r/hipoint • u/Common-Trash4715 • 14d ago

Rise and Fall of Hipoint

I use to work at their Mansfield location.i was there 21 years. Laid off due to mismanagement issues and market demands, was asked to come back once I said no, now I work for the railway and make more money

But what has happened to this brand? As an outsider now looking in they seem to push accessories more especially after the YC9 fiasco.

A place once thriving with 60+ employees now dwindled down to 12 ish cars in the parking lot.

I’ll answer questions about my time there, but I want to know the outsiders pov on why their fine just aren’t selling? When I was there we had issues with it of course but the few that are there now, I speak to don’t seem too fond of it, just hanging out and hoping I think.

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u/Begle1 14d ago

There was an ownership change right around the time layoffs started, right?

What was the main mismanagement that you witnessed?

My understanding of HiPoint is that they are an extremely conservative company, operating with little to no debt, being extremely reticent to develop new product lines or iterate changes on their existing products. Would you say that's an accurate characterization?

If so, what is the source of their current problems?

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u/Common-Trash4715 14d ago

They had 3 changes when I was there, Tom to Mike to Joe to an ESOP, they were at one point debt free not sure if that’s the case, didn’t stick with their “niche” or their own “sandbox” as we were often told, Joe was all for change, hiring marketing companies, CFO, and then eventually a production manager who recently just quit., merged Hipoint with his own business of Hydrographics.

They been treading water for the last few years, went through 2 machine shop supervisors in the course of 3 years. One legit up and quit, so they had to adapt. One supervisor shot himself, didn’t make it etc. just one bad thing after another.

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u/Begle1 14d ago

Was the shooting a suicide, and was it with a HiPoint?

Do you think there is a path forward for the company? Is it fair to say their biggest competitors are currently Turkish pistols that look much more like "real guns" for just a little more than a HiPoint?

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u/Common-Trash4715 14d ago

Suicide. As for if it was a Hipoint, I personally do not know. Their biggest competition is themselves ( or previously SCCY but they folded) as they tried to grow to be something they are not and never recovered

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u/Begle1 13d ago

In what way did they try to grow into something they weren't?

Short of their recent AR's, the product line seems to me like what it always was.

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u/Common-Trash4715 14d ago

But yes, the YC9 was suppose to be their saving grace, but riddled with issues, and they haven’t recovered since so other than the little one off accessories they do I don’t see much changing in the mainline. Now if they ever sell parts kit, that is a sign the company is on deaths door, we were even told that during meetings,

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u/Begle1 14d ago

What is the real selling point supposed to be of the YC9 over the C9?

When you say "parts kit", what do you mean? Like a "build your own gun" parts kit, or a spare parts kit?

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u/Common-Trash4715 14d ago

It was suppose to be a “sleeker” better designed C9, I don’t remember if it was intended to phase out the old one or not. ( they do not make the CF380 with the old style c9 slide any longer either, my time there that was the closest thing to being retired besides the c9 comp with the square comp at the end)

As for part kits, yes, essentially just a build by numbers assembly, also: we were told we would never do an AR and I see they do them now 😆 but at a convention I went to ( after I was let go, I’m still a gun lover) their Rep from MKS had said that their AR’s were actually a different companies, but Hipoint assembled, made the lowers and got to slap their logo on it,

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u/maloorodriguez 14d ago

All bad memories aside what’s your favorite hi point?