By early 2025, Kendall Card wanted out.
Not necessarily out as a shareholder.
Not out of the hunting industry.
But out of the day-to-day battle inside the company he'd spent roughly 16 years helping build.
BlackOvis and Camofire were dealing with excess inventory, changing leadership, debt, a strained banking relationship and a dramatically different operating philosophy than the one Kendall and Mark had started with.
Then tariffs hit.
A potential new bank backed out.
An attempt to raise additional equity became increasingly difficult.
And a discovery involving the company's secured lender changed the stakes entirely.
In Part 3 of this four-part First Generation Bowhunter series, Adam Buchanan sits down with BlackOvis and Camofire co-founder Kendall Card to explain the final months leading to the October 2025 Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.
This is Kendall's account of those events, told from his perspective and recollection.
Watch Part 3: Tug of War
Subscribe to First Generation Bowhunter on YouTube
The BlackOvis & Camofire Story
This article is Part 3 of a four-part interview with Camofire and BlackOvis co-founder Kendall Card.
Part 1: 17 Years Building a Hunting Company [ADD PART 1 LINK]
Part 2: The Price of Private Equity [ADD PART 2 LINK]
Part 3: Tug of War
Part 4: Bankruptcy and the Unanticipated Aftermath [ADD PART 4 LINK]
The complete series follows Camofire and BlackOvis from their beginnings through the October 2025 Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing and what happened afterward.
In Part 3
Adam and Kendall cover:
-
Why Kendall decided he wanted to leave the day-to-day business
-
His changing relationship with the people controlling BlackOvis and Camofire
-
Separating from Crispi
-
Problems developing with the company's bank
-
The April 2025 tariff shock
-
BlackOvis-branded products manufactured overseas
-
Conflict surrounding product sourcing
-
An accusation that became Kendall's breaking point
-
A failed attempt to move BlackOvis to a new bank
-
Why BlackOvis held inventory instead of liquidating it
-
Kendall dramatically reducing his role and salary
-
The bank's request for an equity cure
-
Kendall putting additional personal money into the business
-
The UCC filing issue involving the company's lender
-
Why timing suddenly became critical
-
BlackOvis' plan to shrink revenue while improving profitability
-
Attempts to raise additional capital
-
The final negotiations with the bank
-
Kendall refusing to vote for bankruptcy
-
The October 2025 bankruptcy filing
-
Employees returning to ship remaining customer orders
-
Kendall's wife shipping the final order
-
The public narrative that followed
Kendall Had Reached His Limit
Part 2 ends with an uncomfortable realization.
Kendall had spent years pouring himself into BlackOvis and Camofire.
His family had felt the consequences.
Friends were starting to ask if he was okay.
He wasn't enjoying the company anymore.
And the private equity partner he felt closest to was no longer part of the investment team running the business.
Kendall describes realizing that he was now in business with people he never would have personally chosen as partners.
That distinction mattered to him.
One of the great privileges of building your own business is choosing the people you build it with.
Kendall no longer felt like he had that choice.
By February and March 2025, he'd made up his mind.
He wanted out of the day-to-day operation.
Then Another Chapter Closed: Crispi
At roughly the same time, Kendall's relationship with Crispi was changing.
Mark had largely been building and operating the North American Crispi business and wanted full control.
Kendall agreed.
It was another difficult realization.
He didn't necessarily want a check.
He wanted to belong to something he had helped build.
For years, people throughout the hunting industry associated Kendall with three names:
Camofire.
BlackOvis.
Crispi.
Now his connection to one of them was ending while he was actively trying to pull away from the other two.
BlackOvis' Bank Was Getting Nervous
Meanwhile, another problem was developing.
The company's bank was becoming uncomfortable with BlackOvis and Camofire as a borrower.
According to Kendall, the message was essentially:
You need to find another bank.
The company began searching for a lender willing to take over the existing debt and provide a new line of credit.
That process was already difficult.
Then April 2025 arrived.
Tariffs Hit BlackOvis
The tariff situation created an immediate problem for the BlackOvis brand.
Much of the company's private-label BlackOvis product was being manufactured in China, with some production elsewhere including Vietnam and the United States.
Suddenly the economics surrounding incoming product became extremely uncertain.
