Weekly Newsletter ft. Rob Moore of Kinetic Paintball
MacDev DROID Returns! Free Flow Open Results, Video: AustinSlaysTV, Salty Future Photos
This week, MacDev Paintball unveiled the DRD (Droid). Coming in at just $874.95, the Droid boasts many modern high-end features in a mid-range price package. I have always been a fan of the MacDev markers and their platforms. Personally, I feel that they always make some really comfortable and fun markers to shoot. It’s awesome to see the Droid name return to their lineup. I will be getting my hands on one very soon to review for this newsletter.
Hired Guns Paintball LLC has hopped on board as the first sponsor of the newsletter!
The guys at Hired Guns Paintball produce some really cool JT ears, soft goods, and they even have rash guards for BJJ as well.
Visit their website here: Hired Guns PB
Use code: BRANDONOLSON for 10% off your order
The Free Flow Open 5-Man took place this weekend at All Out Paintball! This has been the must-play 5-man mech/classic event over the last few years with event organizers giving out elite prize packages for the podium placing teams. Here are the results:
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Overshot Factory
One Fine Sandwich
715 Paintball has also decided to sponsor the newsletter! This small Wisconsin company is dedicated to providing great products for the local community. They have hooked up readers of the newsletter with a 15% off discount code. Use code PBDIRT15 at checkout to redeem to get 15% off your order. Check them out at 715paintball.com
I really enjoy featuring paintball videos that are a bit different from the standard 10.5 BPS NXL X-Ball. For this week, I’m including this video from AustinSlaysTV on YouTube from an AZ streetball event. I love seeing the higher rates of fire. Watch here:
A really cool creator that I talked to this week has contributed a few cool photos this week for the newsletter. Check out saltyfuture on IG to follow along with Mars Puglisi and their photography adventure.
Q&A with Rob Moore of Kinetic Paintball
Who are the creatives involved in the Kinetic brand?
“Well we have 2 creatives really. Ken Holmboe, our CTO and head of product design. He is the man behind the curtain coming up with ideas on how to improve our existing designs and development of new products. Ken likes to find holes in the industry's soft goods market that are either missing features or need a complete overhaul based on what is being done in other industries. The goal is to take proven technology and apply it towards paintball. "
Our other creative is Bryce Diaz, our videographer. He is an absolute rock star at what he does and has shot us to the moon on social media. When we first started working together we came together with the goal of trying to become the new cool brand on the block similar to what Cassidy Sanders and Quittman did for HK. The pair of them pushed HK into the position that they are in with teams and players wanting to wear their gear so they could be featured in a video. Bryce's natural talent is what caught our eye and we will continue to do whatever he needs to pump out some of the highest quality content possible.”
I first remember hearing about this brand in maybe 2017/2018 with the KP pants in the Agg or Not Facebook group at the time. Can you give me a brief history of the brand?
“We started the company in 2015 after our first sample that Ken made by hand was worn to NCPA nationals which is where I caught the bug and believed that we had something. It was me that got Ken to put his "money where his mouth was" and take a shot on building Kinetic. From the first sample came our guerilla marketing tactics. Go to as many fields as possible and get our pants in front of people so they would try it. You'd be shocked at how many events we would attend with samples in hand for players to try mid tournament. For the new guys on the block having an all black pant with no logos, our proof that we were the company that players want to be associated with is through trial runs and luckily it worked. We started off in the Mid-Atlantic area and then went on the road through NXL to be in a place where there was the most amount of players at one time to try to get our foot in the door across the country. Over time we have built up a team of ambassadors/reps across the country to speak the good word about Kinetic. Without their help, we wouldn't be anywhere we are today.
After we had solid ground on pants we knew that the next thing that needed an overhaul was the pack/harness. The current models are designed to break down over time using elastic forcing players in a position to rebuy gear sometimes multiple times mid season which we saw was an issue. Our internal motto is that players are investing in their equipment so we should be investing into products which brought us to our modular pack that is based on your typical gun belt and lifting belt. Take the ability to distribute weight, provide lumbar support, and a belt that will last at least one season if not more will put players in a position where they can focus their money on getting better instead of buying gear packages.
Lastly we started working auxiliary items like a custom jersey & lifestyle clothing, flex ears and even winter focused gear to play in. All items that target the needs of players to compete at all levels and comfortability. “
What are the core principles behind Kinetic and its products. How have they changed over the years?
“Become a leader in the soft goods market and develop products that solve issues. This has not changed over the years and we are actively listening to our teams and customers of the issues they find in our products. We can only create better products by listening to those that believe in the brand and put their trust in us by buying our goods.”
Is there a product in paintball that you guys feel needs to see major improvement on or needs a refresh?
“Pads and specifically base layers. The argument could be made for gear bags as well, but infamous is doing a solid job moving the needle there.”
You guys have been popular on social media with features and collabs. Are there any groups/individuals that you really want to work with?
“The list is long for media folks but to name a few are Fava, Soulless, Enrique, Verbhal, Quittman. We've been friends with all of them and have worked with some of them in the past but they all have their own specialties. We would love to work on specific styles of projects with each of them if we could.”
Uprising has been wearing some Kinetic gear as of late, how does it feel to see your gear on the pro field being worn by a team that has chosen to work with you?
“We never thought we would even get to this point really. This started off as a passion project that has turned into something much more. Internally we always knew that the pro division knew about us and had multiple pros tell friends or family members that played divisional to check us out and we were the "sponsor you wore when your real sponsor wasn't looking" for a long time. Partnering with Uprising helps provide legitimacy to our brand and we are grateful to be working with Jimmy Hickey and the Uprising Crew.”
What is the vision for Kinetic in the future?
“Continue to try to set the bar in terms of product development and customer service. If you haven't been to an NXL event in a while, you'll come to find that we never set up a booth. While some may say it hinders us, we have great retailer partners like Mazens to supply needs to our teams and customers while we wander around the event. It is important for us to go into the pits to see how our teams are doing and connect with them.”
I will be getting my hands on some of the Kinetic gear here in the next few weeks and will be doing in-depth reviews on some of their most popular products. I absolutely love seeing brands such as Kinetic pushing the boundaries of conventional paintball gear and always trying to improve.
Looking for real talk about paintball from players who live and breathe the game? The Maritime Paintball Podcast covers events, gear, and stories from every corner of the paintball world — live every Thursday at 8PM EST on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and 97.9FM CHSR Radio. Tune in and join the conversation! The guys have hopped on board as a sponsor of this newsletter and I couldn’t be more happy with the partnership.
Great interview with Kinetic. I had a sponsor recommend them when the sponsors pants were not working out for some of us.