HK Acquires Valken

[iamthelazerviking]

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[Cdn_Cuda]

So more nice marker bags? Sounds good to me.

[Jonnydread]

What’s left for major paintball companies? Kee and HK and….???

[DBrazXeno]

Not very many. every couple of months some other company is shutting down.

[Jsc5150]

Pretty impressive to have 20 years with a company that lasted only 16 I think

[RPP]

What’s left for major paintball companies? Kee and HK and….???

Its not even KEE any more. It's GI.

[TF_Aloha]

It's not even GI anymore, it's Kore. No wait, it's not even Kore anymore, it's Ironbridge Equity Partners, a Canadian private equity firm.

GI Sportz, Empire, DXS, Marbs, Evil, Dynasty, most of the variety in paint is just the same private equity firm now. Even the new Contract Killer paint is made by Ironbridge.

https://www.ironbridgeequity.com/new...re-outdoor-inc

[RPP]

Yeah you are right! I forgot about that one.

[iamthelazerviking]

That's funny, CK only sells their paint to pro teams I looks like, and always bragging about how amazing it is.

[Rcracerlol]

I was excited to see some rerelease of graffiti paint but it shot like shieet. The og graffiti paint was top tier the new stuff hk released is horse shieet

[ClockworkSoldier]

Ewww. Always loved Valken, but HK can suck it.

[ATBen]

[cfos00]

Make no mistake---they had basically nothing in stock that last year. I have no idea what buying them would even get you.

[RPP]

Make no mistake---they had basically nothing in stock that last year. I have no idea what buying them would even get you.

IP. Thats HKs buisness model.

[TF_Aloha]

IP. Thats HKs buisness model.

Aside from the Ripsaw (which I'm sure they'll call the "RPSW") and the trade dress/trademark for Graffiti, I'm not sure what other IP Valken has that has value in the paintball world. Valken makes cheap masks, but HK already has cheap masks.

I wonder if maybe this was more about the airsoft half of their business.

[RPP]

Aside from the Ripsaw (which I'm sure they'll call the "RPSW") and the trade dress/trademark for Graffiti, I'm not sure what other IP Valken has that has value in the paintball world. Valken makes cheap masks, but HK already has cheap masks.

I wonder if maybe this was more about the airsoft half of their business.

My speculation is that they aquired it for Milsig, the code and paint on the paintball side. The airsoft side is a good guess too.

[cfos00]

The machines that they had in their paint factory were already bought and moved. I know who owns them. So they didn't even get that. And their distro network would be functionally useless because most of the fields and stores would have already moved on. Just baffling.

[Str1x]

As cfos said I'm pretty sure the machines that actually made the good paint were purchased and moved... we can only hope that someone will use them to make something similar to real graffiti and makes it readily available.

[ATBen]

They had the 3d printed battery powered 50 cal monstrosity? Maybe there's some IP related to that? They also had a less than lethal branch too iirc?