https://us.glock.com/en/learn/brand/history




Proudly Celebrating 30 Years in the United States
30 years of Perfection, a simple evolution of time introduced to the U.S. market in the 1980s, GLOCK is proud to continue its journey and celebrate 30 years of quality, commitment, design and innovation in the U.S.


Surely, most of you have already seen this page, but I got to wondering about the date when I handled one of the first Glocks at our local gunstore.

It was likely '86 or '87 ...



How it all started

Gaston Glock, an Austrian engineer, successful businessman, and manufacturer of injection molding parts and components, founded GLOCK Ges.m.b.H in 1963.

In the 1970s, development and production start-up of the first military products began to take place with the development of a line of knives, grenade casings and machine gun belt links.

In the early 1980's, the semi-automatic GLOCK service pistol was born in response to meet the needs of the Austrian military. It's polymer frame and the developed SAFE ACTION® System revolutionized the pistol market ..."

I bought the first Glock I handled, in 1994ish. G23C. I bought my P226 9mm the same day IIRC. Guess which one I like better?

Glock was brilliant in the way it marketed to law enforcement agencies to get a foothold in the U.s.

There's a very different story as to how the company and facilities in the U.S. are actually run. I'd catch up on a monthly basis with a friend who worked there for a number of years and had some purview over all departments and facilities. It was eye-opening, and disappointing, to hear the reality vs. the marketing. I imagine the same can be said for most large corporations, however.

I'm still keeping my G32 gen3 and G20 gen3, though.

I read Paul Barrett's book on Gaston Glock and the Glock guns.

The U.S. marketing program was phenomenal to say the least. And Gaston Glock was portrayed as a real scumbag.

But, a very informative read, nonetheless.

quote:

Originally posted by TxRod:
Glock was brilliant in the way it marketed to law enforcement agencies to get a foothold in the U.s.

I think most people just don't understand that part. It's just like how Mobil has brilliant marketing as factory fill for a lot of fancy cars. People assume they're the best because of that.

I've read Glock practically gives the guns away to departments. When you're talking about an organization that has to show their budget and what they've spent to taxpayers, it would be very bad publicity if departments didn't take such a low offer. Especially if you were talking about a department that employs hundreds.

quote:

Originally posted by T.Webb:
I read Paul Barrett's book on Gaston Glock and the Glock guns.

The U.S. marketing program was phenomenal to say the least. And Gaston Glock was portrayed as a real scumbag.

But, a very informative read, nonetheless.

Yeah, Barrett's "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun" is worth reading if you want to know more about how Glock got it starts and its huge presence in the US.

In addition to the ultra-cheap offers for the beancounters, there was lots of backroom wining and dining going on.

If only I would have bought all the G19's I could afford back then. $$$$$$$

I recall Glocks early push to get into the LE market. Quite a few early adopters had numerous ADs, since they bought the new striker trigger but failed to train their people to break the revolver / DA auto finger on the trigger habit.
Glock did not just bring the striker pistol into widespread acceptance, they also brought in a new (and better) training regimen.

I think I purchased my first Glock for $249. I think night sights were $50 more.

I've been told that Glock set up shop at the range at Rodmans Neck when NYPD went with the gen 2 guns. The number of guns NYPD managed to break gave Glock valuable insight into the flaws in their design, and assisted Glock in designing the jen 3 pistol.

The Glock NYPD story I heard was that NYPD were experts at catching their magazine baseplates on patrol car doors and stripping them off the magazine, thus emptying their ammo.
Which is why your Glock mag is hard to disassemble now!