GeoBruin
Flashlight Enthusiast
In addition to CPF, I'm an active member of Reddit.com and I've recently realized that there is a modest but active flashlight board there. Recently one of the board's moderators was plugging a list of flashlight manufacturers they maintained for reference on the site and someone responded asking why Mag wasn't on the list. This was the mod's response:
I believe Mag-lite has done more harm to lighting than any other company in the existence of modern portable lighting. They have single-handedly held this industry back simply for the sake of easy profit, being the monopolistic company that they are. They intentionally stifled innovation year after year to keep making an extra buck off of you and me selling yesterday's "cheaper to make - old technology" at today's prices. After two decades or so of this, finally new "no name companies" like Fenix and FourSeven's grew from obscurity into the quality customer oriented businesses that they are giving you cutting edge products. Mag-lite could of put in the newest Cree L.E.D.'s or the like at the time but did not because they dominated the market so much so that they made people think that what they offered "must" be the best. Hell, they could have led the whole L.E.D. movement ten years earlier if they wanted to and we would be a generation ahead in lighting now.
They don't want to give the customer the best product at the best price - only to corner the market by using "shelf space influencing force" to sell you ancient lights for obscure prices. What this means is they are so big they can demand that the store owners keep most of their competitors off of the shelves at the places where you see them for sale.
Mag-lite can burn in hell for all I care. Maybe I am bitter because in the 80's they were the quality "go to" lights. Then technology improved but they wouldn't change AT ALL and offered incandescent bulbs continuously because they could ride on the coat-tails of being the biggest and most respected light company on the planet. That was until they were only recently forced to upgrade because finally someone else had a little success selling better lights. The competition had its work cut out because "Mag-lite" had the branding of the "best light in the industry". They whored that image out forever while never caring about improvements and only finally started to improve a little because of competition...not because they give a damn about you getting a better light.
My point is I have twenty year old lights from them and the exact same model is still for sale. That means they don't care about you or innovation - they only care about crushing competition through unfair muscling for shelf space at Target, Wal-Mart, etc. and keeping Fenix/Foursevens, etc. and other more deserving manufactures out of your line of sight. They don't care about advancing lighting as an industry in the least, only controlling the market to get you to cough up a buck for a "name".
Inova - decent but not really up to the level of these other companies yet. Their offerings are still somewhat cheaply made (comparatively) and limited in variety for a product line. Better than some others you see though IMO. I would buy an Inova on a very good sale though with no regret.
Sorry for the rant but now maybe younger generations understand a little more about the horrible company that is Mag-lite.
I thought that was a little one sided considering everything I thought Mag has done for flashlights and their popularity as a platform among the modding community, not to mention years of service to LEOs and security personnel. I was hoping to see if anyone else thought this was out of line or if there is some truth to this person's accusations.
I believe Mag-lite has done more harm to lighting than any other company in the existence of modern portable lighting. They have single-handedly held this industry back simply for the sake of easy profit, being the monopolistic company that they are. They intentionally stifled innovation year after year to keep making an extra buck off of you and me selling yesterday's "cheaper to make - old technology" at today's prices. After two decades or so of this, finally new "no name companies" like Fenix and FourSeven's grew from obscurity into the quality customer oriented businesses that they are giving you cutting edge products. Mag-lite could of put in the newest Cree L.E.D.'s or the like at the time but did not because they dominated the market so much so that they made people think that what they offered "must" be the best. Hell, they could have led the whole L.E.D. movement ten years earlier if they wanted to and we would be a generation ahead in lighting now.
They don't want to give the customer the best product at the best price - only to corner the market by using "shelf space influencing force" to sell you ancient lights for obscure prices. What this means is they are so big they can demand that the store owners keep most of their competitors off of the shelves at the places where you see them for sale.
Mag-lite can burn in hell for all I care. Maybe I am bitter because in the 80's they were the quality "go to" lights. Then technology improved but they wouldn't change AT ALL and offered incandescent bulbs continuously because they could ride on the coat-tails of being the biggest and most respected light company on the planet. That was until they were only recently forced to upgrade because finally someone else had a little success selling better lights. The competition had its work cut out because "Mag-lite" had the branding of the "best light in the industry". They whored that image out forever while never caring about improvements and only finally started to improve a little because of competition...not because they give a damn about you getting a better light.
My point is I have twenty year old lights from them and the exact same model is still for sale. That means they don't care about you or innovation - they only care about crushing competition through unfair muscling for shelf space at Target, Wal-Mart, etc. and keeping Fenix/Foursevens, etc. and other more deserving manufactures out of your line of sight. They don't care about advancing lighting as an industry in the least, only controlling the market to get you to cough up a buck for a "name".
Inova - decent but not really up to the level of these other companies yet. Their offerings are still somewhat cheaply made (comparatively) and limited in variety for a product line. Better than some others you see though IMO. I would buy an Inova on a very good sale though with no regret.
Sorry for the rant but now maybe younger generations understand a little more about the horrible company that is Mag-lite.
I thought that was a little one sided considering everything I thought Mag has done for flashlights and their popularity as a platform among the modding community, not to mention years of service to LEOs and security personnel. I was hoping to see if anyone else thought this was out of line or if there is some truth to this person's accusations.