Omega Pacific is shutting it’s doors after 38 years of business

Bummer of a news article. If you ask me, they just had a marketing problem. Their gear was high quality imo. Does anyone have any insider info?

Are they selling their patents? Will the link cam design die with them? What about the manufacturing facility? I know it was all made in the USA, heard the company even started using inmate labor to help reduce manufacturing costs, ha. Could an investor come in and save those jobs and those designs? I see value here. Would be really lame for it all to go away, the link cam was pretty much the only innovation to the slcd since ridgid friends, lol.

Gripped Article about closing

Yeah I don’t see too much value. Especially with other brands becoming bigger and bigger. Bummer but not a huge surprise. 

I asked around if anyone was buying up their IP or equipment.  Sounded like the patents on the link cams expired / lapsed, so no IP to buy.  I've had a bunch of their carabiners, and they were always very robust and durable...  seems like they were more industrial / rope access oriented.

Dave K wrote: I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did. Their gear always had a reputation for being second tier, and who uses link cams?

See I disagree. The link cam is a versatile piece that I placed often while cruxing. No thinking about the size, just slam it and go. Whipped on both green and gold plenty. And as far as the weight, I still brought them on plenty of backcountry missions. I’d just bring less pieces, as this one covered the huge range it did. And they also had some innovative twist lock biners (gate opened to the side creating a larger opening in a smaller carabiner) that were great as belay and PAS lockers.

but here we go. That’s what I mean, I think they had a marketing problem, as I haven’t found too many people that own them that dislike them. They were quickly disregarded as gimmick, but had some pretty cool applications that could have been continuously improved on with more r&d. Their range and ability to bite in even heinous flares leaves me confused why they were hated on so much. People say they walk a ton, but this just hasn’t been my experience either. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.

I have some of their wire gate carabiners and like them.
I bought some wedges, cause the set was cheap. I like them better than my BD's but not as much as DMM or WildCountry.

Another casualty of Amazon and foreign manufacturing competition.
Hard to compete when a Chinese machinist makes 1/8 the wage.
Or even Taiwan (BD) where they make 1/2.

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