What's the BHI story?

[etcheeves]

Just curious on what the deal is with Black Hawk stuff. I've seen that "The Reaper" doesn't look fond on it, at all. Recall seeing a few others that feel the same way. Now obviously coming from a non-SF background, I don't know what it really means to have to trust my life to my gear, but just curious about what people think about the stuff. I always thought it was good stuff, but am beginning to wonder now.

Any thoughts?

And bare in mind, I'm not trying to defend BHI or promote them in any way, just want to get educated from some Professionals.

Thanks,

ETCheeves

[Smokin Joe]

Originally Posted by etcheeves

Just curious on what the deal is with Black Hawk stuff. I've seen that "The Reaper" doesn't look fond on it, at all. Recall seeing a few others that feel the same way. Now obviously coming from a non-SF background, I don't know what it really means to have to trust my life to my gear, but just curious about what people think about the stuff. I always thought it was good stuff, but am beginning to wonder now.

Any thoughts?

And bare in mind, I'm not trying to defend BHI or promote them in any way, just want to get educated from some Professionals.

Thanks,

ETCheeves

The search button is your friend and will answer your question.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by etcheeves

Just curious on what the deal is with Black Hawk stuff. I've seen that "The Reaper" doesn't look fond on it, at all. Recall seeing a few others that feel the same way. Now obviously coming from a non-SF background, I don't know what it really means to have to trust my life to my gear, but just curious about what people think about the stuff. I always thought it was good stuff, but am beginning to wonder now.

Any thoughts?

And bare in mind, I'm not trying to defend BHI or promote them in any way, just want to get educated from some Professionals.

Thanks,

ETCheeves

First search, then post.

In short, BHI makes most of their gear (actually other people's designs they copied) in overseas sweatshops, like Vietnam, of substandard materials.

The stuff I have seen has consistently fallen apart, did not fit, or failed early.

To me, that is unsat.

TR

[tinmanHRSO]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

First search, then post.

In short, BHI makes most of their gear (actually other people's designs they copied) in overseas sweatshops, like Vietnam, of substandard materials.

The stuff I have seen has consistently fallen apart, did not fit, or failed early.

To me, that is unsat.

TR

You're right about that 100%. I'm a personal friend of their lead tactical medical consultant, Dr. Keith Rose. The man's a brilliant surgeon and has donated much of the past several years teaching surgeons in Afghanistan free of charge.

While there, he witnessed his friend bleed to death trapped inside a Humvee after it was IEDd. he simply couldnt free enough metal to reach him and apply a tourniquet. That's when he designed the ITS integratd Tourniquet System of clothing.

His mistake was allowing BH to be the sole distributor of the product. It's a really amazing product, I've tested it myself during their R&D phase about 9 months ago and it does work better than even they advertise it to.

The problem is BH isn't willing to produce them until the demand is such that it would justify their price gouging. They're already into the GenIII of the clothing yet none of it is offered for sale yet.

There are waiting lists for the clothing by Blackwater, EODT, KBR, and several of the SpecOps community elements who will be first served. Not to mention elements overseas.

Management at BH is intentionally withholding the release of the system to further inflate the price of it and it's easy to see that by looking at their catalog.

9 months ago the pants in Khaki or Black was about $89. Now, they're added MarPat to the list at over $129. It's said the price is due to increase even more by the time it's sold to the civlilian population.

Dr. Rose designed the product of course with a desire for compensation by profit but his primary goal was to save lives in the field by designing an INEXPENSIVE and easy to use method of blood occlusion by either the wearer or anyone near them and he intended it to be available to anyone with the need for it. According to him, they could have been in use and integrated into part of training regiments several months ago.

He's currently in Afghanistan once again and once again, donating his time teaching surgeons.