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President's Message: Grit, Grind, and Grin

First of all, Happy New Year! I am thrilled to welcome the year 2021. I know for certain we have a lot of challenges and changes ahead, but I’m going to use all the grit I have to grind out a successful year, and when and where I struggle, I’ll grin and bear it.

I know you’ve all heard the saying from the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” Well, years ago (in 2008 to be exact), I received a calendar from a local charity that had these sorts of phrases on each daily calendar page. It was filled with inspirational quotes and sayings designed to keep you motivated throughout the year.

How do I know it was 2008? Because many quotes made an impact, so I tore the pages out and stuck them up on my desk. Over the years I’ve replaced some of them with others, but still today, I have a variety of these messages staring me in the face.

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FEATURED ARTICLES

NASGW Annual Dues are Past Due

Your Annual NASGW dues were due on December 31st. If you have yet to pay, please contact the NASGW Member Services Director, Kelly Kipping to make payment arrangements. NASGW made changes to how wholesalers dues are structured for 2021 so your bill may looked a little different this year. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to Kelly Kipping at staff@nasgw.org, or you may click below to visit the NASGW Member Portal to pay your dues.

Visit Member Portal

Join the Shooting Sports Showcase

Leaders of the Professional Outdoor Media Association, the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association, and the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers have partnered to host an industry-exclusive event at the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s Talladega Marksmanship Park in Talladega, AL, on March 8, 2021. The inaugural Shooting Sports Showcase is designed to give firearms industry representatives a day to showcase new products to members of the media, dealers, and wholesalers. Detailed information on facility layout and pricing can be found in the Event Prospectus. Please click HERE. To Register, click below.

Register Now

Steps to Exhibiting at the NASGW Expo

Those who have been in the shooting sports industry long enough have undoubtedly heard of NASGW and the Annual NASGW Expo. The Expo is the premier event for wholesalers and manufacturers to connect, discuss sales results from the current year, introduce new products, and plan sales for the upcoming year. It is an efficient week for manufacturers and wholesalers alike. They get a few days to meet with as many partners as possible, all in one location, and without the involvement of consumers or dealers, so it’s a very “focused” opportunity.

SHOT Show and the NRA show are great events, but they serve a different purpose. The Expo is all about getting business done. For many NASGW members, the Expo in mid-to-late October is their favorite show of the year because it’s both productive and laid back.

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SCAM ALERT: Expo Attendee Lists for Sale

The NASGW Expo is a great place to network and connect with decision-makers from around the Shooting Sports Industry. Attendees are typically a who's who of c-suite execs and top-level sales staff there to make decisions about product distribution for the upcoming year. They are the contacts you'd like to make, and if you've attended the NASGW Expo in the last five years, you've probably received an email or been approached about purchasing a list of Expo attendees. These offers are brought to the attention of NASGW each year, but be advised; these offers have no affiliation with NASGW or the actual list of Expo Attendees.

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Breaking Down the SCOPE Suite of Tools

The shooting sports industry’s leading data platform is about to get a whole lot better in 2021, and the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW) is excited to share some more details about what is to come. When the NASGW originally set out to create a data platform, the focus was on providing wholesale members a way to easily share reports with their manufacturing partners as well as a reporting tool for manufacturers to evaluate their performance against the rest of the industry. The more users and NASGW's development team dug into the data, the more everyone realized just how beneficial it could be.

Three years after the initial release of the SCOPE program, NASGW's data partnerships have grown and so has the suite of tools that fall under the SCOPE umbrella. Here’s a breakdown of the full SCOPE Suite from NASGW.

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Taking Stock of Record-Setting 2020

Twenty-one million. Let that number sink in for a moment.

That’s a very big number. If I told you at SHOT Show^® last year that the industry would see 21 million background checks for the sale of a firearm in 2020, you would have thought I was crazy. One year later and with the benefit of hindsight, this was truly a remarkable year for the industry across the board.

The final figures for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) put all of this year’s hard work into perspective. Twenty-one million background checks were conducted for the sale of a firearm over the past 12 months. That topped 2019’s totals of 13.2 million by 60 percent. It also shattered the previous record from 2016, when 15.7 million background checks were conducted for the sale of firearms. This year’s 21 million total surpassed 2016 by 5.3 million, or 34 percent.

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NAW Digital Wholesale Summit

In 2020, the global pandemic upended all of our lives and transformed the way we do business, America chose a new President, and NAW saw even bigger change, as we welcomed our first new CEO in 41 years. As we turn the page and enter 2021, NAW will host its first Digital Summit, an event focused on “Leading in a Time of Transition.”

Every moment of the NAW 2021 Digital Summit will be aimed at helping you lead through a time of transition. Here’s a sample of the content you’ll find:

Hear from some of the industry’s leading CEOs on how they pivoted their companies to respond to the pandemic and what they have planned for the year ahead
Learn how the turmoil of 2020 changed the industry in five important ways and what your business needs to do to stay competitive through 2-minute videos you can later share with your teams
Network with your peers and discuss issues impacting your business through our Discussion Roundtables
Understand what Joe Biden has planned just six days into his Presidency and how it could impact your business
Connect with speakers in the online greenroom or join our post-event digital chats to go deeper into topics and share your insights
And much more, including surprise content and speakers you’ll only experience if you attend the NAW Digital Summit!

Register

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

UPCOMING EVENTS

January 18-22, 2021 - ONLINE
SHOT Show On Demand
Online

March 12, 2021 - CANCELLED

IWA Outdoor Classic

Nuremberg, Germany

September 3-5, 2021

NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits

Houston, TX

October 27-29, 2021

NASGW Expo

Columbus, OH

National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW). and the individual authors of the materials contributed or referenced in InSight. Permission is granted for the broadcast, publication, retransmission to e-mail lists, websites or any other copying or storage, in any medium, online or not, of NASGW copyrighted material herein if 1) the text is forwarded in its entirety, including this paragraph, and 2) no fee is charged.

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