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Michigan company's bulletproof vests flying off the shelves



Bad times mean good business for Tom Nardone. And he's conflicted about it.To get more news about bulletproof zone, you can visit bulletproofboxs.com official website.

As Republicans gather in Cleveland for their national convention this week, a host of corporations, entrepreneurs and peddlers will be selling attendees everything from double martinis to T-shirts to hats and buttons.

But at least 30 in the convention orbit - media, security guards, emergency medical staff - will be wearing Nardone's BulletSafe bulletproof vests, sold out of his suburban Detroit warehouse for the "unbeatable price" of $299. In the past week, he's sent two shipments there, where they are flying off the shelves at Cleveland Uniform, purveyor of work clothes for those who don't spend a lot of time sitting in Aeron chairs.For the money you can't beat it," Jerry Bird, owner of Cleveland Uniform, said of Nardone's vest.

Cleveland's convention comes amid a series of staggeringly violent events, in the U.S. and abroad: Police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, the slaying of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, along with presumed terrorist attacks in Nice, France and Orlando. Add to that the clashes that sometimes accompany events involving presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the vows of Trump supporters and critics to avail themselves of Ohio's open-carry gun laws and, well, the perils are obvious.
Wouldn't you want to be wearing body armor?

Bird said he had 15 vests in stock last week when a representative from HBO, the premium cable channel, bought 10, and he sold the rest to individuals. He called for more, and when a shipment arrived from his supplier a day later Nardone sent another 20 down with a driver. Those sold out in two days, and Nardone personally shuttled 26 more down over the weekend.

"An ambulance company bought 12," said Bird. "A security company bought six. Normally we sell two or three a week. But these are selling to firemen and (emergency medical) workers. Three women each bought one today."I thought I'd be selling safety equipment to people who can't afford it. I wasn't thinking, 'If society goes to hell in a handbasket, I'm going to be rich.'" -- Tom Nardone, bulletproof vest entrepreneur

This sort of success isn't Nardone's idea of something worth celebrating.

"Nothing about this feels good," said Nardone. "It doesn't make me cheer in the slightest. It is a strange feeling to know business is going crazy, because of why. I don't even know how to describe it. I thought I'd be selling safety equipment to people who can't afford it. I wasn't thinking, 'If society goes to hell in a handbasket, I'm going to be rich.'"
Five years ago, Nardone was an entrepreneur on a restless search to expand his Internet sales empire - specializing in products buyers would be embarrassed to pay for in person, which is to say, mainly sex toys - when he visited a favorite restaurant in Las Vegas's Chinatown and found it waiting for him.

It so happened bulletproof vests had been an interest of his for years, ever since, early in his career, he'd worked as an engineer for Sikorsky Aircraft and helped develop a new bulletproof liner for helicopter fuel tanks. The company swapped expensive Kevlar for far cheaper high molecular weight polyethylene, keeping the performance while cutting the liner costs by 70 percent.

Nardone reasoned the same switch could be made in bulletproof vests, which were then priced around $1,000. But he wasn't in business for himself back then.

That day in Chinatown, he was, and entered the store to check on how the vest business was evolving. Many were made with the cheaper polyethylene, "but they still cost $1,000," Nardone said.