Post-Newtown, Sales Boom for Kids' Body Armor

[unhappycamper]

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/12/body-armor-backpack-sandy-hook-sales-soar



A bullet-proof Disney Princess backpack from Amendment II retails for $300, plus shipping. Amendment II

Post-Newtown, Sales Boom for Kids' Body Armor
—By Tim Murphy
Tue Dec. 18, 2012 8:24 AM PST

"Basically, there's three models," says Derek Williams. "A SwissGear that's made for teens, and we've got an Avengers and a Disney Princess backpack for little kids."

Williams is the president of Amendment II, a Salt Lake City-based company that manufactures lightweight body armor for law enforcement and military use. But lately they've moved into a different market: body armor for kids. Six months ago, Amendment II introduced a new line of backpacks, built with the company's signature carbon nanotube armor, designed to keep kids safe in the event of school shootings. Since Friday's massacre at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school, sales have gone through the roof. "I can't go into exact sales numbers, but basically we tripled our sales volume of backpacks that we typically do in a month—in one week," Williams says.

With thoughts of defenseless children seared into the national consciousness, the company doesn't plan on letting the crisis go to waste. "We want to be sensitive to how we do that, but we are gonna try to get the word out that this product does exist that there are ways to at least provide our children with some protection," Williams says.

It's not like they'd have to change much. The group's promotional materials play up the utility of RynoHide armor in kid-friendly settings. Here's what the group's booth looked like at the Self-Reliance Expo in Mesa, Arizona, one of the nation's largest prepper roadshows:

[Javaman]

1. What? No "Hello Kitty"?

we live in a sick society on so many levels.