Marco Hierzer from Hexagon is a gifted holster manufacturer. The police officer set up his own business with Hexagon in 2022 and made his dream come true: producing perfectly customized holsters made of Kydex for pistols and tools of all kinds exactly according to customer requirements and “Made in Austria”. In this interview, he explains how this came about, what is special about the holsters and what drives him in his craft.
Marco, what professional background do you bring to your company?
I attended the military secondary school in Wiener Neustadt and later joined the armyfor another six years after my EF (one-year volunteer training). After that, in 2014, I joined the police. I worked there for two years in the not necessarily quietest corner of Graz in field service. Finally, I went to the Graz sector, a special unit of the federal police in Styria. The work there is very demanding and varied. Especially during my time in the military and police, I was able to gain a lot of experience with weapons and equipment. I am also a passionate shooter and now also a collector.
“I don’t regret a second in the police. There, and before that in the military, I learned stress resistance and to focus on the essentials.”
Marco Hierzer, Gründer von Hexagon
How did the idea of founding Hexagon come about?
Hexagon was founded out of necessity. At the Graz sector, we were training with weapon lights, of course. At that time, I got myself a new weapon light, for which there was no holster with the appropriate safety at the time, at least not for me, because I am left-handed. Not unskilled as a craftsman, I dared to make my first holster out of this necessity. I enjoyed the work and quickly realized that I had a certain talent for it. Then a good friend approached me and also wanted to be fitted with holsters. And so it went on and on. At some point he said: “Marco, why don’t you start your own business? The product works and is cool.” That was the initial spark to take the plunge. Everything else was “learning by doing” and a lot of testing.
I started with holsters purely for pistols. However, customers also presented me with ideas and requests that I then wanted to implement myself. They wanted holsters for magazines, knives and other items of equipment. The holsters on the market for other items of equipment tend to be quite simple in design and are usually only available in black. However, since I pay attention to details and customize as much as possible, customers are now also happy about the new products.
I find it exciting myself. I love anything that requires brainpower. Customers come to me with ideas and requests and want special solutions. I’m on fire for that kind of thing. I tinker, plan and work on the implementation. Anything that has to do with product development and testing, that’s where I feel at home. I really like that.
By the way: I later hung up my very first holster in the workshop for everyone to see. It really didn’t turn out very nicely. (laughs) But you can see how I started and where we are now, after six generations of holsters at Hexagon.
“Customer satisfaction is very important to me. The product should be what the customer wants it to be.”
Marco Hierzer, Gründer von Hexagon
What makes Hexagon holsters so special? What is important to you about Hexagon products?
It’s important to me that everything we do is handmade. The advisory function is also very important to me. I take the time to ask what the holster is to be used for. The weapon, holster and situation should be perfectly matched. During the consultation, it often turns out that the customer’s ideas at the beginning of the conversation don’t always match what they actually want. We then work together to find the right solution.
So quality is always our top priority. It’s important to me that I take the time to work on the holsters, because if I’m offering such products, the quality must never suffer. I’d rather it takes a day or two longer than the quality suffers. Of course I want to keep the manual work. I’m not interested in automation.
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We also have a very large basic stock of patterns that we have in stock and can also procure. It gets really exciting when a custom pattern is required, be it from an existing graphic file or just a rough idea. We then work together with a Kydex coater in the USA who offers absolute top quality. The print is applied to the Kydex as a separate layer and therefore cannot fray like a layer glued to the Kydex. Despite this effort, we pay great attention to fair prices, as we repeatedly receive feedback from customers. Overall, however, we focus on “Made in Austria”. What’s brand new is that we no longer have to order the leg straps from abroad, but have them custom-made by Radial Gear in Austria.
What challenges did you face?
It has to be said: the bureaucracy was already an obstacle. You need a few professional qualifications and commercial certificates to be able to register the business. In addition to the entrepreneur examination, I also had to take an extract from the master craftsman’s examination for the plastics trade. That took a correspondingly long time. It therefore took a year and a half from the idea to registering the company in October 2022.
I could have given up many times because of the effort involved, but I wanted to see it through. Despite all the effort, looking back, it was one of the best things that could have happened to me in terms of actually starting a business. I had a year and a half to set up the company. I was able to take my time with the suppliers to find out who produced the best Kydex, who made the best samples and who had the right delivery time, quality and price. So by the time I actually started the business, I already had a very good portfolio and was able to supply products of the right quality.
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