Mike Sigouin is gone. These four words carry immense weight, more than you can know if you never heard of Mike Sigouin.
Mike passed away due to injuries suffered during a car accident, leaving behind his amazing wife, Dana, a dedicated staff, an absolute mountain of friends, and now a giant void in our industry.
You see, Mike was a firearms Cerakote applicator.
That’s probably how he would describe himself, as a ‘cerakoter.’ But that’s not remotely correct.
Mike Sigouin, owner of Blowndeadline Custom Cerakote, was THE Cerakote guy for guns. Simply put, and without any argument, he was the best.
There are a lot of people that do Cerakote work on guns, and you’ll find several of them that quickly proclaim themselves as the “best” or “top” cerakoter in the industry.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Mike Sigouin say that about himself or Blowndeadline. Not once. And that’s probably due to the fact that it was everyone else that said it for him. The number of people that pointed to Mike as the best are, quite literally, legion.
And they’d probably fight you if you said otherwise.
The love that customers have for his work goes well beyond the incredible artistry of his designs. Customers counted on Mike Sigouin not simply as a vendor (he did a lot of OEM work for gunmakers), or a Cerakote service provider, but as a friend.
When I was working at Apex Tactical Specialties I reached out to Mike to ask him to do a custom pistol we could showcase at the NRA Show. When he asked what design, what theme, I was looking for, my only response was that it needed to “stop traffic on the show floor.”
I gave him no guidance whatsoever beyond that it needed to catch people’s attention, and when he pressed me I told him that I trusted him completely to do his thing.
Mike Sigouin never failed.
He’s done a couple guns for Apex. And many, many more for others in the industry. He was charitable with both his time and his talent.
I remember one time when, without being asked, Mike immediately offered to fix an absolutely horrible, and I mean god-awful, Cerakote job an Apex customer had done to his gun. As best as I can describe it, the gun looked as if it had been dunked in a bucket of paint and then left to dry.
Despite that, Mike was willing to step in and fix a problem that was not of his or Apex’s doing.
My response was probably something along the lines of, “Oh, hell no!” There was no way I’d ask that of Mike. But yet, he was the kind of guy that would offer.
Mike Sigouin was also humble. That’s what I’d call it. You see, he once travelled through California, passing by Apex’s old headquarters on his way to Cerakote for training.
When I asked him why he, of all people, needed to go through training and get certified by Cerakote, he explained that there was plenty he did not yet know. But, more importantly, he told me that if he and Blowndeadline are NIC Certified Cerakote Applicators then others entering the Cerakote realm will see the value in certification.
If the guy widely recognized as the best in the business is willing to train and be certified then there’s no excuse for others working in this niche corner of the firearms industry to not follow suit.
Looking back on all the times we spoke, texted, or DM’d through Instagram, there wasn’t a single time I didn’t come away from those conversations impressed by Mike Sigouin.
My great regret will be that I never had Mike do a gun for me. But, that’s an insignificant missed opportunity, especially when compared to the great pleasure, and honor, of having known him, worked with him, and called him a friend.
Mike Sigouin is gone…and I, like so many others that knew him, will hate those moments when during my day-to-day I remember he’s no longer with us.
If you knew him, I know you feel the same way.
– Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network