Four skydivers in Eloy, Arizona—Sara and Steve Curtis, Jason Peters and George Reuter—recently purchased Firebird Skydiving, maker of the EVO harness-and-container system (and previously, the Omega sport and tandem harness-and-container systems and the Contrail, Demon, Cayenne and Chilli canopies).

The current product line consists of the EVO sport, student and tandem containers and the Rush and Quick reserves. The company is planning on releasing new magnetic riser covers, a main-assisted-reservedeployment system and a line of main canopies later this year. Firebird, which manufactured its products in Germany and the Czech Republic since Bernd Pohl founded the company in 1995, has now moved its production facility to Eloy, Arizona. Some manufacturing processes will remain in Germany and the Czech Republic, but assembly of the harness, final assembly, quality control and the manufacture of approximately 80 percent of spare parts will take place in Eloy. Firebird’s goal is to make skydiving gear safer with a range of innovative design features and also to bring down the cost of gear. The company plans to do this by using an efficient workflow, as well as direct-to-consumer sales. The company estimates that eliminating the dealer fee will save consumers an average of 15 to 20 percent. More information on Firebird USA and its products is available at flyfirebird.com.