The Surprising Success Story Of Vortex Optics

Back in 1986, a dentist and a nurse moved to Middleton and started a humble store that sold mostly items related to birdwatching. 

A few days ago, the company that evolved out of it won a major riflescope contract from the United States Army. 

What happened in between is a success story that is uniquely American and was full of surprises, even for those who lived it. 

“Sometimes when people ask us where we’ll be in five to 10 years, we say we don’t know,” says Jimmy Hamilton, one of their sons and the current chief media ambassador for Vortex Optics. “And it’s because we genuinely don’t know. Sometimes we surprise ourselves.” 

The little store founded by Dan and Margie Hamilton grew and changed. In 2002, it led to the founding of Vortex, which now designs and crafts a plethora of products, from binoculars and rangefinders to riflescopes, tripods and much more. Vortex has dealers throughout the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa, Australia and beyond. Its customers range from notepad-wielding ornithological enthusiasts to armor-clad soldiers on battlefields across the globe. 

“It’s been a continual morphing process,” explains Hamilton. 

“Early on they offered some optics. We didn’t even realize it, it was almost by osmosis, but what happened was hunters liked our [binoculars], so hunters sort of came to us,” he recalls.  

It’s a family full of engineers, veterans, and intrepid business explorers. When put together, those components created the Vortex that stands today, with a large, bustling 300-person facility located in Barneveld, complete with a showroom, and a shooting range currently under construction. 

“Optics is probably one of the most complex things on the market,” Hamilton observes. “Just about every type of engineering - well, except maybe civil engineering - goes into it. It gets pretty intense pretty quickly,  but the goal of everything is to see.”

All vision boils down to light. If a crayon looks yellow, it’s because yellow light bounces off of it more than other colors of light do. And optics, going all the way back to a Dutch eyeglass maker who patented the first telescope in 1608, find a variety of ways to magnify images and send them on to the human eye, showing things as they exist in the real world, but clearer and larger than they would be with the naked eye. 

There are various ways to do it, from the prisms employed in binoculars to the ocular lenses and power rings of a riflescopes. It takes an army of engineers and dreamers to think up new ways of doing it, and Hamilton says the Vortex research and development department is always brimming with prototypes and new ideas. 

“There are places we haven’t been yet,” says Hamilton. He hopes to go there. 

Those that help people see – whether it’s for a competitive birdwatcher trying to cross the New Caledonian owlet-nightjar off her list, or a competitive shooter squeezing the trigger in an effort to bring home another trophy – gain a foothold in the marketplace. 

“I think a lot of it comes down to [the fact that] you’ve got to make good products,” says Hamilton. “You’ve got to determine what the customers want.”

One thing customers want is for their gear to get fixed if it gets trampled underfoot while crossing a mountain pass, gets mauled by a bear on a camping trip (a true story told by Hamilton), or gets run over by the family minivan. Which is why Vortex, following the lead of companies like L.L. Bean and Craftsman in years gone by, offers a famously magnanimous warranty. 

“I’ve never seen anything that’s impossible to break,” says Hamilton. “There’s a realism to [the warranty]. We know things happen, and when they do, we want that person to be able to send it in and have it replaced or repaired. It doesn’t matter; we’re going to take care of it.”

While today Vortex sells some of the highest end products around, it wasn’t always that way. 

“When Vortex started out, it was not making anything near the best on the market,” says Hamilton. “But it was making good, quality products.”

He says it took years of feedback, tinkering, experimenting and growing to get to where the company is today.

“There is no way on the first day, even with infinite resources, that we could have made the kinds of products we make today,” he says. “It took a lot of learning.”

Mark Boardman, Vortex’s brand experience manager, says optics are light years ahead of where the used to be. 

“I look at it a little bit like computers,” Boardman says. “They used to cost millions of dollars and fill the room, but now you can get [the equivalent of that] on your phone. It’s the same with optics.”

It’s not hyperbole to say Vortex makes some of the top scopes in the world, according to their fans. Some cost thousands of dollars and perform at levels making them popular with competitive shooters and celebrity hunters. But those aren’t the only customers Vortex is making optics for.

“The vast majority of people are not buying a $2,000 scope,” says Boardman. “It’s just not realistic.”

“Your more affordable products are always going to be the ones you sell the majority of,” agrees Hamilton. “Those are the things that keep the lights on and pay for the engineers.”

“It’s people, products and promises,” says Boardman. “Those all have great meaning for the Hamiltons themselves.” 

“A lot of folks at Vortex, they live the brand,” he continues. “They are hunters, military, law enforcement, they are long range competitive shooters, small game hunters, whitetail hunters, big game hunters. The only way to really understand certain things is to hear from those groups.”

Boardman says the secret to Votex’s success is probably less mysterious than folks think. 

“A lot of people think Vortex kind of came out of nowhere, and because of that perception they want to know the secret sauce,” he says. “It really just comes down to the fundamentals, though; to treating people the way you want to be treated.”

There might be another ingredient, though, and it has to do with a dentist and a nurse who hitched up their wagon, moved to Middleton, and started a small shop in 1986. 

“Jimmy won’t say it, but the Hamiltons are some of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life,” says Boardman. “Seriously.”