Airsoft Innovations and the FLAK Shotgun Debacle

In the last few weeks, following the end of the IWA 2022, there was an announcement for the pre-order of the third batch of FLAK series shotguns by Airsoft Innovations. However, something happened, all of a sudden Airsoft Innovations ceased to exit and there has been no response from them at all.

So what happened? Let us rewind back to April 2021.

Airsoft innovations announced the release of a new product, the FLAK series of gas powered mag-fed shotguns, back in April 2021. Many Airsoft retailers and customers placed pre-orders for this product. Fast forward to the end of 2021 and retailers have not received their pre-order of FLAK shotguns. Airsoft Innovations did state at the time that it was due to materials shortage and production delay, but assured retailers that the orders will be shipped soon. Some individuals who placed orders from Airsoft Innovation’s official website did receive the shotguns however they were very few and unconfirmed.

The continued delay and reassurance from Airsoft Innovations went all the way up to the 2022 IWA Outdoor Classics event in March, that was hosted in Nuremberg, Germany. Jonathan Yarish, the Operations of Manager from Airsoft Innovations introduced the FLAK shotguns and were accepting additional pre-orders for their stated “third batch” of products. After the IWA event, which is around March 7th, Airsoft Innovations ceased all communications with both individual customers and retailers.

A Facebook post by Airsoft Atlanta saying that Airsoft Innovations took pre-order funds and left surfaced on March 11th. After this incident, multiple retailers including Trigger Airsoft and Andy’s Airsoft attempted to contact Airsoft Innovations, but there was no response, either by phone or email. Their physical business location also do not exist anymore and signage was posted by the landlord stating that their office lease has been terminated due to non-payments of rent.

Basically, Airsoft Innovations, for whatever reason knew that they were unable to deliver products, either because they were having financial difficulties, or from other internal issues, which we cannot confirm. Knowing they will not be able to deliver, they should have notified their clients of these issues. Instead, they chose to lie and deceive their clients, and not only that but also take in more funds for a supposed “third batch” of guns. This is essentially fraud, which has affected many businesses and individual customers who pre-ordered for their products.

Currently, the Airsoft Business Association of Canada is pursuing legal means to account for the losses suffered by Canadian Airsoft retailers. Not only are these legal actions aimed at getting back the financial resources but also as a demonstration that such fraudulent behaviors will not be tolerated in the airsoft community.