For about a week now there's been a rumor going around that Smart Parts will be closing its doors at the end of the year. Similar rumors have popped up in the past, especially when they laid off numerous employees earlier this year. Previously, though, Smart Parts released an official statement that discounted the rumors, but nothing has come up this time and store owners report an inability to order products. If Smart Parts has an official statement to make about the status of their company, I'd be happy to publish it - just contact me.
Whether or not Smart Parts is dying, the fact that the rumor seems so plausible is just another indication of the current troubles of the paintball industry. A few years ago it would have been unthinkable for one of the largest and longest-lived paintball companies to close its doors, but now I almost expect a major manufacturer to announce plans to end its operations. When Smart Parts released the Ion a few years ago, it really was at the top of the paintball world. Of course, at that time, GM was also still the world's largest auto producer. Times have changed.
Comments
its terrible that smart parts is closing. a lot of people hate them right now for their guns, but think of it this way, what will Dynasty play with, who will sponsor as much events as they did, and who will provide gun or parts warranty?For people that bought the SP Impulse, this is horrible news, $1000 on a gun that wont have warranty or customer service soon, and when parts run out, what happens?
This post was really a poorly written post based on the writers speculation. Smart Parts going down has nothing to do with the industry as a whole, it has to do with poor management. JT is also going out of business for the same reasons.
Smart Parts closing up shop has to do with total mis-management from the Adam Gardners (owner) of Smart Parts. Smart Parts has been in trouble for a good year and a half and have had a number of fatal flaws, mostly made poor business decisions during hard cash flow times which lead to their ultimate demise. They had good products but management kept getting in the way. They also didn’t want to listen to their dealers on what dealers needed to help smart parts.
It has nothing to do with the industry as a whole, you can look at companies like Eclipse who has exploded in the past 2-3 years. same with Dangerous Power. Valken has also opened and introduced new products and series. Tech T has also made their name in the past 2 years. No industry can continue to go forever, paintball in 2008 did show signs of leveling off ion 2008 and like the rest of the Economy was off in 2009, however even with the economy being down in 2009, industry sales were still relatively strong. Christmas of 2009 showed very strong sales and a promising 2010.
Actually, Dangerous Power is not doing as good as you think, its another company that may be bankrupt soon.
i am i owner of a smart parts ion xe it was a grat guna and its very suprising alothough my field i play at could not get ahold of them to stock products 6 moths before the official announcement so i began looking for a new gun i did some research on the dangerous power g3 and it basically had me bought but i was saved when i called my fiekd and they tried to order one for me that non of his vendors had any and they said they could possibly gut some thru dp but he said they dont look like there doing to hot thats also a reason why the release dates for some of their markers were set back. so i decided to go with thr 2010 proto matrix rail its a amazing gun for the price and is in my opinion better than the eteck sayin that the pmr comes with the ultralight grip frome and a 115 dollar barrel all my fields employees recomended the pmr over the etek and im very impressed with it
Tristan, Maybe its good you can’t find a gun to replace your Ion… you should take that money and invest in some writing classes or something, because I couldn’t understand 90% of what you were trying to say in your post….. Lern2ReedNRite….
Shoop, glad I wasn’t the only one that couldn’t understand anything Tristan had to say. I just got back into paintball in 2009 and after reading Tristan’s comments, was beginning to think that the sport was full of people with no education beyond 1st grade.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand… so has Smart Parts officially shut its doors? Or are they waiting for a buyout?
yea Sok, half the people on the paintball forums are halfway retarded…. too busy whacking off to gun pics to learn how to write coherent sentences… but this kid is the worst… he wrote how many words and didn’t say a damn thing…
As for Smart Parts, I am pretty sure they are gone…. from what I understand, alot of the intellectual property is owned by the Gardners, not Smart Parts, so that property will go with them. Noone is answering the phones, message still says they are taking inventory….
I bought the 09 Impulse and played with it for about 2 good solid days. Took care of it and it has an internal leak that has to be sent to smart parts. Sucks cause their not open. Spent a $999 and might just as well use it as a hammer or something.
