The rumors surrounding Smart Parts have heated up. Read on as we discuss several of the latest rumors involving the company, or better yet, the possible sale of several of its assets. Check it..
A rumor surfaced on Automags.org suggesting that Smart Parts may close its doors for business after the first of the year. AO user SSP Reaper of Silent Stalkers Paintball Store posted an interesting update on the forum. [ link ]
Yes it is confirmed. My inside source tells me as of January Smart Parts doors will be closed for good. There are currently ZERO markers or parts on the shelves and the warehouse in California has also been cleared out.
[..]
I heard it directly from the Sales Accounts manager himself 2 days ago. I tried to order a SP marker for a customer and that’s when the news broke.
Its no secret that Automag owners have been upset with Smart Parts after a patent lawsuit put Air Gun Designs (thanks LG) out of business several years back. However, being that the company has publicly stated they are restructuring the organization, our writers attempted to reach Smart Parts Headquarters throughout the day and were unsuccessful in reaching an operator. Did someone forget to pay the phone bill? Feel to try for yourself; you can reach Smart Parts HQ at 1.800.992.2147.
A third party source recently informed us that the highly sought after Smart Parts patent portfolio (which includes the Electric Gun Patent) is rumored to be held in escrow by the bank.
With all that being said, the DLX and Impulse markers are Smart Parts products, and very popular ones at that. Rumors indicate that Richmond Italia is in the process of buying the rights to DLX and the Impulse and plans to continue development and support of both product lines well into the future. Last we heard the deal is set to close after the first of the year.
at 5:29 am
wow so sad
at 7:47 am
My educated guess is SP is soon becoming GI Milsim. Since the Gardners are a part of this new company with Richmond it makes sense to file bankruptcy under the SP name and transition over to GI without missing much.
at 9:41 am
This is probably the most likely scenario.
at 11:13 am
if that is the case(most likely is) would they bring over thier employees as well?
at 11:27 am
looking back a few months to http://www.propaintball.com/2009/09/smart-parts-layoffs-update/
whose left to keep on board?
at 2:52 pm
I hope that the employees will be protected being from the area where SP is headquartered. This area is in a depression and a company like SP going under will not be good. Especially since this will most likely cause a ripple effect felt across the entire industry as a whole.
at 3:06 pm
Well I just called the phone number you have listed and after a bit of run around found that if I pushes #1 for customer service I did get someone answer the phone. So give that a try.
at 3:45 pm
Richmond Italia the darth vader of paintball. please dont ruin the luxe !!!!
at 4:23 pm
If anything, I bet that KEE’s most likely to buy them out, not GI Milsim. GI Milsom’s just too new and doesn’t have the capital to buy out Smart Parts, but a huge conglomerate like KEE can. They also have plenty of reason to buy them out; once Smart Parts gets back on its feet, it’ll rake in the money again.
at 4:53 pm
Funny, I just ordered a new Shocker NXT on Nov 30th and got shipping notification on Dec. 3rd. I have a tracking number showing it scheduled for delivery at my door Dec. 10th. And I called Amy four times during the order process and she answered every single time.
I’m not saying they’re not hurting, but they’re still answering the phone and assembling whatever inventory they have for shipments.
at 5:02 pm
Wouldn’t be surprised if that was a marker that was previously on the wall at a store or distributor.
Distributors and vendors are being asked to return all markers that were out on consignment or terms….this is standard procedure when assets are in the liquidation process by a lender.
at 6:51 pm
Funny, we got a delivery of Ion Xe’s last week, and we’re on terms and haven’t been contacted. No doubt they’re in a really bad spot, but don’t start throwing dirt in the hole yet.
at 4:17 pm
It was a new build shocker. I had to wait two days for them to assemble it. They’ve stopped manufacturing, but are continuing to assemble what they already have cut.
at 8:36 pm
Well I tried to order 7 Smart Parts SP1 Tacticals on December 3rd and was told that no guns will be available until after the first of the year. Hey it was only like a 2K order, maybe they will only deal with their larger vendors. What ever is going on with Smart Parts, more will be revealed after the first of the year. Smart Parts is a HUGE asset to the paintball world and to think they will fold is a big hit for the sport.
