A bit of a long read but an interesting one as Brian Holts writes about the future of airsoft in this latest Team Blacksheep blogpost... "Is Airsoft dying? That is the question for the last couple years you hear in forums which are dead and facebook groups. Airsoft is not dead but it is not in the same shape it was several years ago. The golden years were when the Chinese guns came in, high-end guns were elevated even more and there were players and fields everywhere. The landscape of Airsoft has dwindled but it is not “dead” by any means when you look at it as a whole. In the US the scene has cooled down but in Europe and Asia it is very popular and growing and do not forget South America like Brazil and Argentina which is just starting as of 3 years ago to go mainstream.

Looking at the US scene and asking stores they will say it is hard for sales but they are only relaying the message they see but doing very little to fix it. Being reactive and not proactive results in failure for the future. In the sport or industry of Airsoft we have the Players, Stores/Brands and Fields as the key aspects. If the players are bored they will not buy or play. The stores and brands are always releasing new products and trying to connect with the players and get their hard earned money. The fields are growing and shrinking in the industry, a perfect example will be Lions Claws and Milsim West. Lions Claws “milsim” was around for years and the players got bored of the same gameplay they have on the weekends at the local parks and then Milsim West showed up and gave the players something new and immersive. The players saw the need to go to Milsim West events and their money is going there and not the Lion Claws events and now the Airsoft scene has one main venue.

Now when we look at the stores and brands on how they are trying to connect with the players and build that same need to get them off the couch and out in the stores spending their money."

Read the full story here.