Bohemia Village Voice

Ron Salt shows off one of his shooting jackets - as used by a British Olympic Shooting team.

A local specialist clothing company has contributed to recent British success at the Olympic Festival of Youth. Top Gun Clothing, which recently moved into a building in Shornden Passage (a twitten running between Upper Park Road and Upper South Road), manufacture vests and jackets for sports shooters. They were asked to supply garments to the Under-20 British Olympic Shooting Team, who were competing in the festival in Australia in January 2007. The team’s seven shooters managed a medal haul of two golds and two silvers between them, and with the Beijing Olympics less than eighteen months away, there’s the promise of more to come.
SPACE
Top Gun moved to their new home last year, and, says owner Ron Salt, they’re still settling in. Previously, the  warehouse was on a site at Rye Harbour, while the company offices were in Filsham Road. The new building affords them the space to bring the two operations together on one site.
TEXTILE
The company was started in 2000 by Ron and his brother Brian, who between them had run a textile consultancy for more than a decade. Ron says of the move into manufacturing, ‘My hobbies are sailing and shooting. We opted for shooting because the market for sailing gear is well covered already.’
CARTRIDGES
Ron designs Top Gun’s clothing range himself. He says that being a shooter means he knows from personal experience what a shooting jacket or vest should offer. ‘There’s nothing fancy about a shooting garment. It’s basically a body warmer with added features to turn it into a shooting garment – pockets for cartridges and loops or clips for ear defenders and safety glasses on the back.’
POLICE
The company has a growing reputation in what is a niche market, according to Ron. ‘It’s almost a bespoke manufacturing system,’ he says. ‘The big companies don’t get involved because the numbers are too small for them and customers’ needs are very individual. For example, we had an order from Strathclyde Police to supply vests to some of their taller officers – we’re talking 6ft 10” with 66-inch chests. We can do that, just as we can meet the individual needs of shooters.’
GARMENTS
The Olympic connection came about through Kevin Gill, a former British Olympic shooter and the junior British Olympic coach. He helps the company by critiquing the garments prior to manufacture.
BEIJING
As well as the Under-20 British team, Top Gun has also supplied clothing to the England team and the Irish national team, and they hope to get the contract for the senior British team for the Beijing Olympics. Ron says it’s difficult to measure the benefit these associations bring, but they certainly help in raising the company’s profile to sit alongside those of more established names like Browning and Beretta.

Another jacket for sale by Ron.