at 7:05 pm
Justin,
Please research items before you post them as fact. I am talking about this sentence in particular:
“Its no secret that Automag owners have been upset with Smart Parts after a patent lawsuit put Automag out of business several years back”
1. Automag is the name of the paintball marker. The name of the company is Airgun Designs, or AGD for short.
2. Smart Parts didn’t put AGD out of business, just like they didn’t put AKA out of business. AGD and AKA are both still active companies. AGD even still sells paintball markers. Here is their website: http://www.airgundesignsusa.com/
3. According to Smart Parts, they never sued AGD, so there was never a lawsuit.
All of the above information is in a post Sean Scott made on PBNation in 2008. If you would like to see the post, feel free to email me.
at 11:16 pm
I’m really glad you took the time to write a multifaceted history lesson on a company that isn’t even remotely relevant any more.
I enjoy that you used a semantics error as your founding point.
AGD is more or less dead. Go back to your cave at AOG and relish in your own intelligence and your false prophet. Ironic that TK is excavating dinosaurs (as a paleontologist) by day and *still* manufacturing them at night (the Automag).
at 10:29 pm
Hey, smartass, TK hasn’t had anything to do with Automag production in years. He sold the company to some dude that runs it out of his basement or something.
at 9:10 pm
Here is what I think (this is my opinion take it or leave it). Smart Parts like most American companies would like to make money in manufacturing so they need to get overseas (aka China) production costs are 1/5 of US costs. So they start a new company with a GREAT partner Rich Italia, GI milsim is born. They will still produce the same guns only 50 cal versions. Why? cause everyone will have to buy new guns or retrofit their old ones. Look at their website http://www.gimilsim.com the company profile names Billy and Adam as partners and even says they are working in Asia and Canada. Then check out their markers. GI50 is a SP1, Micro is a Vibe, Impulse is there only 50 cal, Nano looks like a hoseless ION. Chameleon 50 is the Freak kit in 50 cal. The weird thing is the loaders, cause the Turbine looks exactly like a Rotor and the Agitator looks like the current Invert reloader II. Smart Parts production equipment is getting old, the factory needed to be retooled, why not do it overseas. By the way I have on a Smart Parts source that Dye is NOT producing the Luxe.
at 9:34 pm
“Its no secret that Automag owners have been upset with Smart Parts after a patent lawsuit put Air Gun Designs (thanks LG) out of business several years back.”
Yeah, this sentence is still wrong even after the change. AGD is still around and there was no lawsuit.
at 9:36 pm
Justin,
Please research items before you post them as fact. I am talking about this sentence in particular:
“Its no secret that Automag owners have been upset with Smart Parts after a patent lawsuit put Air Gun Designs (thanks LG) out of business several years back.”
1. Smart Parts didn’t put AGD out of business, just like they didn’t put AKA out of business. AGD and AKA are both still active companies. AGD even still sells paintball markers. Here is their website: http://www.airgundesignsusa.com/
2. According to Smart Parts, they never sued AGD, so there was never a lawsuit.
All of the above information is in a post Sean Scott made on PBNation in 2008. If you would like to see the post, feel free to email me.
at 11:10 pm
agd has been a shell of a business since Tom Kaye left. its all his designs circa 1995 and nothing new. without electros they were put out of business. FACT!!!
at 11:28 pm
How are they “put out of business”, if they are still open and selling markers? I see a lot of the new AGD Tac Ones at all the scenario fields I go to. I see more Tac Ones than I do all the other ‘Mags.
Oh wait, I forgot, scenario paintball doesn’t mean jack. Despite the massively greater numbers and greater market.
at 10:43 am
get that chip off your shoulder and actually read something other then your precious AGD site once in a while. pbnation has several new sub-forums for scenario and milsim events and teams. this site also has many updates about scenario and milsim stuff. stop trying to find something wrong with everything and chill out.
at 5:56 pm
Dude, he was being sarcastic. Calm down.
at 11:02 am
a lot of the smart parts core employees already work at gi milsim. easy move and in the next few months we will never even remember smart parts. kinda sad.
at 4:40 pm
I always thought highly of Smart Parts products, my sister own and Ion, former teammate had an Ecipse Factory Team Impulse, I have owned freak barrels since their inseption. Moreover, I as a graphic artists thought there branding was outstanding!
