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Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Vancouver, BC | RAP4 - PLA connection
Here's an interesting article for you. Apparently the production of RAP4 paintball guns is partly funded by the People's Liberation Army of China. It was written by a local scenario organizer to address rumors that RAP4 steals and rebadges products, but I find that little PLA info bite the most interesting.
Originally Posted by Mr Canada. Canadian Scenario Paintball Operations - Canada Paintball Scenario Game Video: CSPO, The REAL story RAP/RAM rumours Quote:
There have been a lot of rumours flying around about the RAP4 series (Real Action Paintball), the RAM series (Real Action Marker), as well as the companies and legalities surrounding them as well as business ethics practices.
So I took my Journalism 12 class learnings to task, and contacted the actual factory that makes the markers as well as APS RAM USA and RAP. I also did some digging of my own to get to the bottom of the story.
In a nutshell, what you're hearing is dead *** false if you're hearing about some controversy. The real deal is that everyone is doing the same thing. The companies themselves dont give any credibility to the rumours. Read on.
Ok First Things First: Some background
The controversy that you hear only involves the 43 caliber series markers that are sold both by APS RAM and RAP (as the RAP4). The 68 caliber markers (Tactmark TM4 or T68) are not included in this debacle.
The story that I was hearing, and the rumours were ratcheting up in severity as well as statements, just didnt sound right to me. They sounded fishy.
The rumours in general are these:
1. RAP is illegally or improperly branding APS RAM markers as RAP4's and they have been told to stop by APS RAM but they continue.
2. APS RAM is the actual manufacturer of the markers but RAP makes nothing of their own and are scam artists.
3. APS RAM or RAM markers are used by military forces worldwide for training purposes and RAP is giving them a bad name with poor service.
4. RAP products are blacklisted in Canada and are unable to cross the border.
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OK. So now a little bit of background on these compnaies. Again remember I'm only dealing with 43 cal magazine fed markers here, the Tactmark markers I'll get to later as the plot in these rumours just falls apart when you include them into the fact finding.
These RAM/RAP markers are both made by the same factory.
It is called the Qian Wei Paintball Co.,LTD. based in China. The company was founded as a department of the PLA (Chinese military) in the 80s and 90s as the PLA and the PRC (People's Republic of China) during that time authorized the military to create a raft of different businesses in order to attempt to turn a profit to pay for the military's expansion. (Remember, China is a communist state, they are opening up a bit now but at that time EVERYTHING was pretty well state owned). Since around 1999-2000, China opened up a bit more free market principles. The factory in question, Qian Wei Paintball Support Co.,LTD, was allowed to list on the stock exchange and the military allowed a minority stake to be taken by private investors. The "RAM" name comes from this factory.
This factory used to actually make .68 cal markers based on Tippmann and other industry standard designs. However as a military factory their primary purpose was to create training weapons for the Chinese military. They switched to 43 calibre because it allowed the markers to be more realistic in size for their training purposes.
This factory is currently the only factory in China licensed to produce paintball markers for export. The military still holds a majority stake so this exclusivity probably wasnt hard to get.
In effect, by purchasing anything this factory makes, you're directly or indirectly financing the PLA or Chinese military. I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing; to each their own opinion on the matter this is an article about the real story not idealogical viewpoints.
Now, Qian Wei Paintball Support Co.,LTD. also provides what is called an OEM service. This means you can send them designs or modifications to their current line or something completely new and they will happily make it for you. This is where RAP and the RAP 4 come into play.
RAP/RAP4, was the first company to bring these magazine fed paintball markers made by Qian Wei Paintball Support Co.,LTD. to the North American market. They went through the OEM channel and had the markers rebranded by the factory, including the boxes to say RAP4 on them. This was and is still sanctioned by the factory, provided they continue to sell units. As a factory, all they care is about moving units. RAP (or Real Action Paintball) has a very recognizable brand name in North America and in particular the USA. They only officially operate in the United States. However the CAN and DO ship to Canadian retailers regularly (Tactical Command, Paintball Gear Canada, among just a few local ones I visited today).
Now a bit more about APS-RAM. It's important to note striaght off the bat that APS-RAM as in APSRAM-USA.com is not actually the same company as the factory at all. They are two distinct entities.
Qian Wei Paintball Support Co.,LTD., makes the RAM marker. They are a publicly listed company in China with a majority stake held by the PLA and a minority stake held mostly by one single investor.
