General

[heinous]

Originally Posted by ITSPB-Rogue

I feel pretty much the same. I don't want to see innocent people losing their jobs and their means to provide income for their families. And I've owned several SP guns that I was quite fond of. But in all honesty if SP falls and loses their patents to someone who will be more reasonable with the licensing, it can only be good for the sport. Although, frankly, I have a hard time seeing someone other than TK or Tippmann easing the licensing. I think Dye or Eclipse would have a field day with upping the rate.

All we can really do is wait and see I suppose.

The Gardners aren't exactly philanthropists. If you go into the company as an employee, seeing the company beginning to be doing badly, and expecting them to keep the company afloat at the expense of profit for the sake of the employees... then you need to go yourself for a bit for not being aware of such obvious things.

[TheYoda]

Originally Posted by shadawg

Smart Parts Temporary Closure - PbNation
Smart Parts Temporary Closure

Paintball manufacturer Smart Parts, Inc. is temporarily shutting down all manufacturing and sale operations in order to facilitate a corporate restructuring. During this time, the company will not be able accept or process orders, ship or receive products or perform repairs.

“It is important that people do not send equipment in for service during this time,” said company Vice President, Adam Gardner. “Our buildings will not be staffed during the restructuring,,,

Made my day. Payback's a biatch.
I have felt nothing but ill will toward SP for so long I almost cried laughing so hard. Sorry to any humans affected by any potential job loss, but UP YOURS to the evil spawn directors and lawyers. If there is any justice, my Viking will still be mowing long after the last SP turns to dust.

[Winnebago]

Originally Posted by DFSniper

i heard they were made in one of DYE's factories...

i can't remember where i read that the Luxe was made in SP factory. But here is Ydna's ultimate luxe sticky over at pbn. i added the bold...

----
Q: Is this a Smart Parts marker?
Q: Did DLX buy this gun from SP?
Q: What's the connection between DLX and SP?
A: Luxes were designed and are manufactured by the expert manufacturing facilities at Smart Parts, but the marker is assembled, supported, and sold by the separate company called DLX Technologies. DLX Technologies is NOT a subsidiary of Smart Parts - it's a completely separate company.
----


hmm... but from the luxe's initial press release:
Developed as a focused high-end design and manufacturing group owned by paintball industry leader Smart Parts, Inc., DLX Technology is dedicated to melding cutting edge technology with solid tournament performance to build the ultimate luxury paintball marker.

[PistolRogue]

Originally Posted by heinous

The Gardners aren't exactly philanthropists. If you go into the company as an employee, seeing the company beginning to be doing badly, and expecting them to keep the company afloat at the expense of profit for the sake of the employees... then you need to go yourself for a bit for not being aware of such obvious things.

You've got to remember, just because you work for a paintball company doesn't automatically mean you play and know everything that went on there before you go the job. Its not exactly easy for machinists to find work these days, so if I were one, and saw the ad from SP in the paper or something, I'd be jumping on it, not researching their corporate ethics.

But like I said, I only feel bad for the employees, not the Gardners. If they couldn't manage to make enough money to keep their own company afloat while getting licensing fees they didn't deserve from pretty much every paintball gun made, in addition to their own sales, they deserve to be out of business.

Personally though, with the business/legal shennanigans these guys have been known for, it wouldn't surprise me that they manage to weasel SP away from the jaws of death at the last second, or that this turns out to be part of a grander plan.

[Meph]

Originally Posted by Ninjeff

You don't think their (SP) rather large "falling out" with a majority of the core paintball community had anything to do with SP's inability to pay said debt?

Hahaha. No.

People vastly overestimate the actual effectiveness of their voices on message boards, puffing their chests and feeling bigger than they are and patting themselves on the back for their importance. In reality the majority of the entire paintball industries customers don't read a single thing said on these boards, don't even know they exist. And many who do go on boards don't read into all the politics, mostly just stick to maintenance and upgrade questions not patent disputes.

They might've lost a tiny tiny percentage of sales but nothing significant enough for them to actually care or worry about. Their problem came from spending like a Republicrat and poor business planning.

[Deuce]

One of my best buds is a SP guru and has friends that were laid off months ago by the Gardners but you know what? I don't feel any sympathy for them any more than I do for the dealers out their peddling coke for the cartels.

A good majority of the employees know about what goes on and how people feel about the company, the thing is there are far more fanboys that love SP and worship their hired guns (ie. players) than those of us that feel the opposite. Aside from maybe the factory workers a lot of these guys have been part of the industry for years.

[doc Zox]

They most likely based their venture funding presentation upon 2005-2006 financials.
I would bet the 2008-2009 revenues were MEH

[EgoPossum]

my friends and I have talked at length about this.
The conclusion that I came to is that yes it is going to affect the SP sponsored teams in the tournament paintball (USPL, SPPL, NXL, etc).
Will it affect the guys going out and playing every weekend? Well if you have an SP marker? Well it will be harder for you to find some of the essencial parts (bolts, firing can and such) but look at the guys who keep Rainmakers, ICD markers, and AKA markers running to this day. I hate to say it but those SP markers are made pretty well and only need an o-ring rebuild everyonce in a while for the dynamic (moving) o-rings.
The only thing I see on the horizon is if SP goes under there will oportunities for others to "cover" the market that they were in.
Look at what has happend right now, Dye and PE have made lower priced markers to try and get some of the sales that SP had.
I am one of those guys that has a SP factory tech kit that has every o-ring for any SP marker, so my ION will be up and ruinning for a while.

[Steelrat]

Now we just need to avoid buying into .50 paint and markers to put the final nail in the coffin.

[Buck]

I wish that either AKA or AGD were to buy the patent. I would really like that... I don't think it will happen though. Hopefully the IP goes up for auction and someone that isn't a doushebag buys it.