English
The IWA Ourdoor Classic has been the leading international trade fair for everything to do with hunting, shooting sports and outdoor equipment for the civilian and official market for years. We were your guests this year and took a closer look at the area that is particularly interesting for our sport. Numerous exhibitors from the paintball and airsoft industry were represented in Hall 6 and presented their range and also one or the other new product.
The IWA Outdoor Classics trade fair is definitely an integral part of the diary of everyone who has to do with paintball or airsoft in a commercial context in Germany. – Yes, exactly, in a commercial context. The reason is that the IWA is unfortunately only a trade fair for trade visitors. This means that without a trade license for the arms trade or an official ID from the police or army, you can't even get into the hallowed halls of the Nuremberg exhibition center. Year after year, around 50,000 people from the German and international retail sector meet here on the three days of the fair from Friday to Sunday to maintain personal contacts or to examine the latest products for the coming year.
As Paintball Sports, we were there for the first time as an exhibitor this year and presented some of our distribution brands at our stand. At the same time, we took the opportunity to look around the halls of the IWA to look for new, interesting products for you. First of all, it has to be said that the IWA is essentially about hunting and sporting guns, as well as outdoor equipment and security needs. However, paintball and airsoft have increasingly come into focus in recent years and are now perceived and accepted by other market participants as an independent, established industry. – Even if it has little in common with the real weapons that are presented at most stands in the halls. In order to give our sport its own lobby and probably also so that the paintballers can keep to themselves, the paintball and airsoft dealers have been housed in the so-called hall 8 in the past few years. That has changed this year due to the Corona situation, fortunately from our point of view. Due to the absence of numerous exhibitors from outside Europe, some areas in the halls unfortunately remained empty. The airsoft market in particular has many brand manufacturers in the Far East such as China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Unfortunately, these exhibitors could not be there in 2022. Paintballers and airsoft players moved a little closer together and were quickly relocated to the much larger and more centrally located Hall 6. This not only meant more attention for our industry but also more customer traffic that was better bundled. In the past, you had to make a conscious decision to walk the long way to Hall 8 at the end of the site. Today you inevitably pass the stands in Hall 6 and it is practically impossible to miss them. As I said, for the industry and for us as exhibitors, Corona was finally of some use in this case.
But enough of the preliminary banter and back to our tour of the fair, the exhibitors and their products. Let's start directly with our neighbors. Tactical Game Innovations, or Taginn for short, is right next to our paintball sports booth. These guys from Russia around owner Mark Butman currently produce the highest quality paintball and airsoft grenades on the market. Since we have been working very closely with the guys as the German exclusive distributor for Taginn products for years, we asked the trade fair in advance to place our stands as close together as possible. – It worked, you can’t get any closer.
This year Taginn shows us the new version of the ML-36 grenade launcher in the HPA version. The new variant can only be played with HP and comes standard with an air system and all the necessary attachments. Unfortunately, this model is still in a very lengthy and difficult testing and assessment phase by the authorities. Unfortunately, we cannot answer at this point when and if the ML-36 HPA will be available in Germany at all.
Another highlight at the Taginn stand was the Dominus mortar. This is now ready for series production and has been significantly modified compared to the originally announced prototype, which was operated with CO 2 as a means of pressure. Taginn now relies on a pyrotechnically driven projectile that, like normal fireworks, is shot out of the tube via a propellant charge. There are two different types of ammunition with different propellant charges. One provides a maximum range of 100 meters, the other even a range of up to 300 meters. With this, Taginn once again opens up the game for completely new, tactical possibilities.
Continue to the Umarex booth. This is a few halls down, since Umarex, as one of the big players in the scene, is active in almost all areas related to weapons. -But it's worth the journey. With its Walther label, the T4E Homedefense series and the license for Heckler & Koch airsoft guns, Umarex has the full range in stock. The stand is also one of the largest and most modern at the entire IWA. On site we find as a novelty eg the HDR68 revolver. This is a further development of the very popular Umarex HDR50 revolver, but in the larger 68 caliber for the "real" paintballs. In addition, Umarex presented a new semi-automatic shotgun. According to the manufacturer, both products will be available from May 2022 and can be pre-ordered now.
The last paintball exhibitor on site is the company Kore Outdoor, which most people probably know under the previous label GI Sports Europe. In addition to tried-and-tested products such as the Tippmann TMC product range, the Core colleagues also had the brand new V-Force Grill 2.0 mask with them. A high-end tournament mask of the latest generation that has long been awaited by the many V-Force fans in the scene. On the way back to Hall 6, we meet a few well-known colleagues at the Pepperball stand, namely the boys and girls from Paint Xtreme. The Pepperball brand belongs to First Strike – or rather the other way around. Pepperball mainly offers products for the home defense sector and authorities such as police and security services. PX Managing Director Lars Herzig proudly tells us at the booth that they have taken over the exclusive distribution for all of Europe with immediate effect and that the Pepperball brand also wants to expand further in this country. Sounds like a big, exciting project.
Unfortunately, that was it when it came to paintball at IWA 2022. The other exhibitors then have more to do with airsoft or tactical clothing. Definitely nice to look at, but unfortunately less for our readers. So we'll stop telling at this point and let the pictures speak for themselves.
That was our visit to the IWA Outdoor Classics fair. We hope for a much larger trade fair with more exhibitors and even more visitors in the coming year when Corona is finally over. Until then… Your Paintball Sports team
