Body Armor Direct

Body Armor Direct manufactures and sells bullet-resistant products to law enforcement, Government officials, private security officers, and the general public. Our mission is to save lives.

FOUNDED IN

2018

INDUSTRY

Manufacturing

COUNTY

Broward County

REVENUE GROWTH

43233% increase from
2018 – 2020

10 EMPLOYEES

900% increase from
2018 – 2020

Dave Goldberg

CEO

What led you to start Body Armor Direct?

I had spent 20 years in government contracting for small and large businesses, selling products and services to the government and military. In 2017, I decided to modify the products I was working with for civilian use. The ah-ha moment for Body Armor Direct happened in 2017, after 61 people died at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas. They were killed by a guy who had 24 guns and I knew how to stop every gun from penetrating a human being. I felt I had a responsibility to make these products available to the general public.

Did you know you always wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I had my first taste of entrepreneurship when I was selling baseball cards at 13 years old. I’d set up a table at sports card shows in hotels around the Boston area. Shortly after graduating college in 1997, I started a staffing firm to support Y2K conversions for mainframe applications. The business failed after 2 years, and I went into Government Contracting. When I started Body Armor Direct, I planned to be the attractive character i.e.. Entrepreneur in our videos and the American public has been receptive to me.

Can you tell us a bit more about Body Armor Direct?

We save lives. That’s our mission. And that’s exactly what we’ve done. Our most recent save was a gentleman who’s in the Pennsylvania National Guard, who was the victim of a road rage incident on the highway. When they shot at him, he had on a plate from us that took the bullet and protected him. Every day we protect thousands of people’s lives. From law enforcement to private security officers to the general public and Senior Level Government Officials we take our responsibility seriously.

What is your competitive edge?

What sets us apart is that we’re American made and the products we sell are US government certified. Even more so, the products are bought and worn by federal government officials, everything from congressmen to the Defense Department.

It makes it much easier to manufacture the products ourselves. It reduces the risk that we wouldn’t have a product, as long as we get the materials. It’s been a huge strength manufacturing in South Florida. There’s also a good employee base here so we’ve been able to hire new people and grow over the last year. I live about 45 minutes away from our office, and the whole reason I commute is we operate near where our employees live.

What’s the company culture like at Body Armor Direct?

We are a results-oriented team. We don’t focus on the number of hours; we focus on what it takes to get the job done. As far as our mantra, we try to do everything in the favor of the customer. It’s a very laid-back, shorts casual work environment with ethics and integrity are at the core of what we do.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in growing your company?

I think for us the biggest challenge we faced was maintaining inventory levels to allow us to ship the next day. What we’ve learned to do is keep about 80% of our products in stock, and 20% of the products we custom make for the customers. That way, we were able to eliminate most issues regarding our inventory.

What are some of the goals you have for your company?

Our goal is to be the largest direct-to-consumer body armor company. Basically, the largest body armor company here in the United States. To accomplish that in the next five years, essentially, we’ll continue our online sales, we will continue to add dealers and distributors. We’ll be adding some new categories of products soon as well.

Do you have a proudest moment as CEO?

For me, it was getting that voicemail that I saved someone’s life on a Friday night when I was out with my family. It was a phone call you don’t ever expect to get. It was an out of state phone call, so I didn’t answer it. Then I had a voicemail on my phone from a guy saying, “You saved my life.” It’s very motivating. And it’s inspiring. It reminds us that we’re doing the right thing when we hear things like that.

What does it mean to be selected as GrowFL Florida Companies to Watch Honoree?

For both me and my employees, to get recognition for our company’s growth, the products that we offer, and our potential mean a lot to us. We’re a small business that we didn’t think people really cared about. I think the word I could use to sum everything up is surprised. We’re surprised at how supportive everyone has been outside the company., it’s been extremely rewarding. We could have taken the easy route and imported our products and increased our margins by over 50%, however, it’s important our customers have confidence in their armor in a time of need.

Anyone you’d like to thank?

I’d like to thank my team at Body Armor Direct. We’ve experienced tremendous growth and had peaks and valleys with sales and our team has always had a whatever it takes attitude to meet customer deadlines.

My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is…

"Start. You just need to start. Even if you don't know what product or service you're going to sell. You will find a way. But if you never get started, you'll never do it. Don't wait until you have all the pieces figured out and everything put together."

Celebrate with the Body Armor Direct team!

Tickets are on sale now for the 11th Annual GrowFL Florida Companies to Watch Awards Celebration! Don't wait, they will sell out!

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