As we look back on 2021, we reflect on how challenging of a year it was for manufacturers, upfitters, and our friends in law enforcement alike. Many changes took place that made every day on the job more difficult for us all. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone in our network who has helped us make it through this year; we are only able to continue to grow because of your support. With that growth in mind, we want everyone to get a glimpse of what’s coming for Estes AWS in 2022! Year after year we try to improve our products and create new, innovative designs that are cost effective for our customers and tailored to meet their needs. We are excited to introduce the following new products and improvements to existing products to help better equip our law enforcement community.
3.0 Rapid Access Weapon Locker
In 2019, when we first began the design process on our current 2.0 Rapid Access Weapon Locker, we decided to start from the ground up and create something completely different from our original series of carpeted lockers. Though the task was not easy, the goal was straightforward: design a locker that still retained our patented automated open technology, was equally secure against break-ins as our original lockers, but with significantly reduced costs to give up-fitters and law enforcement more room in their budgets. Through weeks of design, testing, and refining we were able to achieve our goal with the introduction of our most popular locker ever, the 2.0 Rapid Access Weapon Locker. As with most manufacturers, our expenses on material and hardware have skyrocketed, which has resulted in cost increases to our product lineup. With that in mind, we will be heading back to the drawing board to design and prototype the 3.0 Rapid Access Weapon Locker. The end goal for this locker will be to once again keep all the main characteristics of the 2.0 locker that our customers love while striving to reduce costs and increase your buying power. With our experienced team of engineers and designers working on this new product, we are confident that the 3.0 locker will be another big hit with our customers!
Storage Box Upgrades/Improvements
The year 2021 has proven to be a big year for our Storage Box lineup with more and more police departments putting an emphasis on organization in their fleet vehicles. We currently have three different size storage boxes, and they are designed to make the most of your vehicle’s space. The Storage Box solutions offered by Estes AWS haven’t been marketed as a highly secure option such as the weapon locker products we offer since their main purpose is intended for every day general storage. While we obviously offer our weapon lockers for secure gun storage, for some departments/officers it makes more sense either financially or from a space-saving perspective to purchase a storage box to house both their weapons and gear. With that being the case, we will be focused on improving the security and overall longevity of our current latching mechanisms on the storage box lineup. By doing so, we will able to offer our storage box products to a wider array of individuals/entities who are more security focused when it comes to their storage box selection. We will be elaborating more on this as we roll into the new year, so be on the lookout for further details!
Dodge Charger Weapon Locker
While law enforcement vehicle options have become largely focused on SUVs, the Dodge Charger is capturing the spotlight in the pursuit sedan category. This gives us the unique opportunity to create a Dodge Charger specific sedan locker for the very first time. With the space in the Dodge Charger’s trunk becoming ever more encroached upon with batteries and spare tires, creating a trunk locker that will fit while not taking up excess space and still meet all the criteria for Estes AWS Weapon Lockers will be one of our biggest undertakings yet. We are very excited to announce that we already have a preliminary design in place and will be entering the vehicle testing phase in early 2022! Stayed tuned for more details and product features on this new Estes AWS product offering.
We are excited about these improvements and new product offerings coming in 2022, and we look forward to all the opportunities that lie ahead of us as we seek to continue offering innovative storage solutions. Estes AWS takes great pride in designing and manufacturing top-quality products for our customers, and we will seek to uphold that standard as we head into the New Year. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you safely secure your weapons while keeping them accessible at the push of a button in the coming year!