-level competitive shooter. And the funny thing is, shooting competitions might be the least important aspect of her role with Springfield Armory. Time will tell.

— Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network