In only its second annual year, The Gundies — the firearm community’s “awards show” (P.S. vote for me!) — is really coming into its own. As of yesterday, December 28th, The Gundies hit 872,184 votes, and votes don’t close until midnight on the 31st. I see a million votes in their future, and perhaps you (yes, you) can help.
What are The Gundie Awards, you ask? Well . . .
Created by PR/marketing firm Forge Relations, “The Gundies are the firearm community’s first and only community-voted awards spotlighting the top creators and upcoming talent in the community.” It’s a riff on The Dundie Awards, for fans of TV show The Office.
As nearly everyone else has, I’ve found The Gundies to be a fantastic way to find out about new companies and new content creators. Somehow they’ve managed to put a spotlight on truly great talent, both well-established and up-and-coming, in all 15 of their awards categories, and in many ways it really brings the industry and the community together for some shared fun and recognition.
Then again, last year the company I co-own, Black Collar Arms, was nominated for “Most Innovative Brand” and this year I was nominated for “Influencer Turned Entrepreneur,” so perhaps their taste is questionable after all.
Each of the awards categories has a firearm industry sponsor, and that sponsor has offered up a great prize to be given at random to one lucky voter in each of those categories. The more you vote, the more entries you have for a given category’s prize.
Some prize examples include a custom Aero Precision AR15 with optic for voting in the “Most Influential Female of the Year” category, an FK BRNO pistol for voting in “Breakout Creator of the Year,” a Desert Eagle for “Best Crossover Creator,” and so much more. Complete list HERE. (Hopefully you have a pickup truck, because I know y’all’re voting in my category if only for a chance to win the Diamondback HD Truck Bed Cover)
Furthermore, each vote enters the voter for the grand prize, a trip to DriveTanks in Uvalde, TX to join the top four nominees in each category and all of the sponsors for The Gundies Range Day & Award Ceremony. There’s all sorts of new and awesome stuff to shoot on the range, some African safari animals to see, and an awards party with open bar. Plus an open bar. And free booze!
Hats off to Forge Relations for hatching such an awesome concept. It’s fun, it’s effective at bringing the firearm industry and community together, and it’s continuing to gain massive traction. Nicely done.
Now go vote! There are only ~48 hours left.