Hey dudes to get this topic a little back on track. Let’s put some real numbers to the issue so that it might make it easier to understand what a buyer could be thinking when they go with a chinese product over an American made one. For the record I am prior service, and actually design products made from 100% American materials. But I totally get why the chinese have a lion share of the market.

For this thought experiment lets use the example I made earlier. Pretend you are a new shooter. You took good advice from the internet and went to your local shooting retailer and came home with a Colt 6920 and a Glock 19. You own absolutely nothing in the way of accessories, but you want to attend a few classes to learn how to use your new firearms and maybe even kit out for your end of the world larping furry games.

First lets kit out your carbine. Red dot, white light, sling. Simple.

China:
Holosun 403 $175
Streamlight HLX $140
Amazon rifle sling $27

total: $342

America
Trijicon MRO $450
Surefire M600 DF $270
Magpie MS1 $65

total: $ 785

China total: $342 vs American total of $785 means the chinese carbine kit is 43% of the cost of the American or $443 cheaper.

Now that our shooter has a decent carbine, lets pretend the next thing they did was purchase a set of magazines for their carbine and handgun. Next step is load bearing gear to hold those magazines. Oh might as well make that a plate carrier because our new shooter doesn’t want to die. So now let us look at the price difference between American and Chinese Nylon.

American
My own companies PC $300
Shotstop GT2 plates x2 $1040

Chinese
My closest chinese competitor $80
Botach lvl 3+ plates x2 $260

Here we show the total for the chinese kit is $340 against the American kit at $1340. A full one thousand dollars more expensive. So far just between the plate carrier and carbine accessories we have almost saved our new shooter $1500. To the average working man that is a significant amount of money saved. It will either lower the barrier of entry allowing more American men to fully appreciate the 2A, or the savings might even be used for further exploring the 2A.