The Safariland brand is one of the most recognizable in the industry. Photo: P. Erhardt

I like Safariland. And so do a whole lot of other people. This probably explains why they are the world's largest holster maker with over 70% of the law enforcement holster market. You probably don't view Safariland as a major player in the industry because most people think of gunmakers as the 'big dogs' in our world, even to the point of mistaking some of the smaller gunmakers - the ones that in reality ship in a year what a Glock, Ruger or Smith & Wesson ships in a month - as being larger than Safariland. Well, here's what you probably don't know, and I certainly didn't until I, along with Rich Grassi, editor of The Tactical Wire, visited them two weeks ago. Safariland is an industry powerhouse. Founded in 1964 by Neale Perkins, their Ontario, Calif. facility alone is 125,000 square feet, and it's just one of their five facilities. They employ 1,700 people and have the capacity to produce up to 50,000 holsters a month, which insures they can meet almost any emergency order request. And don't think there aren't a bunch of tier one operators with Safariland on speed dial...because there are. If you look at the other brands they have built or bought, brands such as Break Free, KleenBore, B-Square, SpeedFeed, Bianchi, Hatch, Protech, American Body Armor, Second Chance, Monadnock and others, it becomes clear that Safariland leaves a big footprint that spans the military, law enforcement and commercial markets.

Scott Carnahan explains some of the processes that Safariland developed. Photo: P. Erhardt

However, beyond being a big company that makes and sells a lot of stuff, Safariland is also a true industry leader and has developed some of the processes and standards we take for granted. For instance, the concept of the retention level in a holster was developed by Safariland. Well it actually started with Bill Rogers whose company and patents Safariland licensed and eventually bought in 1984. But today holsters in the law enforcement market are defined as being Level I, Level II or Level III in terms of the holster's ability to withstand 400 pounds of force in any direction for five seconds. The importance of this scale that Safariland developed and championed as a standard cannot be overlooked. In the world of law enforcement the holster is defined as a safety device and not a deployment of force tool, and holster retention has literally been proven time and time again to have been the difference between life and death in some of the most brutal criminal encounters. During the media day Rich and I attended we heard from a deputy with the Riverside County Sheriff's Dept. who survived one of these encounters because of his holster - and as Rich would point out, his will to win. The young sheriff's deputy had been invited to Safariland headquarters to speak to employees and be recognized by the company's Safariland Saves program. By having law enforcement officials, whose lives have been saved by either their body armor or holster, meet with employees, Safariland reinforces the underlying importance that goes into every employee's job and the vital role they play in safeguarding first responders.

Safariland's proud commitment to safety is noted everywhere you go in their headquarters. Photo: P. Erhardt

It also means that the Safariland tagline of 'Together, We Save Lives' is less of a marketing message and in fact, a mission statement. The start of Safariland's dominance in the holster-as-safety-tool field came about in 1996 when the Navy SEALs turned to Rogers and Safariland for a holster design that would more securely retain their sidearm than the holster and lanyard system they had been using. SEALs discovered that a pistol at the end of a lanyard tends to beat you up, or outright disappears, when jumping out of planes and helicopters where the environmental conditions can test a holster's retention capabilities. The SLS, or Self Locking System, solved the problem and quickly made its way from a combat holster system to an LE duty system. The SLS became the dominate holster in Europe and its acceptance across the board made it one of Safariland's most significant developments. The SLS was followed by the ALS, or Automatic Locking System, as the next major innovation from Safariland. The ALS not only proved itself as an ideal duty holster - as evidenced by the story of that young sheriff's deputy - but also as the perfect off-duty holster, thus expanding Safariland's reach into the rapidly growing CCW arena, though primarily with the officers who were already using the system at work. And more recently, proving yet again a penchant for innovation, they have introduced to their Bianchi brand's Allusion line an anti-microbial foam backing for their IWB holster, model 135 Suppression.

Bob Weber heads-up the company's state-of-the-art ballistics testing lab. Photo: P. Erhardt

Over the last five years Safariland has had more of a military and law enforcement focus which reflected the market position of its owner, BAE Systems, that bought the parent company (Safariland was purchased by Armor Holdings in 1996) for its armored humvees and armor plating for helicopters - the pure defense side of Safariland's portfolio. BAE has since sold Safariland LLC to Kanders & Company Inc., a private investment firm, opening the door for Safariland to once again focus on the commercial market. A message delivered very clearly during our visit, and surely one that will be welcome news to retailers and consumers alike.

From one garage to five facilities, Neale Perkins built a holster-making empire. Photo: P. Erhardt

What Neale Perkins started as a small business making hunting products, and named after his favorite South African hunting outfitter (yeah, I was dying to know and that was my one big question), blossomed into a holster company that through new product development and acquisition - and no small amount of smart management - has grown to become one of the most recognized brands in the firearms industry. Next in Part 2, we look at Safariland's impact on shooting sports and the introduction of the shooting team concept. - Paul Erhardt, Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network Got shooting sports news? Send us an email at info@shootingwire.com.