BlackRock Gear Huge Summer Sale

As of today we have around 10 prototype "Black Cherry" 7x7d Silicone coated hats left and around 5 of the 7×7 DWR coated left.

I'm also down to around 30 red lined packs in the shop. Most all other pieces

Man, wish this happened a couple days ago before I spent a grand on go-fast parts for the motorcycle. Love the Hadron-X, Evan. Hopefully, this becomes a stock item eventually.

Ryan

That's always the case :) I get a bunch of gear then find more I need.

The "Hadron-X" which is probably a temporary name turned out really nice. We've been working on finding new amazing fabric for about 3-4 years now. We used to have a great line on the "SevenD" until Mountain Hardwear basically stole our fabric source out from under us. Always found it funny how they state they "developed" the fabric, hahaha. I guess they didn't realize we'd been using it since 2011 or so already… Since losing access to that manufacturer and our 7x10d fabric we've been carefully hanging onto and using the fabric stock we still had.

Now, if all works out, we will have 7x7d fabric that's by far nicer than the 7D and 7DS we've been been using. Just hoping some other big shop doesn't "develop" their own new fabric and buy out all the stuff I'm trying to land myself :)

More info on MHW stealing the source? Is this what they call their "Ghost Whisperer" fabric?

I should rephrase that and say "bought out" our fabric source. All I know is that our fabric source dried up and I was told we couldn't buy anymore. One of the guys from the shop also told me finally months later that MHW was who bought all the fabric. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. I can't know for sure but I will say the same 7x10d material I had sitting on my shop wall and was making into gear showed up next season in their line up. Different colors and I'm sure slightly different weight PU coatings but the same stuff from what I could tell.

This seems all too common in the industry though. Buying fabric wholesale is way harder than you'd think, and I think this happens all the time. Cutting edge materials start off in low quantities with less regularity. Us tiny guys buy up and use the good stuff thats cutting edge if we can and then lose out when it goes mainstream. I just wish I could have scored more of the material at the time.

Interesting. Never knew that about MHW and the old 7D fabric. I've been playing with some 7d samples in the .53-57oz sq yd range the last few weeks that show some promise. Hopefully they make it to the MYOG crowd eventually.

Ryan

Is there some sort of trade secret protection keeping other manufacturers from producing the same material?