SHOT Show Wrap - Talking with Guns and Gadgets Jared Yanis (006)

Episode 006 - SHOT Show Wrap - Talking Guns and Gadgets with Jared Yanis

[music]

Rob Pincus: This is Rob Pincus. Welcome to The Rob Pincus Podcast.

Introduction: The Rob Pincus Podcast is brought to you by the personal defense network. The personal defense network is the leading destination of high-quality online personal defense video content, and a no-nonsense gathering place for those serious about arming themselves for defense in every aspect of their lives. To learn more, visit www.personaldefensenetwork.com. Now here's Rob.

Rob Pincus: Welcome to this special edition of The Rob Pincus Podcast. Today, we're going to talk with one of the most influential people in the gun community, Jared Yanis. Jared Yanis was at SHOT Show 2022 with me, and that's what we're going to be talking about. SHOT Show 2022 was much anticipated, but also there was a lot of trepidation going into the show about how successful it would be and more importantly, I guess, how successful the attendees would be in accomplishing their business goals.

I had a great time at SHOT Show 2022. I did bump into Jared while I was there, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him so I thought, "Hey, let me call you up, get you here on the podcast." We're going to find out what Jared thinks. Remember, share and subscribe. Visit Rob Pincus Podcast to get all of our episodes. Generally, we're going to talk about training and politics. Today, we're just talking about SHOT Show 2022.

[music]

Welcome to this special edition of The Rob Pincus Podcast. I have got one of the most influential and respected guys in the gun community here on the show. What I think makes this really special is, it's also just after his third SHOT Show. Jared Yanis welcome to the show, Guns, and Gadgets. You have been celebrated and appreciated so much over the last few years. It seems like you've been around forever but you just finished up your third SHOT Show. I think your insight-- I've done 25 of them. We talked to a bunch of people at SHOT Show here for The Rob Pinkus Podcast and got their opinions.

You are a unique specimen because you are so influential and so respected and trusted by a lot of people and yet relatively new to SHOT. Welcome to The Rob Pincus Podcast. Let's talk about SHOT Show 2022.

Jared Yanis: Yes, man. First, thanks for having me. That was a humbling intro. [chuckles] I'm glad you think that. Maybe my wife should listen to your intro. Yes, I've been in the game a little while, it's like eight or nine years, but I've only been to three SHOT Shows. This year was drastically different for a few reasons than the last. 2019 was the last one or 2020 was the last one. I think it was good. This was my third but this was by far the best one I've been to as far as FaceTime with manufacturers, you could have quality meetings with people where you didn't feel rushed.

Tell me if you felt different but I felt that it was like a Friday crowd, your typical Friday crowd pretty much the whole week, which was good because we had a bunch of meetings, you weren't fighting through the crowds in the aisles to get to different boots and stuff like that. It was different. You noticed that there weren't a lot of people and a lot of the manufacturers but at the same time, I think it was beneficial. I think business-wise, more people got more stuff done this year.

Rob Pincus: I'm really glad to hear you say that. Full disclosure, you and I didn't talk about this. I just said, "Hey, do you want to talk about it on the recording?" Your thoughts are exactly what my thoughts were. I have talked to some people who've been a little bit grumpy or cynical. To me, they seem obsessed with there weren't a lot of people there. Whereas most of the people who were serious about doing business were celebrating, "Hey, there weren't a lot of people here." The people that we need to do business with they were here.

I give this disclaimer. I've talked about this a lot over the last meeting up to SHOT. Disclaimer, those people who really had serious health concerns, that got those underlying issues, the people whose companies canceled their trips, their flights that were still looking forward to come. This isn't directed at you.

There were a lot of people who just basically were cynical about, "Well, I'm going to have to wear a mask so I'm not going to go." You were going to have to wear a mask on the plane. We all know that there are people who if you're going to go testify in front of the Senate, you're going to put a mask on. If you have the opportunity to do business at SHOT Show, you're going to put a mask on. The truth is, I don't know about you, but 99.9% at the time, I wasn't wearing a mask and neither were the people I was talking to.

