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Article from the Spring 2003 Issue of WINNIPEG WOMEN
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bulletproof inVESTment
Glori Slater is taking aim at the competition and bringing k9 body armour to police forces around the globe.
By Shamona Harnett
Photograph by Chronic Creative
They're the first to be shot at, stabbed, punched, and pummeled in the line of duty. But unlike their human partners, they aren’t armed with guns. They are police dogs. And to call them man’s best friend is an understatement. “They save their partners’ lives,” says Glori Slater, co-owner of K9 Storm, a Winnipeg company that manufactures and distributes bulletproof vests for dogs. “With increasing street violence, police dogs are always in danger, tracking, apprehending, and extracting their suspects.”
Five years ago, Glori and her husband Const. Jim Slater–a veteran canine handler–decided to take the lives of police dogs into their own hands and put them in vests. Jim designed a vest that allowed his dog, Olaf, to move about freely–different, he says, than the more restrictive vests on the market. Glori’s challenge: to develop a successful business around the product. Under her leadership, Jim’s prototype evolved into a patented tactical body armour system that meets National Institute of Justice ballistics standards and is used by police and military forces around the globe. Glori, the business and marketing mastermind behind the K9 Storm vest, says her role in the company is diverse–from developing promotional literature and wooing the media to working with current and potential customers in North America and overseas. In fact, she’s constantly inundated by phone and e-mail inquiries from international customers who often don’t speak the same language.
“That’s the fun part,” says Glori, a finalist for the 2002 Manitoba Women Entrepreneur of the Year awards. “I used to be a teacher. So, I love explaining to prospective customers how the K9 Storm vests work. We may not speak the same language, but we have the same goals–to keep dogs safe. We find a way to understand each other.”
K9 Storm has generated an international buzz that’s off the charts. In 2000, the company experienced a sales increase of 530 percent over the previous year. The Slaters have been featured in the Washington Post, on the Discovery Channel, the ABC and NBC networks, and iin several trade and international publications. Last year they also gained access to the Pentagon for an exclusive, international trade show on security and defence.
Glori says her company, one of approximately 10 in the world that produces canine body armour, has supplied vests to squads in virtually every province and U.S. state and in six other countries, including the U.S. and Swiss militaries. Sgt. Gord McGuiness with the Vancouver Police Dog Squad was so impressed when he heard about the K9 Storm vests, he raised $70,000 to outfit all of Vancouver’s 47 police dogs.
“Our dogs have to hit hard, hit fast, and take the suspects down,” says McGuiness, adding that his own life has been saved by his canine sidekick. “I don’t have a human partner, just my dog. This vest allows him to jump and run and affords him the same ballistic protection as his partner.”
Glori takes comfort in that too. “One of our vests recently saved the life of a working dog during a Quebec riot, she says. “To know that we’re keeping dogs safe is a great feeling.”
Article written by Shamona Harnett for
WINNIPEG WOMEN
Winnipeg journalist Shamona Harnett also writes for the Winnipeg Free Press.
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