Eagle Industries

[Peregrino]

OK Gear Heads. For those of you in the Fort Bragg/Fayetteville area (or those forced by duty to visit on a regular basis) I’m now permitted to pass along some fantastic news! I’ve had to sit on this since early December and I’ve finally gotten the go-ahead to let the cat out of the bag.

Eagle Industries is opening a branch in Fayetteville. They’ve been servicing the Ft Bragg/SpecOps community long distance since the early 80’s (how many guys still have their 1st generation SAS holster and duty belt lying around somewhere?) and now they’ve decided to do it “up close and personal”. The sign is finally up and the crew is in the process of setting up the displays as I write this. It probably would have been open sooner except the word leaked out; every time they got a shipment in for setup somebody on Bragg would buy the lot “for the upcoming deployment” and they’d have to reorder. Even with no sign out front and brown paper covering the windows people in the know were beating a path to the door.

The new office is on Bragg Blvd. across from Eutaw Village Shopping Center. The place is run by Eli Gonzalez, a guy who is well known within the community. He has a small staff that includes a full-up prototyping team that’s already addressing the specialized needs of Bragg units. The Fayetteville facility’s primary functions are twofold: to provide a showroom so end users can familiarize themselves with the Eagle product line; and, to put an R&D facility within reach of units/organizations with unique requirements. They also have a “state of the art” conference room, a nice classroom, and agreements in place for vendors and other SMEs’ to give demonstrations and classes to select audiences.

Eagle is taking it to the next level; this truly will be an end user education center and R&D facility. The showroom uses a diorama approach with mannequins to show various configurations of military, LEO, and PMC loadouts; a little something for everyone. Individual pieces of gear are on racks around the walls where customers can inspect (fondle) them. The R&D section is a complete sewing facility that’s producing designs to meet unique requirements that are going straight to the end user for real world testing. They’re able to immediately incorporate feedback and get the revision back out for additional testing. It’s a face-to-face collaboration between the end user and the guys that turn ideas into reality. The final product really is “soldier tested and approved” (I love COTS and IMPACT credit cards). The prototypes judged commercially viable (of benefit to the whole community) will go to one of two manufacturing facilities (made in the USA!) for mass production. Then we all benefit from some knuckle dragger’s good idea. The “one-offs” (not commercially viable) for war-fighters are just part of the way John Carver (Eagle’s owner, a.k.a. “ The Father of Tactical Nylon”) does business. It’s the personal service of a small shop (the way all the good ones started) backed by the economic muscle and manufacturing ability of one of the industry’s founders.

Finally the “good news – bad news”; bad news first. The bad news is – it won’t be a retail sales outlet. Eagle considered some level of in-house retail, but didn’t want to detract from their primary missions with “sales pressure”. The showroom is just that, a place where customers can familiarize themselves with Eagle’s product lines and discuss requirements with a knowledgeable staff. The good news is - agreements are in the works to stand up a dealer in the area. Eli is negotiating with select local retailers (one of our favorites is at the top of the list) so that individuals can purchase the products from a stocking dealer at reasonable prices. Don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m excited about this. Except for the short-lived Light Fighter experiment, Eagle gear has never been available locally in any quantity/selection. Access to the highest quality gear in the Fayetteville area just got a whole lot better.

My .02 - Peregrino