Would the company pay enormous tariffs?
Would it walk away from inventory already committed at Chinese factories?
Could production be moved to Vietnam?
Egypt?
South America?
The Philippines?
Those weren't theoretical questions.
BlackOvis needed product.
It needed cash.
It needed to know what that product was going to cost.
And the person who had been overseeing much of the BlackOvis product program had recently left.
So despite Kendall trying to step away from the business, the problem landed largely back on his desk.
Kendall Was Pulled Right Back In
Kendall had worked with some of the company's overseas sourcing relationships for roughly 15 years.
New leadership wanted to redesign and improve BlackOvis products and potentially use different sourcing partners.
Kendall wasn't opposed to improving the product.
But he also felt loyalty toward long-standing business partners.
He warned one of those partners that BlackOvis leadership was considering moving in a different direction.
That decision created a serious conflict.
An Accusation Became the Breaking Point
According to Kendall, members of the leadership team questioned whether his loyalty to the existing sourcing relationship involved some sort of personal financial arrangement.
Kendall says the suggestion was completely false.
For him, it was also the final straw.
He could deal with disagreements.
He could deal with different management styles.
He could deal with losing control of the company.
But he didn't want to continue working every day with people who interpreted a relationship he'd maintained for years as potentially involving an improper financial incentive.
His conclusion was simple:
I'm done.
Not necessarily as an owner.
But day to day, he was leaving.
The Bank Search Nearly Worked
While Kendall was pulling away, the company continued searching for another lender.
And it got extremely close.
According to Kendall, a new bank was prepared to take over the debt and become BlackOvis' new lender.
The parties were approximately a day away from signing documents.
Then the deal fell apart.
One factor was an April revenue number.
During the tariff uncertainty, the CEO had made the decision to hold onto inventory rather than aggressively sell it.
The concern was understandable.
If BlackOvis couldn't get replacement inventory because of tariffs and overseas production problems, selling through everything immediately could leave the company without enough product for the rest of the year.
Holding inventory protected future availability.
But it also reduced revenue at a moment when revenue mattered to the prospective lender.
The decision helped derail the financing.
Kendall gives the CEO credit for owning it.
It was a difficult decision made in an extremely uncertain situation.
Kendall Reduced His Salary to $48,000
By this point, Kendall wanted to dramatically reduce his involvement.
He voluntarily lowered his salary to $48,000.
Then he realized something almost poetic.
His ending salary at Camofire and BlackOvis was essentially the same as his beginning salary.
After roughly 16 years.
After tens of millions in revenue.
After dozens of employees.
After building brands recognized throughout western hunting.
He was almost back where he'd started.
His new role was intentionally limited.
Come into the office roughly once a week.
Shoot product videos.
Help with product development.
Write content.
Do the parts of the business he still enjoyed.
And stop trying to run the company.
The Bank Wanted an Equity Cure
The financing problem wasn't going away.
According to Kendall, the existing bank wanted the owners or new investors to put additional capital into the company.
The requested equity cure was approximately $1.5 million over two stages:
$1 million first.
Another $500,000 later.
The idea was straightforward.
The bank wanted more equity supporting the business before it continued lending.
But raising that money was complicated.
The Original Investor Group Had Changed
Remember what had happened earlier in the story.
One of the original private equity principals had left the investment group.
People connected with him had participated in the original BlackOvis and Camofire investment.
Now relationships within that investor group were different.
Kendall says he didn't fully understand those dynamics at the time.
But when the company needed investors to put more money into BlackOvis, those relationships mattered.
The company needed fresh capital.
Not everyone wanted to participate.
Kendall Put More Money Into BlackOvis
Despite trying to leave the day-to-day business, Kendall personally committed additional money.
That creates something that can look confusing in the later bankruptcy documents.
Kendall appears both on the ownership side and as a substantial creditor.
His explanation is that the money was put into the business in an attempt to help save it and contribute toward the capital the company desperately needed.
He wasn't extracting money from BlackOvis.
According to Kendall, he was putting more in.
July 22, 2025 Became an Important Date
The company's existing line of credit ended on July 22, 2025.
The bank then started a new line.
That required another filing related to the bank's security interest in the company's assets.
And what happened next became extremely important.