Jared Yanis: I think the whole week combined, I might have worn a mask for about six minutes for the entire week. It was just to get in the door. There were a lot more people who were exercising their freedom and, their freedom of choice. There were a few security agencies, the safety officers that would ask you to put a mask on, but they can only do so much.

Rob Pincus: They were going through the motion. I figured out after day--, I would put the mask on to walk into the rooms, but you know how it is. You've got to come and go through-- For people who have been in the SHOT Show. You come and go through different halls. Every hall, they were pretty strict, especially days one and two. What I found was if I don't have the mask in my hand, if I don't have the mask on my face and they're offering them, sir, "Would you like a mask?" They were sort of coy about it. Said, "Sure, I'll take one." You'd take the mask and they'd leave you alone.

I definitely went out of my way to feel out certain people that I felt like might be offended or bothered or concerned about the fact that I wasn't wearing a mask, whether it was a health concern or a perception concern. Was the government going to come in and shut down SHOT Show? I found out really quick on day one, nobody was really that worried about it so we drove on.

What you said about the meetings, I generally set a lot of meetings at SHOT Show. It's been a long time since I worked at a booth. Even now when I work a booth it's for a couple of hours, I meet and greet, hang out, we do some video, whatever. I'm usually bouncing from place to place. I'll tell you that by one o'clock in the afternoon, I'm almost always behind schedule.

We have to set meetings out instead of every hour, we might set meetings every hour and a half just to accommodate the moving and the crowd. It's not just the crowd, I know a lot of people in the crowd. It's the, "Hey, how are you doing?" The stops and this and that. This year I think I was maybe five minutes late for one meeting and that was just because I took a target of opportunity, walked into a booth that was empty, made a great connection with a company I haven't worked with before a new company, and took that upon myself.

How did you find the movement from meeting the meetings? Did you have a lot of impromptu meetings, or were you on a schedule?

Jared Yanis: I had a light schedule. I scheduled about depending on the day three to five meetings because I wasn't sure what to expect this year. In previous years, you are always late. It was a running joke, everybody's late for their meetings because you got to push through the sea of people. I was on time for everything which allowed me to make a few impromptu stops.

Rob Pincus: I don't know if you have any direct connections or friends over at an NSSF, the National Shooting Sports Foundation that runs the SHOT Show. If you do, have you said anything to them about your feedback? If you haven't if you were to give them some feedback, what would you tell them?

Jared Yanis: I know a couple of folks, but not really intimately. What I would tell them is I like the fact that it was spread out this year. Where there used to be things congested there were places to sit and, take a load off and rest your feet for a little bit.

I did like the expansion across the way to the Caesars forum. I'd tell them to focus on, whatever their plan of attack was this year, it worked out well, and anticipate probably 10% to 15% more people coming next year, depending on if this pandemic ever ends. I think what they did worked this year. Keep with it. I wasn't really a big fan of 80,000 people pushing through the sea but it is what it is. The SHOT Show is the biggest of it's kind for a reason. Whatever they did this year worked well.

Rob Pincus: I agree. First of all, I've told them all. Again, thank SHOT Show organizers and thank NSSF for putting it on, for making sure that it happened with minimal restrictions and just making sure that SHOT Show went forward and the industry was able to get together. Obviously thanks to all the attendees, the people that exhibited, obviously. One of the things that I talked to the exhibitors a lot by day four, day three, day four about was-- because obviously there's a financial issue. When you go from 70,000 people to less than 30,000 people, I think maybe it was 40,000 showing up or registering, there's a big financial hit plus the expansion it means there's probably a higher overhead. How do you balance that out?

Almost universally, the exhibitors said, "I would pay 10%, more, 12% more to keep the attendance lower, to make it harder for people to get in." This is something that I know a lot of us, that are SHOT Show veterans have said for a decade is there's just too many people. It's hard to vet people and it's hard to say no, but it is at the end of the day, not the world's biggest gun show, it's a business-to-business event. Have you been to NASGW or to IWA the European Version of SHOT Show?

Jared Yanis: I have not. I haven't been that lucky yet.

