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Jennifer Silverman (Pinokio Hoppers): It’s hard to tell what the next
“big” thing in paintball will be, because the contraction in our market
and industry from 2008 until recently dealt a major blow to many companies, big and small, and to our entire industry. Paintball was once a
game of innovation and the “next big thing.” I wasn’t around for much
of that but my husband, Josh Silverman, was and has helped me understand. More recently companies of all sizes are focusing on keeping
product selling and doing the best they can, rather than trying to find
that next big technological leap like the Shocker or Angel once was, the
Automag and Autococker once were, and compressed air, big CO2 bottles, semis and pumps were before that. It seems to me that lately companies like Eclipse,
Dye, KEE and other major players are more focused on refining what everyone already
knows works, rather than taking a big monetary risk on a major new piece of paintball
technology.
That’s good in some ways but causes stagnation in the forward progression of the technology that powers our game. Also, paintball on the competitive level still has too many
big leagues and is continually altering and tweaking its format - we are a young game and
industry, and we’re still trying to find what works best to move paintball into the future.
Maybe the next big thing SHOULD be for all of us to figure out how to work together to
grow the game? In the mean-time, I think the next big thing may come from the small
companies or talented, heart-driven innovators like Simon Stevens at Inception. Small
companies like his, and for that matter ours, have to take bigger chances in order to make
it big in this game.
Sergio Aguilar (D3FY Sports): Any technology advancement in paintball
is either improving a current design by making the product tool-less, air
efficient, or battery conservative. However when it comes to changing
the game, it’s crucial to understand a players mind set and human mobility in order to design a product revolutionary that fits comfortably on the
player.
Brady Moritz (Deadlywind): Likely more parts that can be user-custom-
ized and 3d printed. We’re not sure what 3d printing is, but it seems to
be a hot buzzword and we love buzzwords. We suspect the balls will not
be printable for a while though. But honestly, we’ve been so busy the last
year, we really need to take some time to assess the industry to get a better answer for this question.
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