During the exhibits portion of the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits I spoke to a couple the executives leading their companies through the current turmoil of an economic slowdown and increased costs due to tariffs.

The tariff issue is easy, if unpleasant, to deal with. If your costs go up then you either eat those costs in the hope that relief is coming shortly, or you raise your prices to pass along the increase. That’s exactly what one executive told me would be happening this week as he awaited containers full of product to be unloaded at U.S. ports.

With a note of optimism, he said those price increases could be rolled back in the coming weeks as soon as the tariff was lifted.

Of greater interest, but related to tariffs, were the discussions I had with two executives who are both in the process of moving manufacturing out of China to what we might consider less adversarial countries.

One of these executives had already begun diversifying his overseas manufacturing and reduced his dependence on China to a manageable percentage. As an international company he had the luxury of a wider network of global manufacturing partners, in addition to his own U.S. based manufacturing capabilities.

The second executive was in the middle of transitioning manufacturing from China to another nation where he had a partner with which he already had a solid working relationship. Not as far along in the process as the first executive, the second now finds himself working to accelerate the transition, racing against the tariffs, and the possibility of low stock levels if manufacturing doesn’t ramp up fast enough.

Another important business lesson to come out of this year’s NRA Show is the importance of new products in a company’s ability to weather a down economy. Major manufacturers like Mossberg, Magpul, Hi-Poiint, and Ruger all featured new products just in time to combat the summer doldrums and waning consumer confidence.

In his feature ‘Is Flat the New Up?’ in today’s edition of The Outdoor Wire, Jim Shepherd covers how Ruger, a publicly traded company, outlined for investment analysts how the company is successfully navigating the down market the entire industry is facing.

Highlighting the importance of new products, Ruger’s new President and Chief Executive Officer, Todd Seyfert, explained that, “These new products not only reinforce our commitment to quality, but continue to excite our loyal base, drive demand and elevate the entire portfolio of Ruger products.”

“Ruger will continue to thrive in the current economy for several reasons. A key element is the introduction of new products while driving efficiencies across the company.”

This approach, which includes collaborating with other key industry partners, namely Magpul and Dead Air Silencers, has resulted in Ruger’s new products accounting for nearly a third (31.6%) of the Q1-25 quarterly revenues. And while Q1-25 sales were lower than Q1-24, profits were $0.46 per share compared to $0.40 per share in Q1-24.

“We feel confident about our new product launches, and we’re being aggressive about taking share in an overall down market,” Seyfert continued. “We feel we have the opportunity to go out, be aggressive, and take market share. Our balance sheet makes that possible.”

The message here is very clear. Now is not the time to hunker down and wait out the storm. Companies, from large to small and everything in between, need to adjust, and do so quickly.

For suppliers, this means we’re in a business climate that offers ample opportunity to step in and become a valuable problem solver for those companies that lack in-house capabilities and/or expertise.

Getting new products to market takes a great deal of time and effort, not to mention the ability to throw significant resources at solving problems. Any supplier that can provide a shortcut to bringing a product to market will become a critical partner for their client.

And right now, those future clients are looking for ways to take a page out of the playbooks of other companies that are already reconfiguring their supply chains and, like Ruger, working with others to shorten their new products’ time to market.

– Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network