Rob Pincus: This show felt more like those and the people who go to all three of those shows are pretty universally. This show, you mentioned it felt like Friday. For people that don't know, day four has traditionally been a very slow day relative to especially days one and two at SHOT Show which I always find interesting because a lot of people it's a vacation. It's like I'm going to stay for the weekend.

What ends up happening is, traditionally, I think a lot of the business people, people that are only there to do business, they show up day one, day two, and I've always said, "Fly in on Thursday, man. Let the regional sales rep handle the guy with the RSR card that wants a different shade of brown. You fly in on Thursday and do business. Do business. Friday's a slower day. NASGW, the National Association of Sporting Wholesaler, their show is always "slow" show but it's quality interactions.

The IWA show in Nuremberg is harder to get into. It's a little more controlled and it's also a little bit smaller and slower more European kind of vibe and pace, the meetings are more relaxed. This year felt like that and I think a lot of good business got done. Let's switch to what people normally do after SHOT Show. What were you excited about? What did you see that was cool?

Jared Yanis: There were quite a few cool products. I really liked the new-- The Rival series by Canik I really really liked that gun. Canik for an affordable gun, out of the box one of the best triggers in the game and they even outdid themselves with this competition-ready gun, that was pretty cool to see. I like that Franklin Armory was pushing the envelope again with the binary trigger for the Glock.

I really enjoyed industry day at the range, got to shoot the 8.6 blackout that Q & Faxon worked together on. There's a lot of good stuff coming from that angle. I don't know if you got to talk to either one of those groups, but there's some cool stuff coming out about that.

Just to see people continue with the push the envelope to better new technologies and implement them into our arms. You got the new Hi-power resurgence back out there which is good to see. It was good stuff. It would have been nice to see some of the big dogs that weren't there but most of those companies put their stuff out in advance anyway on socials and stuff. It was a good year this year, there's a lot of new stuff.

Rob Pincus: I think the binary trigger is neat. I haven't shot it so you tell me but as an instructor, I worry a little bit about the novelty and excitement leading to potential safety issues with that we'll see. I think binary trigger on a rifle you have four points of contact, the gun moves less on that first shot and then you let go. I guess I'm skeptical on that one, it sounds cool. I think you and I would have fun with it. I worry about it being on the rental range with a guy who's shooting for the third time-

Jared Yanis: Yes, definitely.

Rob Pincus: -saying, "Hey, check this out." What else did you mention The Rival, Canik's really done so much and I'm going to be doing a lot more with them this year. I've done a couple little things with them with their original guns, the TP9 and then the METE last year and I'm really excited about that rival and I think we're going to have some fun with a rivalry push that they're doing. I think it's going to be cool to watch what happens on social media.

What else did you say? Oh, the Browning Hi-power, I think it's neat, but I think it's-- what I don't want to see is now next year, the custom carry version, let it be cool, let it be fun, let it be an add novelty in addition to your collection that you thought you might never put in your collection, but if we go back to the single action or the-- We had a big resurgence in single double last year - the last five years.

We started seeing people carrying a gun that the Beretta 92 that most of us thought was dead forever and then it came back and was made cool again, and you get a lot of new students who come out to the range, like, "I got this, I spent $1,500 on it. It's really cool." It's like, yes, that $600 Striker-Fired gun is going to serve you better. As a collectible, it's definitely cool.

You mentioned at the end there, you talked about the big dogs. Here's my theory on that and you got to it there at the end, when you said, they release all their stuff year-round. Like everybody knows what they're doing, they have their relay. I'll go further and say they have their relationships with the retailers, they have their relationships with the wholesalers or distributors, they have their relationships with major media and influencers and TV shows and magazines, like all those things already exist.

For me what I've noticed, I was super excited. I used to go to the big Glock parties and all that stuff, super excited back in the late 90s, early 2000s to go see what SIG or H&K or Smith and Wesson was coming out with. I got to say, now I already know. It's very, very rare for most of the people who are really doing the business of the industry, not to already be tied into those big companies in any way that they need to be.