Yeah I agree completely with what youare saying. It seems that either they don’t care enough to check their mistakes or they don’t have the intelligence to realize reorganized mistakes. Man, I am really not looking forward to the future. I own both an SP-1 and an Ion (the SP-1 I got lightly used for about $100 and the ion for $60) I shed a tear when my paintball gossip friend told me smart parts went out of business. I love their guns, the SP-1 was my first gun and you would have to shoot me then chop off each of my deathgrip fingers to get it from me. It makes me really sad that I won’t be able to put a child I may have in the future on the field with a high quality, all American paintball gun. On the positive side, I could pretty much replace everything but the body and frame with aftermarket parts on both the ion and SP-1. I just bought up some smartparts merc. To show my pride on and off the field for as long as I can.
I am personally up in the air if Smart Parts will be back. They have always made good quality products and given great service to all of paintball.
i just got an email from a friend saying that there was a joint take over of the smart parts facility in europe.
We are proud to announce the joint take-over of the complete Smart Parts Europe (Ltd.) stocks including all spare parts after the closure of their London stocks by our two companies. The complete
inventory is now being finally recorded in Europe’s biggest and most modern Paintball distribution center, the MAXS DC in Friedberg.
From now on, all distribution partners who formerly purchased their Smart Parts products directly from England will have the opportunity to deal with one of the above mentioned companies. Smart Parts‘ last regular wholesale price list will again be valid and binding from February 1, 2010 on – especially in matters of MAP pricing.
Tech Services and all other warranty issues for SP products will – as already done before by Smart Parts Europe – again be handed over to company GUNTECH in Zweibruecken since their outstanding expertise in matters of SP is unequalled all over Europe. We are pleased that we have been able to regain GUNTECH as an experienced partner for all technical customer services. Alternatively customers may also contact all MAXS Megastores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland or one of the PAINT XTREME Superstores in Saarbrucken and Waldems where you will find qualified and trained
Smart Parts Techs answering all your technical questions.
In times of mistrust and keen competition, we have decided to go this unusual way together in the form of a joint cooperation since we have a strong faith in Smart Parts as a brand and their products – even and especially in the future! At the same time we were aware of the deep uncertainty among players and dealers and hope that combining the strengths of our two companies (MAXS with its
distribution centre and PAINT XTREME as the biggest SP dealer in German-speaking countries) will regain the faith in such great products as e.g. the ION (still being the benchmark for all other entry level e-markers), VIBE (the rental marker of the future) or other classics such as the Freak Set.
Using this opportunity we would like to thank Phil Webb (former Managing Director SP Europe Ltd.) and especially Adam Gardner (Vice President Smart Parts USA) for their trust and cooperation during the recent weeks. Dealers and players/teams which haven’t had an account with MAXS or PAINT XTREME so far, may now open one at http://www.maxs-sport.com or http://www.paint-xtreme.com in order to purchase Smart Parts products. Please address all technical enquiries to info@guntech.de.
This is really a heartbreaker I have been a loyal SP customer for over 10yrs. Ive shot the older Impulse and Nerve models. Now shooting an EOS w/ an Epiphany back-up, the only thing that saves me is that my guns are far from stock. So there is not a whole lot I need smart parts for anyways. I am concerned however about the events and teams they currently sponsor, hopefully one of the better managed paintball companys will step up to the plate.
I bought some CO2 on/off valves from Smart parts for use in a completely different industry. My initial order was delivered in around September ‘09 and appeared to be just what I wanted. The valve had recently been switched from all brass to a combination of brass and a black-anodized valve body that looked really cool in my application. When I tried to place a second order it was then November or so and sales told me they couldn’t really say if I would get it. I didn’t. Now, as anyone who’s tried knows, their telephone answer message still says they will open after the holidays, on January 4th, 2010.
Well……………. it’s just as well for me because almost all of the black valves I bought leaked over time. Probably from the base of the burst disk, but they definitely did not hold the pressure they should have. When I went into the retail market and bought some, all I could get was the older, all-brass version of the valve…………. but they appear to work properly. It seems probable that Smart Parts, with a US staff of 8 (down from 120) was not doing any serious QC in the fall. I’ve since learned that it was likely improper tooling that didn’t correctly account for the anodizing process and resulted in leaking.
