Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Will Leupold survive ?

It's a little of everything. As for the area and its politics, Leupold makes optics, not guns. Portland deserves its reputation as a liberal hell hole, but the rest of Oregon is pretty darned red. SIG recently headquartered their electro-optic business just a few miles down the road, plus Benchmade and Gerber are there and Nosler is just over the mountains in Bend, so Oregon may not be as hostile to outdoor manufacturers as one might think.

Time is probably a bigger factor in Leupold's current situation than anything. Redfield was top dog in rifle scopes after WWII, then Leupold came along and turned Redfield into just another player. Now Leupold has lost their dominant position in the sports optic market like Colt lost their position with law-enforcement revolvers to Smith & Wesson.

Those makers were able to get a foot in the door because of the GWOT, which required capacity for innovation and production that Leupold was unable to meet.

The question is whether Leupold can rebound. Their business model is sound because a lot of folks won't buy things that they can't actually touch in a store. But in the same way that Glock pushed S&W out of the LE market, other makers now offer higher-quality products with features (dialing, etc.) that buyers want.

Few of those buyers even understand those features or will ever be able to fully use them, but that's another thread.


Okie John