well that sucks.. i was a fan of what they were doing but the aggressive 'aesthetics' on the slide cuts weren't my cup of tea, for sure. ..infinity/ atlas get away with it. imo they should have come out with more of a Quantico prodigy design and commander first/ or at least both at the same time.

tough sledding tho with all the bigs hitting the market with options and Prodigy maintaining popularity at the direct competitor level.. and all those filthy t3rror supporting turkey guns, eating out of the same trough.

 

Further searching is turning up many complaints of terrible customer service and poor craftsmanship.

 

a lot of gun companies going bankrupt.. I think a bunch of people thought the COVID peak (for consumer spending) was going to somehow be a new normal.

I bet people bought equipment and made a bunch of decisions then couldn't survive the slow down. SCCY, Watchtower, and a couple others all went 11 (I think SCCY went 7)

 

the trouble is with almost all companies is, the founders are good at raising capital, building products.. but almost all are bad at finance, establishing efficient ops models and every other facet of running a business.

if their success hinges on an out of the park smash, then that company was set up to fail and by set up, I mean set up (hoax).

what's likely to happen is the real company behind this company will now come in and buy the assets at a fraction of the cost and restart without all the start up debt.

whether the owners knew it or not, they were set up to fail.

 

Haha I find a lot of founders are good at raising capital OR building products... let alone be good at finances/operating a business for a profit

 

Agree with above, I also think the market is oversaturated with manufacturers right now.

 

For any future company.. take this as a PTC (precautionary tale of woe) and PSA.

Mistakes:

• rolling out the gubmints only, in a market that prioritizes carry/ EDC
• aggressive, polarizing stylings, serration cuts
• crap internals
• the throwaway grip
• no RMR footprint support
• trying to do too much, also selling mid striker/ Rifles

They should have:

• focused 100% on their 2011 and stalled their other product lines.
• hit the market at $1200-1300 with 3.5/ 4.0/ 5.0"
• stroked an early deal with MJD Solutions ala Kimber et al.
• built a partner products supply chain and competitive/ upsell presale solution- so out the gate, folk could buy better.

-- internals
-- grip
-- controls
-- holsters

..and cut out the perception that the Apollo was just another "ADD $1000 to the cost, to get a quasi-competitive gun", market option aka (Prodigy, Poorcatto).

They could have just focused on making an awesome slide/ frame combo, sub $1000, then letting folk build them up from the git.

Nobody was really asking for a complete sub$1000 gun, built to that pricepoint and the t3rror-rag wrapped TISAS and Girsan, ate their lunch there anyway..

It really could have been something..instead of the colossal CF that it was.

Below, the gun I was interested in to start with..

You can still find the SC- sub compact model all over GB for $999 or less..

Would like to get.. put way too much money and time into, as an homage.

 

I have one of their ARs in 300aac. Love it

 

I have their slide for p365 and I like it quite a bit.
It's a real bummer.

 

All in I thought the product was decent but I am curious to see how other builders are going to roll into the coming months. Walking into many LGS’s it appears that firearms are starting to sit, and with family in the industry they tell me that the firearms market is down as a whole, and will probably continue to be the new normal until election time which historically boosts sales quite rapidly due to the obvious debate of gun control and new administrations agendas.

The LFA i had many friends purchase and some ran reliably and others not so much. In the end for a sub $1000 gun I went with tisas which has seemed to perform better. But it is certainly interesting where the market is going with many companies who have entered and more that continue to enter the DS marketplace.

 

it's too bad tho about buying guns from companies HQ'd in countries that root for our downfall.

 

I’m sorry to hear this, I came very close to buying a Compact a few weeks ago.

 

I was looking forward to the Apollo 10 that was announced at SHOT show 2025. Ah well, alas...