If Smart Parts re-opens I still like the look of their valve, but I’m not sure I would trust them right off. Just my thought on this, from a non-paintball perspective.
wow…they’re closing? handing their company to smart parts europe?
i was about to order the all american barrel to my new tippmann x7 phenom and the paintball store owner said they out of business?
how? i thought they were doing well?
u just hope they’re not…
if they are i have to move to dye/proto or CP
this is like switching from a burger to a hotdog…both great its just i like the burger better…if you guys catch my drift.
Well, the NPPL is gone. Though I love the sport, does it have a future? SP did a lot of less then stellar things, but made decent products at a reasonable price. Something to think about.
i think the LAWSUIT they have against every major manufacturer has the biggest point in there demise, look in to it, they are tryin to kill the whole sport in a whole in a way. SUEing every manufacturer that makes an electro (solenoid) marker… after reading up on this i was ashamed i gave them my hard earned money for something i too like snarge love so much my sp1 is and was what i always wanted in a electro, iam totally in awe that any court would pass this lawsuit let alone look at it and have it in there court, read up on there lawsuit and decide for yourself what they are up to… in my eyes they have WAY too many products and services to just roll over and die, they are in other countries for christ sake! imo they closed there usa operations and factory to have time effort and funding for the BS lawsuit….
can you imagine paying 1 2 3 hundred extra for any other marker that isnt smartparts… there are doing an monopoly, and they maybe winning
Dood Boy, a patent is property owned buy someone, if someone else takes/uses that property without permission that is theft, end of story. Some manufacturer was going to patent what Smart Parts did and if that patent was infringed I’m sure any other company would sue if an agreement to pay royalties was not set and adhered to. Just check what is happening in the mobile phone industry right now! Apple, HTC and others if not all of them are in some fight over patents. The difference is that those companies will protect their rights then sell usage rights to their patents and everyone will continue buying iPhones and other phones as usual, that is just business. Big difference is that Apple, HTC etc. have money to fight these fights and get thru to a deal that will pay for the fight. That’s the real world where big ppl do real business.
SMART PARTS rule.. these are some of the best guns ever.. I own a few shockers SFT/NXT and an ION and yes even a VIBE.. this is the original close bolt gun that every one is coping now. any way I think Smart Parts is now GI Milsim… look at the markers they are making; they are so similar to the EOS and Epiphany even that tactical markers are very much alike. but these markers are 50 cal.
Hey otherguy: You should read up on it. What actually happened is they bought the patent for the impulse a long time ago. The patent they bought specifically stipulated that it only applied to markers with “two or more solenoids” (which does not cover ALL electros), along with a laundry list of other product-specific specifications. THIS was all well and good.
The shadey part is that Adam Gardner had the patent revised to include single-solenoid electros, and any marker fired by an electronic circuit. This patent revision should never have been granted, technically. Because it took a single design, and generalized it to include all sorts of prior electros. Even the US Navy had a patent on an electronic marker prior to this. So long prior that it had expired already. So A. not their invention to begin with, B. they used a legal remedy to “more accurately explain” an invention they never invented (a patent revision is easier to have granted than a patent), and C. used this already dubious premise to blackmail other companies who weren’t actively, willfully, or intentfully infringing any real existing patent until they decided that the Impulse design was ACTUALLY a design on ALL ELECTRO MARKERS.
Basically, the patent extension should NEVER have been issued. Either the patent clerk didn’t do his homework, or there was a pay-off involved.
The Gardners ought to burn in hell for what they did to paintball. Serves them right.
Google “Adam Gardner,” “patent,” and “fraud” for more info. But the long and short of it is that the Gardner brothers have a history of making shadey money off of patents- everything from exploiting legal patent loopholes (like this one) to exploiting small-time inventors, charging them copious amounts of money to represent them at the patent office, and even allegedly filing other people’s patents in their own names. They’re glorified patent lawyers. Not businessmen. And it shows.