CELEBRATE APPROPRIATELY: Magpul’s Silver Anniversary.

Magpul has become a legend in a short 25 years, developing an enviable reputation for innovation and uncompromising quality along the way. It officially launched in 1999, although company founder Richard Fitzpatrick recognized a need for the firm’s initial product back in 1991, while serving as a member of 3rd Recon Battalion in the Marine Corps.

Most U.S. combat troops began adding paracord and duct tape to the bottom of magazines to improve reload speed in Vietnam. They continued to do so while Fitzpatrick was in uniform because a reliable alternative never appeared. When he left the service, though, he invented a combat-tough, rubberized system to fulfill the same mission. That year was 1997, but he still needed a method of reproducing the device in volumes large enough to meet even a modest order. So, he purchased an injection mold and began making the magazine pulls in his Colorado garage.

An entrepreneurial triumph.