Klementowicz flipped houses and took construction work, while both men continued building products, teaching, testing and putting money back into the company. “There’s numerous times we wanted to quit,” Dapkins says. What usually stopped them was a phone call or email from a first responder who had used one of their tools during a domestic violence call, vehicle crash or active-shooter response.
Klementowicz estimates that hundreds of people may be alive today after rescues involving Jersey Tactical equipment.
“How can you quit, when you know that?” he says.
For years, that question mattered more than whether the business model looked good on paper. What Made in America Actually Means Today, Jersey Tactical offers more than 20 products and sells throughout the United States, with growing military and international business. Its manufacturing network remains deliberately domestic. Stickers are made in Kentucky. Labels come from New Jersey. Lockers are produced in Virginia. Fabrication and welding are handled in Pennsylvania, foundry work is done in New York, heat treatment is performed in Pennsylvania, and final assembly and packaging take place at Jersey Tactical’s New Jersey operation. The company has also fulfilled Berry Amendment-compliant military orders, where domestic sourcing requirements can extend to details such as thread, snaps and individual components. Producing equipment this way costs more, and Dapkins and Klementowicz have had repeated opportunities to reduce those costs through overseas manufacturing.
They have chosen not to.
Dapkins recalls a Taiwanese foundry representative repeatedly approaching him at a trade show with lower-cost
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