General

[Titus]

Originally Posted by coyote

KEE stopped caring long before my apathy set in.

Agreed

[manike]

I am curious to know who you guys had as sales people, and how long ago this happened.

There have been some significant changes in the sales team in the last year or so, including how they get paid.

Several of the people who didn't care about what they were doing were let go, and others were "motivated" to be better at what they do.

Please PM, if you wouldn't mind satisfying my curiosity. I understand completely if you don't want to though.

We've been through a lot since we became KEE, and I am sure in these "interesting" times we will go through a lot more. We are in many ways evolving as a company everyday, and really trying to be best in class at what we do.

Not an easy task by any means, and I know we still have work to do on it.

To answer someone elses question in this (or maybe the other thread) all that KEE does right now is paintball.

At his point it is very early on and I don't know what will happen as far as brands and products.

Interesting point about Brass Eagle though. Hasn't that brand been significantly reduced over the last few years? I know the name change to JT Sports was because they didn't like the image that came along with the Brass Eagle brand.

How do you feel something like Brass Eagle stacks up in the market place against Extreme Rage?

While you think about that, how about JT and Empire? Viewloader and Halo? WGP, who does that compare to now?

Personally Viewloader was a company I aspired to when I first started working on loaders. Dave Bell was something of a hero of mine, and I remember the first day I met him. He now works for me and is an extremely important member of my team. Funny how it will be having him and Viewloader together again.

JT was the first real paintball Jersey I ever bought, and Pant. For years I wouldn't wear anything other than a Spectra goggle.

Brass Eagle was leading edge when I joined paintball. I remember wanting a Golden Eagle so badly it hurt. (Then using one and being somewhat dissapointed by the loose barrel...)

WGP was always cool, but I was a 'mag guy. I still remember building my first cocker piece by piece though, and absolutely loved shooting that gun. Especially with the first Race frames!

These brands mean a lot to me, but then like many of you guys, I have been around quite a long time. I am not sure they mean so much to the modern market place. I hope they still do, and I am really excited about working along side with these guys.

[custar]

Any chance on a redone Rainmaker?

custar

[manike]

Should I make it come with an Intimidator (loudener) included stock?

I am sure we are going to have to look at our marker plans. It's going to be tough because we have a lot of technology options now.

I am a big fan of the independent valve system found in cockers and rainmakers, but I'm not a huge fan of the double burb noise and gas wasting from the rainmaker...

[shadawg]

Simon can you pm a way to contact you as your pms are often closed off, understandably.

[b-cuzz]

I do know that seal kits for the older BE's would be much appreciated. I've got 2 Nightmares and a Poison, and, thanks to Titus, will be wanting to use it.
I won't comment about the vs pairings due to lack of knowledge. I use an x-board revvy. It keeps my mags fed. I may get a Halo for my micro r/t and rainmaker.
A Spectra was the first mask I ever paid money for (not that I stole any). Ten years later, I still use one.
I'm of the type that would like to know how to work on my own guns. A rainmaker manual and rebuild kit would be rather nice, also.

[manike]

Originally Posted by shadawg

Simon can you pm a way to contact you as your pms are often closed off, understandably.

Added you to my contacts. To protect me and you, please don't send me any messages if they relate to intellectual property or any product ideas you may have.

The reason being if it isn't something that can be disclosed publicly, I, KEE, and you can get in a real mess if you tell me something in private that we are already working on. It's the main reason I don't have PM's or e-mail turned on.

I don't have anything to do with sponsorship either. I can direct you to the right person though.

b-cuzz, unfortunately I think it's unlikely that we will be doing any work relating to the support of legacy products that haven't been made or sold in a long time, and that aren't widely used in the market place. As much as I would love to, we just don't have enough resources for things like that. We have to look at the ROI for any project.

If an enthusiast were to come up with the information etc. I would be happy to host it on my private forums, and push to get it put on our paintball solutions website for other people looking for the information.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Blender

I understand your point, but I think most of us would agree that the policy is at least a little bit flawed. While running a business from home is not ideal, it can be quite effective and is the way things have been done in my neck of the woods since I started playing 10 years ago. The low overhead helps these mom-and-pop stores stay in business and continue introducing players and serving the community. .

Yes, and it's the ability to do business with very little overhead that is the basis of the decision to sell to businesses with storefronts only. B&M stores and fiedls are the lifeblood of the industry. Kee, among a select few others have realized this and have this policy in place in the hopes of allowing these businesses to have better margins and hopefully survive. They do this at a cost but in hopes of making the industry in general stronger and healthier. Yes it sucks to be excluded if you are an on-line only business ( I know, I owned one) but I do understand the need for feilds and B&Ms to survive. Without them, the industry would be in a much worse state that it is in now.

My feelings go out for businesses like KEE who have the gonads to stick with poilicies like this, eventhough their competitors are reaping the rewards of having more sales to the low overhead businesses. Speaking to many B&M owners, I know they appreciate this and many are loyal to the wholesalers with these kind of policies (which is what companies like KEE are hoping for). Policies like this and enforced MAPs are what the industry needs to recover.

[Painthappy]

Originally Posted by Horizon

Yes, and it's the ability to do business with very little overhead that is the basis of the decision to sell to businesses with storefronts only. B&M stores and fiedls are the lifeblood of the industry. Kee, among a select few others have realized this and have this policy in place in the hopes of allowing these businesses to have better margins and hopefully survive. They do this at a cost but in hopes of making the industry in general stronger and healthier. Yes it sucks to be excluded if you are an on-line only business ( I know, I owned one) but I do understand the need for feilds and B&Ms to survive. Without them, the industry would be in a much worse state that it is in now.

My feelings go out for businesses like KEE who have the gonads to stick with poilicies like this, eventhough their competitors are reaping the rewards of having more sales to the low overhead businesses. Speaking to many B&M owners, I know they appreciate this and many are loyal to the wholesalers with these kind of policies (which is what companies like KEE are hoping for). Policies like this and enforced MAPs are what the industry needs to recover.

I completely agree, and couldn't agree more.

[duos_scythe]

I am glad that KEE has bought a slowly dying brand and keeping people employed.