Diamondback Tactical has learned a lesson or two about the inherent challenges of a rapid ramp up.

By Reported Donna Loyle

The Diamondback catalog went from 68 pages in 2001 to 360 pages this year. The company will mail two catalog editions to 100,000 names this year, and its housefile has grown to about 35,000, Huitt says.

Its customer list is comprised mostly of personnel in government agencies, such as Special Operations forces, homeland security (local police and the FBI), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Army Special Forces, U.S. State Department, Air Force Para-Rescue, as well as a handful of corporations and security firms hired by media outlets to protect their reporters stationed overseas. (It also sells a few products direct to consumers.) Its primary selling season is July through December, coinciding with the end and beginning of government fiscal year budgets, Huitt says.