The Serpa Holster: A Global Success, by Blackhawk
The Serpa holsters are among the most renowned Blackhawk products. They are used worldwide by numerous military units including the US Army, the Marine Corps, the Bundeswehr, and the Swiss Army, but are also in service with many law enforcement agencies. Unlike many products that use acronyms as names, the word Serpa actually comes from its creator, Michael Lawrence Serpa. It was he who developed the specific retention system for this design, a patent he filed in 1997 and obtained approval in 1999.
Michael L. Serpa's primary motivation was safety: the trigger was the death of a police officer who, although in civilian clothes and with a pistol meant to be carried discreetly, had his weapon snatched by a criminal who turned it against him. The observation was simple: service holsters for open carry offered very effective weapon retention security, but discreet carry holsters, for the most part, resembled a simple pouch.
But while secure retention was needed to keep the weapon in place and thus prevent any snatching, it also had to be drawn naturally, almost instinctively, to be able to face all situations even when stress is at its peak. It was by thinking this way that Michael L. Serpa came up with the idea of inventing a retention system that firmly held the weapon in the holster but allowed it to be drawn quickly, safely, and very smoothly, and moreover, this mechanism had to remain practically invisible and not make the holster bulky or cumbersome.
Filed in 1997, granted to its inventor in 1999, the patent was then bought in the early 2000s by Mike Noël, founder of the Blackhawk brand, who saw the possibilities and the very high level of security offered by this holster.
Subsequently, this system was improved and new patents were filed by Blackhawk, now owned by Vista Outdoor LLC. Nowadays, the manufacturing of holsters is entirely done in the USA, in the Boise, Idaho factory, where tens of thousands of holsters of all models are produced each month, all equipped with the Serpa system. They are made from extremely durable materials, the composition of which is still jealously guarded. The only thing known is that the plastic polymer used is very similar to Kydex in terms of strength and resistance properties.
Ironically, Michael L. Serpa is a born inventor, a sort of Californian "Gyro Gearloose" who has filed patents in fields as diverse as data encryption, bicycles, turbines, irons, golf, and more! But it is most certainly with his retention system for holsters that he will go down in history, at least in the world of Law Enforcement and Armed Forces.