Impact Beyond Recoil Reduction
A small contribution from every IDS. A commitment designed to continue for as long as we do.
$15 from every Knight IDS™ sold
committed back to the community
Live community impact
$30
Country clubs
Supporting smaller country clay target clubs and the communities around them.
Junior shooters
Creating more opportunities for the next generation of Australian shooters.
Men's wellbeing
Supporting practical local initiatives that help men through difficult periods.
For me, clay target shooting has always been about much more than breaking targets. The sport came into my life during difficult years. It gave me somewhere to go, something to work towards and a community to be part of. It gave me the drive to keep improving myself - mentally, physically and financially - and helped me build friendships, social connections and a life in Australia.
In many ways, the path that eventually led to KNIGHT and IDS started at a clay target shooting club. I would not have developed my first patented invention if it wasn't for this sport. That is something I don't want to forget when the business succeeds.
IDS started with a simple engineering problem: could recoil be managed differently? That question became years of development, prototypes and testing, and the beginnings of something that may have applications beyond shooting. Whatever IDS becomes in the future, its beginning belongs to the shooting community.
If we are fortunate enough to sell thousands of IDS systems over the coming years, I don't want success to benefit only our business. I want a small part of every sale to automatically go back into the communities that helped make it possible - not as a one-off campaign, but as a perpetual commitment built into every IDS sale.
$5 for country clubs
Small country clay target clubs are an important part of Australian shooting. They are places where people compete, volunteer, make friendships and sometimes simply find somewhere they belong.
For every IDS sold, $5 will be allocated to supporting country clay target clubs. Our intention is to periodically distribute the accumulated funds among eligible clubs, potentially using a transparent draw or rotation system so even small clubs have an opportunity to benefit. We want the clubs themselves to tell us where the contribution can do the most good.
$5 for the next generation
Australia has relatively little local manufacturing of specialised clay target shooting accessories. That also means fewer Australian manufacturers are in a position to support upcoming shooters. Yet juniors are the future of the sport.
For every IDS sold, another $5 will be allocated to junior shooting development and sponsorship. We would like to work with organisations such as SACTA and the shooting community to identify appropriate ways of helping promising juniors, particularly where relatively small assistance can make a meaningful difference.
$5 for men
Life can become difficult. Men can go through relationship breakdowns, financial pressure, isolation, business or career problems, family difficulties and many other challenges while saying very little about what they are carrying.
Sometimes what helps isn't complicated: somewhere to go, people to talk to, a reason to get out of the house, something to become better at, and a community where somebody notices when you haven't turned up. Clay target shooting provided some of those things for me.
The final $5 from every IDS sale will be set aside to support men's wellbeing and mental-health initiatives, preferably through practical local organisations and groups doing real work with men in the community.
Five dollars from one product will not change a life, but hundreds or thousands of people contributing collectively might.
More than building products
We want Micro Engineering Works and KNIGHT to remain aligned with the community from which these products came. Our job is to engineer quality products, manufacture them properly in Australia, keep improving them and build a sustainable business around them. But business growth doesn't have to be a win for only one person.
- Customers get a better product.
- Our business becomes stronger.
- Australian manufacturing grows.
- The sport benefits.
- Young shooters get opportunities.
- Some of that success reaches men who may be going through a difficult period in their lives.
Thank you, clay target shooting
IDS exists because I became involved in this sport. A shooting problem became an engineering problem. That engineering problem became an invention. And that invention may now create opportunities I could never have imagined when I first became involved in clay target shooting.
This is our way of making sure that, wherever IDS eventually goes, some of its success continues to come home.
“A collective win is a bigger win.”
