Originally Posted By marnsdorff:
They're selling the stuff too.  They've almost sold out of the mag pouches they have listed for $70-80 each.

Originally Posted By Manticore_Arms:
You can list stuff for sale ar any price you want. If people actually buy it at that price, ie it is actual perceived market value is something else entirely.

Sven
Manticore Arms

Originally Posted By sdwornicki:
Ok, somebody please enlighten me about what I don’t know about Fireforce.  The buttpack and those pouches look well made, but not more special or anything compared to what all the other manufacturers were making during GWOT peak before laminate fabrics started to be used.  The marpat pouch looks like something you’d see at the PX that only boots would buy, not knowing that they couldn’t actually use it with their issued gear.  

Did they get Tier 1 contracts or something?  Old-school Eagle/Crye/LBT similar gear probably sells for cheaper.  I don’t get it.

Originally Posted By marnsdorff:


Fireforce was one of the oldschool gear companies, something akin to Eagle, though probably not quite as good.  They made oldschool style gear for the most part, and had a number of .mil contracts for mag pouches, duffels, canteen pouches, alice packs, etc.  Their gear is well made, in the old-school style.  I have a few pieces - one of their buttpacks and one of their large ALICE packs.  The large ALICE pack is significantly better made than any other regular large ALICE packs I've handled - binding tape on the main seams, better stitching, upgraded buckles, etc.

They went out of business back, I dunno, 5 years ago?  Their remaining stock has started hitting the different surplus and overstock retailers the last few months.

Probably the demand for their stuff is that there isn't that much oldschool gear on the market anymore that is in new condition + no one is making stuff like that anymore - and there is still a demand for it.  The growth in popularity of belt kits is driving the demand for buttpacks and magazine pouches like those, and things like ALICE packs have always been in demand.  So much so that it's really hard to find new condition surplus ALICE packs, and it's almost as cheap to make new ones than it is to buy used surplus ones and then pay to have them modded.  The popularity of belt kits is driving even more of a resurgence in the popularity of ALICE packs, since alot of the newer packs don't play well with belt kits.  Fireforce went out of busines about 5 years too soon.  If they were around right now, and came out with a decent belt and yoke system, they would be killing it on the belt kit market right now.  Heck, I would never have gone into business sewing gear if they had done that.

Also, there is a resurgence in old school style gear in general, as people are watching the change in war in Ukraine and the good possibility of a war in SE asia against china again.  Alot of the direction our gear had been going in isn't especially well suited for those kinds of wars.  Not that we can't improve materials or designs any - I'm going to be playing around with using laminate cordura stuff with my mag and water bottle pouches for instance, but not in the same way that most companies today are using them.  (definitely not with the attachment systems)

All of the above + people loving to clone oldschool gear setups are driving the high prices.  I know a number of guys on here have been trying to get a fireforce buttpack for months now, even used ones, and only one has succeeded.  And some of those guys have my buttpacks too  (which are nicer than the Fireforce ones) but the demand is there for a decent molle buttpack that doesn't have crappy laser cut molle attachment systems.

EDIT:  The marpat mag pouches are almost certainly a civilian putting together a set of belt kit in marpat.  Which would be sick.

Originally Posted By 03RN:
Lol, I was at an army navy store a couple years ago and got a nib usgi lc2 buttpack for like $30.

Originally Posted By Ropium:
Im assuming it's collectors because you have plenty of affordable options of similar and superior designs