
Constant Engagement
The team at XS Sights constantly engages with its customer base in order to stay aligned with their evolving needs.
Kellie Brunn is the co-owner of XS Sights, a second-generation, women-owned business in Fort Worth, Texas. She returned to Texas in 2016 after a successful 15-year career at Eaton Corporation's electrical division in North Carolina. With her leadership, XS Sights has seen significant growth and continues to thrive by staying true to its mission of empowering the “good guy” with functional weapons upgrades. The company is well known for products such as the DXT2 Big Dot, which showcases their purpose-driven designs and manufacturing expertise. Brunn holds an MBA from Wake Forest University and remains active in community initiatives such as volunteering with Meals on Wheels.
SHOT Business: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the industry in the next five years?
Kellie Brunn: While supply chain issues are a global concern, we source American-made whenever possible and carry deep raw-material inventories. This, coupled with our ability to take product from bar stock to finished goods in our facility in Fort Worth, uniquely lessens these risks to us and therefore our customers.
The political challenges we face in our industry are another obvious concern. However, this threat goes deeper than our right to bear arms and its impact on gun ownership and the resulting demand for our products. Our industry represents more than just firearms; it’s a lifestyle as well as a set of values, personal accountability, and source of patriotism that is critical for our country. Stewardship in protecting and promoting the Second Amendment is our challenge and obligation.
Our industry must unite to support 2A-friendly suppliers and vendors. XS has felt the wrath of political influences from insurance companies, online selling platforms, marketing channels, IT support software and databases, etc. Perhaps most concerning is our industry’s lack of voice on social media platforms that are hugely influential for our younger generation. It is imperative this industry intentionally unifies and promotes like-minded organizations.
SB: What opportunities do you see?
KB: Doing things the way we have always done them is not going to be a viable option moving forward. I see our industry going through a growth and maturity phase out of necessity. We will have to market, sell, distribute, and promote very efficiently with current market pressures to maximize the resources we have available to us. While change is often painful, the teams who think outside the box will tee themselves up nicely for the future and the inevitable market rebound. XS is dedicated, creative, innovative, and ready.
I also envision a cohesive industry that will advocate for its comprising members and America’s foundational freedoms. With time and money constraints facing our industry, I foresee opportunities for change in industry associations, supplier alliances, and a renewed emphasis on American-made products.
SB: When you get up in the morning, what gets you excited about working in the industry?
KB: The people, hands down. I love Team XS especially and have great respect for the people I am blessed to call friends in our industry. Working alongside people who are as passionate about the Second Amendment as I am makes every day exciting and energizing and full of purpose.
SB: How will you meet the expectations of your customers?
KB: Meeting the expectations of our customers means listening closely to their needs and responding with products that genuinely enhance their experience. Our Gun Nut team is always brainstorming cool solutions for “undiscovered needs.” We constantly engage with our community, whether it's through direct feedback, product reviews, or social media, to ensure we're staying aligned with their evolving needs.
SB: In a very competitive world, how does XS Sights stay ahead of the pack?
KB: Team XS is lean and incredibly efficient, agile, and committed to the growth goals we have in our five- and 10-year plans. We know the sight market is evolving, and we will continue to do so accordingly. As such, we too will advance to support new technologies in this space and develop other firearm upgrades as well.
Innovation is spurred by a company culture of grace and exploration. All of our team members are given a personal budget to promote industry involvement, and we take the “no ideas are dumb” challenge to another level. Our team can validate the saying, “You learn more from your mistakes than your successes!”
We pride ourselves on being easy to do business with, and this is at the core of all of our business dealings. Our focus is long term, and we value and have immense gratitude for every customer.
SB: The innovative design of the DXT Big Dot sight put XS Sights on the map. It had a large, white-dot front sight paired with a V-notch rear sight, which allowed an unobstructed view of the front sight. These express sights provide quicker sight acquisition, particularly in mid- to low-light conditions. You then followed that with the F8, which used a traditional notch-and-post sight system paired with the Glow Dot, your proprietary photoluminescent technology designed to help shooters acquire the target in low-light conditions. The R3D sights (a three-dot tritium notch-and-post sight) soon followed. What market forces spurred these particular designs?
KB: The original DXT (and now DXT2 design) is still my favorite. I grew up with it and believe it is the most effective sight picture in high-stress, low-light, and/or impaired eyesight self-defense situations. Our Big Dot concept, a highly visible front sight, revolutionized the industry in that the average size of the front sights available in the market has increased over the years.
XS’s mission is “Empowering the GOOD GUY to be more prepared, confident, and self-reliant with functional weapon upgrades.” We realize some people will always feel most comfortable with more traditional sight pictures, so we employed our same manufacturing and engineering standards, including a front dot focus, to provide superior sight solutions
for these customers with the introduction of the F8 and three-dot sight R3Ds and now R3D 2.0s. This also allows us to offer a full portfolio of solutions to our OEM partners.
This was a critical step for XS Sights in becoming The Sight Company; we have solutions for not only many makes and models, but also the customers’ requested sight pictures and colors.
SB: Rather than rely on outsider suppliers for tritium for your night sights, you went through the laborious process of being certified by the federal government in order to be a tritium licensee. This opened up a new business channel as an OEM supplier of tritium to other night sight manufacturers. How has that paid off for the company?
KB: Our tritium license has been a significant win for XS.
By controlling this essential element, we are able to innovate more freely, reduce lead times, ensure a consistent supply chain, and control our quality.
Team XS has more than five human touch points for each product with tritium installed, and we test above the regulatory requirements to maintain the quality that has been a hallmark of the XS brand for more than 30 years.
When a customer purchases XS-installed tritium, XS owns all of the regulatory compliance, and the product is received by them free and clear. This peace of mind allows our OEM partners to leave the sights and their associated regulatory oversight to us so they can focus on their core competencies, all the while providing superior sight solutions to their customers. (xssights.com)