Airsoft replicas. It’s in the words that define most anything we may use in the hobby. Replica guns, replica gear, replica optics, replica uniform and so on. How do you draw the line on anger of a replica issue in a world in which everything is rooted in clones or knock offs? When does it make sense to be upset and when is it just an acceptable norm? No one is innocent and everyone has fed the clone/knockoff industry. So we need to find a line that’s logical given the reality of the world we live in. Straight idealism without realism is not the answer to a complicated situation in the hobby.

Before we can find the right middle ground or threshold for where we should truly be upset we need to admit the truth about ourselves. We all have to admit to ourselves that we have or still buy knock offs. We have to admit we prefer cheaper when it’s convenient to us getting what we want. To pretend like that hasn’t been part of our player history is to ignore that the problem starts at the consumer that drives any market. We create the demand that results in the knock offs and unlicensed clones, and when money is tight we are grateful for. Or even when we have the money airsoft is a hobby and the expense of the real deal product isn’t justified for the weekend BB slinging.

Here’s where we have to face a reality about how we spend. A clone or a knock off isn’t just a choice made by the new player short on funds. It’s a choice on where your disposable income goes in relation to the importance to the hobby. We will buy knock offs or clones all day long of something like EOtechs and not bat and eye lash over it. EOtech aggressively goes after those selling these replicas but players still buy them from any source they can find. The more realistic the better even as EOtech fights the dangers of these replicas in the market. Yet, there is no outrage anywhere in the airsoft community.

Why?

EOtech may be an American made product, it may employ American workers and is by far the better product over any replica made of it. The problem is that it’s just not a practical purchase for airsofters in general. It is a small minority that uses them for airsoft and those that do are mostly doing it as a status symbol. For most people the expense of an optic that may cost two or three times more than the gun it’s on just doesn’t compute. So in comes the market demand for a cheap replica that looks the part and does the job for airsoft. Now are airsofters destroying EOtech by buying these replicas and not the real thing. The answer is obviously no and that airsofters aren’t EOtech’s target market. Replicas are dangerous to EOtech when people try to sell them to real steel shooters passing them off as real units. So that’s an example of how replicas or clones themselves aren’t the problem and buying them is in certain cases completely logical. Should real companies look for their share of the pie and license more products? Sure, it’s a capitalist market in which you should work to make more money whenever possible. If you can’t beat the replica/clone market, take advantage and profit from the game.

EOtech is one example within a very expensive industry, the consumer demands an alternative that will force the creation of clones. Airsofters that get angry over a soft stance on clones or replicas often forget that we by far are not the intended end user of the expensive real gear we buy. Airsofters are the ancillary business that would not ruin a company to lose. Crye Precision, LBT, AimPoint, Colt or EOtech won’t go out of business if the hobby disappears tomorrow. The replicas created aren’t eating into the market share represented by airsofters. It’s a threat of a very different kind when they are passed off as the real deal. But that’s not the argument or conversation the community is having right now.

Odin Innovations and companies like it are a direct product of the hobby and count solely on the hobby for its sustainment. We need to divorce the conversation a bit away from the idea that all replicas or clones are bad. They have a very logical place in the economics of the hobby. Spend less on gear, have more money to play and keep the community alive. Playing less because you can’t afford to travel to an event after blowing all your money on Crye didn’t help the hobby. It just gave you something to look good in as you walk around your house poor. The line comes at the products that are a creation of the hobby for the hobby. We have to be realistic in this view of clones/ replicas in order to know how to correctly pick our battles and direct the conversation positively without just calling everyone a hypocrite.

I own an Odin Innovation speed loader and think it’s a great product. I own replica optics like the EOtech and replica flashlights like Surefire produces. I also own real EOtechs and real Surefires I use on my real guns. To me replicas have a logical place in the economics of my hobby. I feel no issue being outraged with what’s happening to Odin Innovation because it has its place in the hobby and nowhere else. There is the line and one that makes sense to the greater picture. When an industry eats its own it’s as many have said kills the potential for others to rise up and create for the hobby. Arguing over to buy clones/knockoffs of not to buy them is the wrong argument. Clones/knockoffs have a place in the hobby that can’t go away. We can choose to spend our money on quality and support the original design. But with the removal of clones/knockoffs so goes the hobby itself.

Photo: Some of the M12 Sidewinder Clones under different names.

The argument should be one of Odin Innovation a small company bringing a niche market, a niche product that it needs. Now here comes a company in the same space killing the original designer in its actions. The line is drawn in the consequences for the original designer by having the product design copied. Valken did not produce the clone Odin Speed loader, they are just selling it. They are being hammered so hard publicly because of a bad reputation and because it’s seen as a big company trying to smash a small company. This isn’t about to clone or not to clone but do we allow the destruction of a small company that only really caters to airsoft by a company that could choose to support others in its niche but doesn’t. Pushing out the competition with its own design is a low we shouldn’t tolerate. We can and should continue to vote with our wallet. That is how change is made in a free market capitalist economy. We can’t pretend to be outraged over clones/knockoffs like they are the devil but forget it’s the drug airsoft won’t ever quit. Focus your energy on where your dollar goes and if you do that the steam will correct itself in support of the original designers of key products needed for the hobby produced by those in the hobby. It makes all the difference to remember that when deciding when and where to be outraged about in the industry of airsoft products.

Javier “Darkhorse”
One Grunt’s Opinion

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About The Author

Javier "Darkhorse" Franco, formerly from This Week In Airsoft, runs his own Airsoft Blog on Facebook called "One Grunt's Opinion." This article has been posted here as contributed by the the author.