That’s a funny name, where did it come from and how did WieBad start?
As most of you are aware, WieBad Gear is comprised by two owners, Robert Badgett and David Wiese. We had been friends for quite some time prior to the conception of the company. I think we met sometime around 2005 or there about. I can always think back to the age of my youngest child because he’s known her since she was a baby. Anyhow, David and I had common interests in hunting and shooting. We even met in a gun shop through a common friend. Needless to say we quickly became friends and that friendship eventually spawned one of the best shooting gear manufacturing companies in America.
Fast forward to 2009, I was invited to go on an annual mule deer hunting trip with David and his father-in-law in Terlingua, TX. On the drive, David and I spoke about how awesome it would be to own a company in the shooting industry that could afford us the time and money to hunt and shoot more. Of course, we all have those dreams about our favorite hobbies. It wasn’t till a couple of days later. I was on the back of a 4-wheeler headed up to the plateau to do some scouting when it hit me like a ton of bricks, the name! WieBad, the first three letters of David’s last name and the first thee letters of mine. I turned around and raced back to camp and told David. He also thought it was cool and cleaver, but then the realization that we needed more than a company.
Originally, I thought WieBad would be the Nike of the shooting industry. Let’s order shooting products and re-brand them with a badass logo and the WieBad name. Funny story that I will spare you the details of, but our first product in 2009 was going to be a trailer hitch toilet seat we could park outside of a buddy’s tent that used to hunt with us in Terlingua. I’m sure you can use your imagination on why. On a side not, we did see that product came out years later and we laughed about it.
About a year later, David had already been shooting with another buddy of ours, in fact the guy we met through, at a match down in Kingsville, TX called Rifles Only. It was the Snipers Hide cup back then. For some reason David decided that he wanted to make his own rear bag and bought a Consew swing machine and made one up for himself. Just like that, the company was born. Once you begin to make product for yourself and other shooters on the firing line begin to take notice of it. They want it. Even to this day, guys ask us to use our gear to see if it will help them.
Needless to say, the rest is history. WieBad Gear was formed in 2010 and officially made into a LLC partnership in early 2011. We started in a bedroom at David’s home, migrated to my Man Cave, upgraded to 1000 sq. ft, then 3000 sq. ft and today we are in 6000 sq. ft with the ability to expand to 12000 sq. ft. Oh yeah, and that comment about having more time and money to hunt and shoot. Yeah right, we now have less time and practice reinvesting into the growth and success of our business, but we wouldn’t trade a thing.
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