TriStar Arms has learned to focus on niche markets to become more than just an importer.
TriStar Arms: Have you heard of it? If the answer is no, there’s no need to doubt your gun knowledge. The brand has only been around for a short time, and strangely enough, the story of TriStar’s success went largely unwritten until Gas Bader bought his pen in 2005. But his love of firearms began long before he purchased the TriStar.
“It was almost a complete coincidence,” said Mr. Bader, president of TriStar. “In a previous life, I worked for a career company. I was stationed in Greece, and our territory included much of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. When I was growing up in Lebanon, shooting sports were few and far between. My dad introduced me to shotgun shooting and I was hooked.
“I was in the Basque region of Spain on business,” Bader continued. After literally walking up and knocking on doors, he was offered a tour and he ended up purchasing five beautiful over-and-under shotguns.
It didn’t take long for Vader to learn the tricks of the gun trade.
“When I returned from my trip, I was able to transport the gun, although it required some research and a lot of paperwork,” he said. “I showed it off to my friends, and they all pulled out their wallets and offered me three times what I paid for it. The next time I went back, I bought some more, and then some more. It became a hobby that I fell in love with. By 1983, I decided to seriously pursue importing firearms. I founded American Arms and ran it for about 13 years. We ran a successful company. But by 1996, so many municipalities were suing gun companies that we didn’t know if we were going to survive.”
Vader’s success in the firearms business not only allowed him to survive, but thanks to fate…or good luck, he would soon thrive.
“By pure coincidence, I received an offer from a family that was too great to refuse,” he said.
As Mr. Bader explained, the plot thickened. “For several years, I had been consulting within the industry. In 2005, I was approached to take over TriStar, which was founded by two former American Arms executives and a woman in the industry. It was named TriStar after three people.
At the time, the TriStar was the epitome of what was called a “gunsmith special.”
“Unfortunately, Tristar was in very bad shape,” Bader continued. “In my opinion, we had a 50-50 chance of survival, and we had a hard time in the early days. Gradually we became more organized. Both of my sons came to work for me. Now we can make a profit.”
firearms + family
“It was a dream of mine to work with my dad,” said Ryan Bader, TriStar’s vice president of sales and marketing.
“I grew up fascinated by what my father did,” Ryan said. “He introduced me and my brother to hunting, and I became drawn to it, especially after college. I was planning to work for a large company in the industry, partly because my father wanted me to grow. Long story short, as TriStar started to grow and my father needed help, I decided to go full time. It was.”
As TriStar began to prosper, the Bader family used their love of firearms and passion for family to set, achieve, and create new goals for the company.
“Early on, our goal was just to survive,” Ryan said. “It’s a pretty tough job for a small, relatively unknown shotgun company to try to compete with the likes of Remington, Winchester, Mossberg, Beretta, etc. We started by competing on price. As an importer, I They went to different countries and were able to find factories that made decent products that were eager to enter the American market. Turkey made sense at the time. The guns were shoddy and unreliable. They were cheap, but there was a market for cheap guns.
“We were also careful not to wake up the giants,” Ryan added. We didn’t focus on pump guns (870 and 500 were king). Instead, we focused on semi-autos and over-and-unders. It turns out that there is no need to sit at the table. There were lots of crumbs on the floor to feed. ”
TriStar quickly learned that in order to survive, it had to make a quality product, even if it was just breadcrumbs.
“After a few years and some growth, it became clear that there was no escaping the poor craftsmanship,” Ryan admitted. “As blogs and online reviews started to become a reality, we quickly realized that we needed to change tack. We may still be the price leader, but we are still looking for cheaper, higher quality products. We started focusing on making guns.”
increase momentum
So TriStar began touting two things Americans love: value and reliability, with an emphasis on quality control as a key aspect to differentiate itself from other importers.
“We worked with factories in Turkey and educated them on improving quality and reliability,” Ryan says. “We introduced several new factories that shared the same ideological and craftsmanship goals. People noticed right away.”
Armed with improved firearms and media buzz, Tristar identified key parts of the industry and began systematically attacking them.
“We started focusing on niche markets,” Ryan says. “Subgauge Semi-Auto and O/U is a value-based trapshooting line with quality craftsmanship, including side-by-side, with an Italian look and feel without the Italian price tag. focused.”
As the business grew, Ryan believed his father’s manufacturing and engineering decisions were paramount in helping TriStar grow rapidly.
“Dad was always good at seeing the forest through the trees,” Ryan said. “The gun that set us apart was the .410 semi-auto Viper G2, which was the first of its kind to work with both 2¾ and 3-inch shells. From there, we developed the .410 turkey gun, the youth gun. We have created variants such as , and we continue to look at areas that we believe have been overlooked.”
Ryan’s father’s wisdom served his family and TriStar well early and many times.
“Honesty is good policy,” Bader said. “That’s a quote we’ve always taken to heart. ‘From Lemons to Lemonade’ is another slogan we keep at home. Bad news is inevitable. Things can break down, there can be logistical problems, and a lot of things can go wrong. In that moment, we have always prided ourselves on finding solutions. Sometimes the same problem can open the door to new opportunities. ”
Although TriStar promotes itself as a value-driven, high-quality firearms company, we have always prided ourselves on world-class customer service.
“It’s one thing to sell guns and it’s another thing to sell guns. It’s also important to provide good and honest customer service,” Ryan said. “We’re great in that department. We’ve had to separate ourselves as much as possible. Customer service is always at the top of our list. Are we perfect? Never far away. That’s not to say nothing. But it’s always good business practice to remember that we serve customers. Without those customers, you’re nothing.”
overlooking range
Gus and Ryan are passionate about their vision for TriStar.
“We want our brand to be one that people can trust,” Ryan said. “When you think of TriStar, you think of affordable, high-quality guns. Nothing more, nothing less. We don’t worry about popularity contests or securing name recognition like the big companies. That will only happen over time and if we do the little things. If we can continue to do that, TriStar will have a place for the next generation.
“We continue to drive the development of new ideas and innovative products,” Ryan said. “No doubt we will look at other locations around the world and see if we can maximize our offering and ensure we can provide quality firearms to those who need them.”
Tristar Arms website: tristararms.com.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the May 2022 issue of the magazine. gun digest magazine.
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