APS, is a marketing company that sells paintball equipment mostly in Asia. Since APS's founder, Mr. Lee Chi Keung (Frog), has a minority stake of shares of Qian Wei Paintball Support Limited partially, APS sells their parts. (To business afficiacondos: this is called double dipping - owning a company's shares and then pushing their products on commission markup to double your earnings. Its legal and very shrewd). Any claims that APS "is the manufacturer" are false. This extends to APSRAM-USA. These are all APS companies, merely resellers of the equipment manufacturered by Qian Wei's factory.
Now here's where the rumours are totally debunked. Tactmark (our lovely happy sponsors of our Hired Guns Series) manufactures 68 calibre magazine fed paintball guns in a factory in Taiwan. They are the makers of the TM4.
Interestingly enough, if you take a look at APS, they sell the TM4 series as the T68 (because they need to round out their product line, Qian Wei only makes 43 calibre parts), effectively rebranding the TM4 as another marker. The T I would guess means Tactmark.
I've heard many a RAM distributor or store talk about the T68 as a new addition to the traditionally 43 calibre RAM line; however it's not a Qian Wei RAM marker at all; it's a Tactmark!
If you find this all a bit confusing, or are fearing some level of underhanded business practices; keep in mind that this is standard fare for import export based businesses.
Factories in China and to a lesser extent Taiwan, have loads and loads of virtually free labour to exploit, and need access to wealthier markets than themselves. This is where the importer/exporter comes in. (this is what both APS and RAP are).
Provided that the importer is moving enough units, the factory couldnt care less what name is on the marker or how it is sold. They just need to keep the factory running as hot as possible in order to turn a profit. This is why Qian Wei offers an OEM.
For the importer, they may have significant investment in "breaking the ice" in the North American market. The North American market is quite particular about quality and reputation, so the importer may spend a lot of money on marketing the product and demonstrating it's valuable qualities. In order to protect that investment many importers will repackage or rebrand imported products so they can sell based on THEIR brand in the case the manufacturer goes belly up overseas or if some other importer decides to start bringing in the same item at reduced prices.
This is what RAP had done with the RAP4 (basically a RAM line manufacturered by Qian Wei). RAP is a more recognizable name in North America because of their efforts. They dont make anything, neither does APS (although they are a shareholder in the manufacturer).
APS is doing this with both the RAM markers as well as Tiawanese manufactured Tactmarks they are rebranding as the T68 series, as they manufacture nothing either.
Tactmark is actually the only wholesaler operating of the three where the manufacturer is actually representing direct sales of the product in the North American market. If you want to split hairs about who actually makes the product themselves, Tactmark is the only one that I know of that is doing this.
Now remember it's not underhanded stuff, this is actually quite normal. Business requires units to be sold. If you'll sell units by taking your logo off and letting someone else put it on you're still selling units. This is the manufacturing business.
Most of us here in North America are used to something a bit more simple. For example General Motors makes GM trucks. They are made in GM factories by GM employees and sold at GM dealers. This highly verticalized infrastructure that you may be used to is crumbling however.
GM now outsources Magna International to assemble their cars on contract in Europe (a Canadian Company by the way). Delco is also Canadian based and manufactures all of the electronic components that go into GM cars. GM is contracting Mitsubishi in Japan to make the engines for their subcompacts in ... you will never guess... China.
The world is a different place than it was when Larry Lunchbucket would work his 9-5 at the company with Joe Sixpack for 40 years turning out products for a company that owned the entire supply chain from digging the materials out of the ground to the outlet that sells them in the mall.
Hope this puts the wives tales to rest.
Some references:
Qian Wei Factory:
QIAN WEI PAINTBALL SUPPORT CO.LTD
Provided by RAP
APS Paintball Limited:
APS Paintball Limited -- The ONLY Manufacturer of Real Action Marker (RAM)!!!
Found by research
Qian Wei Factory OEM Infromation (resold by APS)
APS Paintball Limited -- The ONLY Manufacturer of Real Action Marker (RAM)!!!
direct from Factory (bad english)
QIAN WEI PAINTBALL SUPPORT CO.,LTD.
APSRAM-USA Product line:
APS RAM USA:
Tactmark Product Line:
TACTMARK
Footnotes:
The Qian Wei factory in China was contacted both by telephone and by e-mail but declined to respond for the writing of this article.
APS RAM USA was contacted by email and by telephone, however messages were not returned and upon getting through I was asked to call back at a specific time, and when I called back there was no answer.
RAP was contacted by e-mail and was voiciferous in providing any information that was requested. The contact at RAP was Jim Dat. He also provided me with a wealth of other information about the manufacturer which helped me do my own research using their own websites, since they were not taking calls.
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10-11-2007, 09:59 PM