I might be purchasing a Octane Shocker…does anyone think GI will service Shockers from Smart Parts?
at 4:53 pm
Way to read things too literally guys. There may not have been a direct lawsuit against Airgun Designs on the E-mag, because Smart Parts openly began suing every company that continued production. AGD was very likely given notice, and followed orders by ceasing production. Because TK isn’t an idiot, he didn’t continue production and force SMP to open a lawsuit against them. That does not mean that just because a court case didn’t exist, Smart Parts’ lawsuits were not directly the reason AGD ceased production of the E-Mag.
With that said, Airgun Designs has not introduced a new marker since Tom Kaye left the company years ago. In fact, go re-read his farewell statement on AO. He completely pulled out of paintball, and left / sold the company to his top investor / VP. Even then, he says the company is not profitable and has been hurting for year. Sales and production drastically declined once production of the E-mag ceased, and though they released the Lvl 10 and aluminum bodies (a few years too late I might add), I haven’t seen a marker by AGD on store shelves or at any paintball field in years. Trust me, when I pull out my pump minimag most people have no idea what it is. Sure, it’s debatable that not having a high end marker did or did not put the company under, but consider this. If Steve Jobs left APPLE, and subsequently APPLE didn’t release a single new product or update it’s website in 5 years (!), would you consider the brand to still exist? Also take the case of POLAROID. Investors purchased their name, and continue to make products with their name on it (crap at that). But the brand that made instant photographs a revolution, is long in the grave.
You want to stand by the brand, I feel ya. I love the automag as a solid marker of the 90′s, and have more AGD products in my garage than most of you on AO. But you need a lesson or two on business endeavors, as the AGD brand and all that it stood for, died long ago. R.I.P.
at 11:19 am
no wonder jason edwards went to damage.
at 2:25 pm
heres the deal everyone (I think). SP spent millions on new millions on their new and greatest milling machines setting them back that much extra to push them over the edge.
at 4:24 pm
Getting closer…
at 2:01 pm
I guess we’ll see after the first if smart parts closes….
As for the “…currently ZERO markers or parts on the shelves and the warehouse in California has also been cleared out…” all i have to say is that it is christmas time! i’m sure several companys have cleared there entire warehouses. It is called selling stuff…duh.
Like i said… well see after the first.
~Valiant~
at 7:49 am
AGD may not be turning out new products, but they are still in business. Which is more than we will be able to say about SP if they shut their doors at the end of the month. I understand that people feel that SP has been a major part of paintball for years, and they have, but it seems they have shot their own selves in the foot this time. I have to wonder if the Gardners really care about the company enough to keep it open anyway. It seems they are letting it go and shifting their focus towards GI Milsim, and letting a part of paintball history go, and dragging their employees along in the process. I hope the employees are able to go to work for GI Milsim just so that they won’t be stuck with out employment like so many currently are. I hear people talk about how they hate to see SP go, and I have to wonder why if the owners don’t really care about it anyway. Now I know that it isn’t proven that they don’t, but many of you have had the same thoughts about them shifting their focus towards GI Milsim, so you have to be thinking the same thing. Either way they will still be involved with GI Milsim, and as far as I’m concerned they will just carry over their bad rep over there with them.
at 1:18 pm
Does it really matter who did what?? Paintball is taking a hit across the board. I fear that if something is not done and done soon we may see a great sport fade out. we need to think about the familys that are involed with companys closing. im not saying that they are im just saying that when one company closes then other that rely on that company will soon close. so instead of bickering about what company is going under get out there and support your local fields and support those companys that have put in more years to paintball then most of us have played.
at 9:56 am
To say that this might wiped out paintball as a whole is a little dramatic, it’s not the companies who make the sport. It’s the players. Sure competitions may take a hit for a bit but in the end it’s the people who go out and play who make the sport successful, even if it means going back to pump markers.
at 4:39 pm
Obama needs to step in with a government bailout program for smart parts.
at 7:40 pm
I agree ^^