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AR500 Armor: The Future

As we celebrate our 8th Anniversary this August, we sat down with the founder of The Armored Republic® and AR500Armor®, Tyler O’Neal, to chat about where we came from, where we are, and where we’re headed.

Here, Tyler talks about the future of AR500 Armor.

Q: Tell us about the new AR Independence carrier and AR Battle Belt

A: The AR Independence plate carrier is an exciting announcement for us. It’s made 100% in house, here in our Phoenix, Arizona, facility, and has a different design approach than our other carriers, such as the Testudo, Veritas, and Valkyrie, which are very traditional plate carrier designs.

The Independence has a yoked collar, a skeletonized cummerbund and its Hypalon straps give it a very low profile. So it has a different use than a traditional carrier set up, so now users have a choice. Personally, I recommend having more than one carrier instead of trying to rely on a ‘one-size-does-everything” approach…you might want a concealment carrier, you might want one you can run hard during training, or perhaps having different setups, say one for shotgun and one for rifle. Having multiple sets of armor isn’t a bad thing in my mind.

The Battle Belt...we get a lot of questions about the size of armor and why plate carriers seem so small. That’s because much of the public has seen images of the Interceptor and IOTVs (Improved Outer Tactical Vest) used by the military over the past 18 years.

What many people don’t understand is that the large carrier runs the same size rifle plate, approximately, across the vest sizes. What changes is the size of the soft armor that’s inside the carrier, behind the plates.

The plate protects the heart, lungs and large blood vessels. Watch our “what is rifle armor designed to protect” video to get a good overview on this. Running rifle-rated armor is a balance of coverage and mobility. You can’t just have a rigid torso plate because it would inhibit mobility and your ability to bend and turn, would be way too heavy and, overall, just cumbersome.

[To address this] we started launching modular armor sections for those who want to expand their coverage. We have [modular] abdominal armor and are launching our AR Battle Belt this month, which will ultimately include an armored component to offer even more coverage for those who want the additional coverage. What we’re trying to do is offer a system that increases the amount of armor coverage while maintaining mobility. We don’t just want to make a massive chest plate, which is what most people ask for… it sounds cool, but it wouldn’t be functional and it would be too heavy.

[Rifle] Armor is about protecting your vitals, which are those areas that would immediately take you out of the fight if you were hit there and prevent you from fighting back. Shots elsewhere [to your body], you have the ability to survive and seek medical attention. But you can’t walk around in head to toe armor, as you wouldn’t be able to move.

Q: Why is it important to have new products come out?

A: Innovation and challenging the industry are very important to me. I don’t want to just make something a certain way because that’s the way it’s always been done before. To me that’s a bad answer. You should design and develop a product because of a need you identified in the market. You can debate whether you created that need or that the need already existed, but development of new products challenges and pushes the industry.

Yes, creating a new design or system can be a risk, but it’s exciting to be the kind of company that puts that kind of product out there because you develop it and if you did the research and work correctly, the market will reward you for that, which is a fantastic feeling and a great way to run a business, and is one reason why so many people run small businesses.

Q: What does the future of civilian armor ownership look like to you?

A: The future as I see it is getting more people interested in body armor. 2020 has been a pivotal year for this, but even that aside, I firmly believe that the more people who own armor, the better off we are [as a society]. At that point, it’s continuing to improve the technology while maintaining both price and quality.

So how do we scale things going forward? We are constantly looking to improve how we do things, from advancements in metallurgy to bringing the newest technology to you, all while maintaining quality and keeping it affordable. That’s always the balance we’re trying to achieve.

Q: What do you think about people taking the 2A seriously. We haven’t really seen anything mentioned about banning firearms recently. What’s changed?

A: I think it’s fantastic that people are getting on board with the 2A. There are two things I feel when going into a gun store that’s [sold out of everything], the first is ‘that sucks’, because I want to look at everything, but it’s fantastic that people have come in and wiped the store out. That means there are more people than ever owning firearms for self-defense, and that is the core of this country.

The 2A is immensely valuable and it’s a great situation that people are taking ownership of their personal safety. I think it’s sad that it happened the way it has (pandemic and riots), and think it would have been better if it were more organic and not triggered by a massive event.

The sad part is that there’s a rush when there’s an inciting event, rather than a measured, thought-out, and planned method of self-defense because you decided to take it into your own hands and weren’t forced to do it.

We’ve always believed it’s up to you to preserve your God-given rights, and to do that you need to own the tools necessary…sword and shield and firearms and body armor, there are a lot of correlations. While the technology has advanced, the core philosophy hasn’t changed much…it’s still a sword-and-shield approach.

I think we’ll see a more proactive approach going forward [to preparing and self-defense]. When the zombie craze started with The Walking Dead, that created an interesting spark in the survival community. That spawned a number of TV shows that covered survival and that brought survival and preparedness to the market. At that time, it wasn’t quite normalized, so it was still a weird crowd to be in, it was definitely a niche. But it was a good step in getting people to think about preparedness, but doing it responsibly, so you can protect yourself and enjoy your life in our amazing country.

Q: What are the plans for the company?

A: We’re constantly developing new ideas and products. I can’t talk about everything that’s coming, but stay tuned. We’ve been doing this for 8 years, and we’re going to keep pressing, and by us pressing, it challenges a lot of traditional players in the armor industry to do things differently, and that excites me because I love the competitive nature of it.

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