The Newest Body Armor Excels At Saving Lives; Fast-Growing Company Employs 1,800

Posted on December 12, 2014

“Alright, everybody,” said Michael Foreman, “Let’s get everybody up here for a picture.” There on a makeshift stage, eight police officers, SWAT officers and Secret Service agents line up for the cameras. Out of uniform, they look like regular guys.

Foreman calls for the employees, all 1,800 of them in the room, to make way for the wives.

And they came, all smiles, with their cameras to shoot photos of their husbands. But these women were not the first to shoot these officers, including a K-9 officer who did not attend.

The men were standing on the stage because they had already been shot with bullets in the line of duty. And they all survived. They had all been wearing the body armor produced by Point Blank Enterprises, Inc., 2102 SW 2 St., one of the newest businesses to open headquarters in Pompano Beach.

Point Blank officials wanted the officers to come face-to-face with the men and women who had made their vests. Many of these workers had tears as they listened to each officer say thanks.

“Because of my vest, I went home to my wife and children,” more than one officer said. Timothy Moore, SWAT, was shot earlier this year.

Says Moore, “My partner and I were serving a warrant on a man who was wanted in a shooting. I was the rammer. I needed both hands to ram the door open. As soon as it opened, the man in the room shot me. My partner took aim right over my shoulder and brought him down. It all happened in about four seconds.”

Greg Smith, a Houston police officer, came on behalf of his K-9 partner, “Gunner.” Gunner’s body armor saved him from being stabbed twice. Smith holds the vest worn by Gunner and points out two marks where the attacker had made his attempts. Says Smith, “Not a scratch on Gunner, and he saved my life.”

Foreman, Point Blank vice president of international development, enjoys the fact that he can tell his employees that their work is saving lives every day.

“We are the largest body armor company in the world,” he says. “And we are an American company.”

And the vests evolve as technology advances. Each time a new version is created, two years of testing is required before the prototype is approved.

Law enforcement vests are approved by the National Institute of Justice, and military vest are approved by Fist Article Testing. Once approved for production, each vest travels through six separate stages of assembly with each stage tested along the way.

New science continues to make vests stronger and lighter. The most recent innovation now in use came with the introduction of Dyneema® Force Multiplier Technology, outpacing all other materials in the field. Other vest components include Dupont’s Kevlar and Honeywell’s Spectra Shield. “With this latest breakthrough, Point Blank has developed the Alpha Elite vest that is 25 percent lighter and 31 percent thinner. It is the highest performing body armor in history,” Foreman said.

The business is already outgrowing its 107,000 square-foot building. Despite making 44,000 vests every month, they continue to fill back orders.

Point Blank, now the primary supplier for the U.S. military. recently leased two additional buildings in the same Atlantic Business Center.

When asked if vests can be used more than once, Foreman says the company always replaces vests that have been in a shooting with a new one, free of charge.