5.11 Tactical expanding; Dan Costa gets back in the game

The business of making the gear favored by SWAT teams and military members is booming.

5.11 Tactical, which started in Modesto with one pair of pants in 1999 and grew into a company with $300 million in annual sales, is expanding with a new warehouse in Manteca, where it will move its Modesto employees next year.

And Dan Costa, the original owner of 5.11 Tactical, has started another company in the same field and will be moving back into the Spyres Way facility he still owns.

Both companies make and market clothing and other items aimed at public safety personnel and military members. And both also sell the clothing to an increasingly interested public market.

5.11 Tactical, which has a development center in Irvine and warehouses in Modesto and Lathrop, will consolidate its Central Valley locations into one larger site in Manteca, company officials announced Friday.

The new Ops Center, as it’s called, will be located at South Airport Way and Roth Road. At 400,000 square feet, the new facility will be 33 percent larger than the two Central Valley facilities combined, 5.11 public relations manager Michael Anderson said.

“It’s a great business decision,” Anderson said. “Right now, we are kind of bursting at the seams. We really wanted to put everybody under one roof.”

Matt Sinclair, senior vice president of sales for 5.11 Tactical, said he’s thrilled with the opportunity to grow in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, where he has remained.

“I have the good fortune of being employee No. 5 at 5.11 in 2003,” Sinclair said. “I helped start the company with Dan Costa and a couple of other folks. I never thought it would expand like this.”

Sinclair stayed with 5.11 when Costa, a Modesto entrepreneur, sold the company in 2007. The company later moved some of its employees to Irvine, where it employs 117 people. Another 217 work between Modesto and Lathrop.

That move prompted Costa to get back into the tactical gear business, starting First Tactical in 2015.

“The reason we got back into tactical was because when 5.11 moved there were a lot of people who didn’t keep their jobs,” Costa said. “We had people come from all over the country to help us grow 5.11 and the move displaced some of those people. We weren’t going to let them down.”

Costa also started Noble Outfitters, aimed at horse enthusiasts, and took over as CEO of Sherpa Adventure Gear earlier this year. He said he will move the headquarters for all three back into the Modesto building he still owns when 5.11 Tactical moves out next fall.

Though he is competing against the business he built up from a single pair of pants, Costa said First Tactical is doing well.

“We’ve been at it about a year now,” he said. “We have distribution in about 15 countries. It’s just a new little baby right now but we’re getting good, positive feedback on the brand.”

This story was originally published October 22, 2016 at 3:19 PM with the headline "5.11 Tactical expanding; Dan Costa gets back in the game."