Update on ShotStop Body Armor

I’ve had many inquiries concerning ShotStop body armor. I don’t have anything definitive at this stage but I can tell you what I know.

ShotStop was raided a while back. Apparently it was the owner, Val Iliev, that was specifically raided. Nobody has said anything since the raid, and much of what we know can be classified as rumor. Since that time, ShotStop has filed for bankruptcy. It is understandable that Val has filed for bankruptcy, given lawfare, loss of sales, attorney fees etc.

There is a rumor that the raid was concerning a shipping container that contained plates that were made in China. That may correlate with the fact that during COVID, ShotStop didn’t have any issues with filling demand for plates with the supply of raw materials. So maybe there is truth to that rumor?

There is another rumor that there will be no charges filed against Val Iliev. So how does that happen if there was no crime? It occurs to me that this may be to to do with items being ‘berry compliant’ in terms of being sold to the US Government i.e. they have to be made in the USA? We have absolutely no idea about this shipping container nor it’s purpose. Were these plates being tested by ShotStop? There is no crime in having this shipping container nor the items contained therein. The issue may pertain to how they were allegedly being used or sold? But again, no charges?

Either way, ShotStop is gone.

If there were claims that the plates were made in the USA, and they were in fact not, or not recently at least (COVID?), then this is bad news. It is dishonest.

Mainly the question I get concerns the veracity of the plates. The question I will ask is: if some of the more recent plates were made in China, do we know if any of them were sub-standard? I continue to wear the ShotStop plates, my family is equipped with them, and the students I know who have bought the plates still have faith in them. I have personally tested the plates and they all performed better than advertised.

Since the raid, the rumor mill spun up, and panic ensued. Many of the Law Enforcement agencies that had purchased the plates started doing testing, and all of the plates they tested performed better than advertised. I know an individual close to the company who had a relationship with some of the guys that worked there, and he would receive plates that were right off the sales line, i.e. not sent specifically to him for testing, and he would test them and they all performed better than advertised. He is even in the market looking for ShotStop plates that people are now selling, in order to buy them up!

So it appears that ShotStop may have been doing something dishonest, which I am not convinced of given lack of evidence, but we are still certain that the plates that are out there are up to standard and will perform better than advertised.

Honestly, I’m not even sure this wasn’t some sort of potential commercial sabotage given how good the ShotStop plates are, whether from competition, the USG (selling these to civilian’s / lawfare?) or from disgruntled former employees. There have always been rumors and bad information out there about these ShotStop plates. For example there is a rumor that the plates don’t afford full coverage i.e. a 10 x 12 plate isn’t in fact providing 10 x 12 coverage, and that there is a foam strip around the outside of the plates.

This is specifically a rumor about the Green Tip GT2 plates, the same ones that I have for myself and my family. These plates are great. The truth is this: In order to achieve Green Tip stopping ability, you have a level 3 plate that affords full 10 x 12 coverage. This is the base of the plate. On top of that you have the part that is there to defeat the penetration of the green tip. That is made up of small HEXAGONAL pieces. Because these small hexagonal pieces do not always fit round the edge of a flat sided 10 x 12 plate, there are places where they don’t fit right to the edge. Those small spaces are filled with foam to make the plate front smooth. This is the sort of misinformation that has been put about by ShotStop detractors.

It’s bad that after all this time, we still don’t know why ShotStop was raided. We don’t know if there is any truth about the shipping container from China, or how the contents were being used. We have also heard that Val is not getting charged, but has still filed for bankruptcy. What we do know is that we still have faith in the ShotStop plates that many of us have, and we still run them in our gear.