For me by not having Springfield Armory there, by not having SIG there, by not having Beretta Benelli there, it actually gave me back some time that I would have used. I would have stopped in SIG and seen some of the people I know and touch the latest color 365 or whatever. I would have gone to Springfield Armory and obviously, I worked with those guys for years and Latham and I would have done a funny YouTube video or Instagram Live or something like we would have hung out. Dustin would have been there.

At the end of the day, it would have been three to four or five hours of my SHOT Show life that really wasn't business, it was just good old friends getting back together and there's better places to do that, I think and this year showed it. I don't know if that means SIG never comes back or if it means SIG has a 20 by 20 with business rooms to do meetings, but they don't need to display. What are your thoughts on that? What's your advice to a big company that doesn't need SHOT? Should they still spend a million dollars to bring all the staff and the 80 by 80, what do you think?

Jared Yanis: Well, I guess as a business decision, no, especially as companies, like the last couple years, say has received more military contracts so they're not necessarily looking to push as hard as they might have had to in five, six, seven years ago. I guess it's a delicate balance for them, you don't want to alienate the market, but at the same time, like you said, you really don't need SHOT.

I think with the last couple of years of the way the world has been locked down and stuff like that, I know there's a lot of questions that a lot of people were asking about while we were at SHOT, like is the big convention on its way out? They see a lot of smaller events pop up around the country and that's a thing that I want to look further into it. Is the big convention a dying breed?

I don't know, I guess we have to see what next year brings. If next year only has 25,000-30,000 people and there's more vendors that don't go, I think the writing might be on the wall, but I don't know, I guess it's a big company, you might not have to go there all the time.

Rob Pincus: You might not have to and maybe it's more of a specialty or a niche thing. Think about it like SIG, bro, you mentioned Media Day at the range SIG broke away from the industry day and started running their own range a few years ago. Maybe there is a SIG event in New Hampshire that they bring everybody they want to do business with.

If you're a new YouTuber and you're not a new podcaster, you want to go up there and meet with the guys, shake some hands, you buy a pass and you show up, maybe that's how the bigger companies do it and free something like SHOT show up for business development, for SHOT Show for NSSF to encourage the medium companies and the small companies to reach to those next levels. Listen, man, any other thoughts on SHOT. I really appreciate it. You're only the second guest on The Rob Pincus Podcast.

Jared Yanis: Thank you. That's humbling. Thank you very much.

Rob Pincus: I really appreciate it and I mean it. To me I knew you hadn't been to 20 SHOT shows and I thought your insight here would be interesting for people to hear because again, you are trusted, respected and incredibly well known. You can play humble, Guns and Gadgets. If anybody isn't subscribed and following and liking Guns and Gadgets, you got to tune in to Jared.

You're really good about two o'clock in the afternoon, the ATF does something like just stop everything, point the camera at yourself and put that update out there. For news, breaking events, gun rights, gun information, guns and gadgets, that's the place to be. Any other thoughts on the SHOT Show you want to close with?

Jared Yanis: It was good this year. I like the environment. I really liked the atmosphere this year and if they can-- for everybody involved, they can just match that and stay with it. I think it would benefit SHOT Show going forward to have more of an intimate environment, it was a nice change.

Rob Pincus: Absolutely. Thanks a lot. Those of you who are listening to The Rob Pincus Podcast, maybe Jared shared this with his massive audience and you're listening for the first time, hit the Subscribe, Share it yourself. We're going to cover-- generally, our topics are going to be training topics, we're going to do one segment and then the other side of the show, we're going to do politics and/or gun rights segments and we just started it this year. It's been an exciting project.

[music]

Producer Jeff Ott reached out to me at the end of 2021 and said, "Hey, Rob, I think you should be doing this. You have stuff you want to talk about. People might want to hear what you have to say let's do a podcast. " That's what we're doing. We're bringing your training information. We are bringing you the politics, we're bringing you the gun rights and every once in a while we'll do special reports like this. Jared, thank you for being part of our SHOT Show 2022.

Jared Yanis: Thanks, brother. My pleasure.

[music]

[00:18:43] [END OF AUDIO]