The Fox and the Henhouse

The fox has been guarding this particular henhouse since 2004, when Amor Holdings, then owner of Safariland, bought Bianchi Leather for U$60 million (and sold originally by JB for just U$10.5 million about 15 years prior). At some point, then, Bianchi became merely a brand within Safariland (the overarching conglomerate of that name, not just the LEO equipment company) and that is well established today. Bianchi's new-since-2021 site:

Think about it. After the purchase, ANY leather holster sale by Bianchi became a not-a-polymer-holster sale for Safariland, which is the division that refined and promulgated the Kydex police holsters of the late 20th century beginning about 1985. When one works towards a marketing degree, one learns that one way to eliminate the competition is to absorb it, then close it. Or take a license, then shelve it.

The site:

https://bianchileather.com/collections/old-tuscany-holsters .

Look around, plenty of room, but nothing to see.

Only recently I discovered that Safariland has well and truly castrated the old Bianchi Leather brand. Even its logo is no longer the well-recognised Bianchi Star, but instead some kind of 'peace man' abstract symbol. One day in the future, young people will debate (on the future equivalent of the internet) about the logo's true meaning and origin, just as we have done for a hundred years about the 'whirling logs' Navajo symbol that is the opposite orientation of the swastika.

There's nothing left of the Bianchi Leather company that was acquired, what, 20 years ago? These pages on the 'new' site show that all but three or four of the original designs are GONE, with new ones straight out of a hobbyist's portfolio. But this company was the King of Gunleather (my exclamation point key doesn't work, or there w/b many of them here) when Armor Holdings bought it.

Gotta be great news for the gunleather companies that I helped survive the industry consolidation of the 1990s. Now that Aker (one of these companies) has been sold to a third party that owns/operates other gunleather companies, too, that leaves only DeSantis Leather to battle for the title. And Gene, like me, isn't getting any younger. Aker's widow recently sold his old company and whatever it was, it won't be for long. Tiny ops like Kramer and Sparks don't count because their small size makes them mere footsoldiers.

In the future, you'll see more of the junk that I see today on the Bianchi site, because the youngies hired to be its project managers, etc, won't know any better.

Proof that they couldn't do better if they tried, because they TRIED:

Keep looking through their site. Shoulder holsters are 'alternate carry'? Sure, if you don't know what 'carry' is.

I'm just realising that I unintentionally preserved all the worthwhile Bianchi designs of the '60s-90s in Holstory III. Not available in book stores soon :-), online only.

At the top of every page of my website, is a link leading to my book with John Witty that is "Holstory - Gunleather of the 20th Century - The Third Edition" that now features the original book as its core, and is now buttressed by an all-new Prologue that is about the late 19th century's contributions to American gunleatherr, and an all-new Epilogue that features the 50 years of my personal contributions to innovations for many companies 1970-2020.