The UCC Filing Problem
When banks lend money to businesses, they commonly protect their position through a UCC financing statement.
In simplified terms, that can establish the lender as a secured creditor against certain company assets.
If a company fails, secured creditors generally have priority over unsecured creditors when assets are distributed.
BlackOvis had many unsecured creditors, including vendors and brands the company owed money.
During the summer of 2025, a bankruptcy attorney joined discussions with the BlackOvis board.
According to Kendall, questions arose about which parties held secured positions against the company.
Then the company discovered something significant.
Kendall says the bank's previous UCC filing had not been properly maintained or filed, leaving the bank potentially unsecured during a critical period after the new filing.
That changed the entire bankruptcy equation.
Why October Suddenly Mattered
The new filing needed time before the bank's secured position would become protected from avoidance in bankruptcy.
According to Kendall's recollection, October 22 became the critical date.
If the company filed bankruptcy before then, the bank potentially wouldn't have the secured position it otherwise would have held.
That meant the bank could potentially stand alongside other creditors instead of taking priority over most of the company's assets.
From the private equity team's perspective, Kendall says this created a fiduciary question.
If BlackOvis couldn't survive, was it more responsible to file while creditors were on relatively equal footing?
Or wait until the bank's position strengthened, potentially leaving considerably less for everyone else?
Suddenly, time mattered enormously.
BlackOvis Was Trying to Become a Smaller Company
At the same time, BlackOvis wasn't simply trying to continue operating exactly as it had before.
The company had a new strategy.
Instead of carrying roughly 250 brands, the plan was to reduce that dramatically, perhaps to around 25 to 40.
BlackOvis would focus much more heavily on its own branded apparel and equipment.
Revenue would intentionally decline.
According to Kendall, the company had been around the $30 million range historically.
For 2025, the forecast was closer to $22 million to $23 million.
For 2026, the plan could take revenue closer to $15 million to $16 million.
But the objective wasn't simply shrinking.
The objective was becoming more profitable.
Higher margins.
Faster-turning inventory.
Fewer brands.
More BlackOvis product.
Less gross revenue.
More net profit.
It was ambitious.
Kendall doesn't believe it was necessarily impossible.
The Borrowing Base Created a Paradox
There was another problem.
BlackOvis was reducing inventory.
Normally that sounds healthy.
But inventory was also part of the asset base supporting the company's borrowing capacity.
As inventory declined, the amount BlackOvis could borrow also declined.
So the company could simultaneously become healthier from an inventory perspective while becoming tighter on cash.
That cash was needed to pay for incoming merchandise and keep the company operating.
BlackOvis needed breathing room.
Another Investor Was Almost There
The company continued trying to raise money.
Kendall had already contributed.
Other parties were prepared to contribute.
An outside investor was expected to bring additional capital.
Then, roughly two weeks before the eventual bankruptcy filing, that investor experienced a problem with the sale of a commercial property.
The anticipated money wasn't available on schedule.
BlackOvis needed more time.
Q3 Was Showing Signs of Improvement
This is another important wrinkle.
According to Kendall, Q3 results were strong.
The company had also negotiated repayment arrangements with brands it owed money.
The plan was to work through those obligations during 2026.
People inside the company had done significant work trying to create a path forward.
Kendall gives the private equity team considerable credit here.
Despite all of their disagreements, he believes they worked extremely hard trying to save BlackOvis.
That's important.
This isn't a story where Kendall portrays himself as the hero and private equity as a group of people gleefully shutting the company down.
The reality was more complicated.
BlackOvis Asked the Bank for 90 More Days
The company needed time.
According to Kendall, leadership asked the bank for approximately another 90 days.
Give BlackOvis time to raise the additional equity.
Give it time to work through Q4.
Give it time to receive product.
Give the restructuring plan a chance.
Negotiations reached high levels within the bank.
Kendall describes the private equity team as essentially pleading for additional flexibility.
But the bank wouldn't provide one of the key concessions the company needed.
Kendall remembers the message as essentially:
We'll take our lumps now rather than later.
Do what you need to do.
A Game of Chicken
From Kendall's perspective, the final negotiations became something like a game of chicken.
BlackOvis knew the bank's secured position was vulnerable during that period.
The company could potentially file bankruptcy before the bank's position strengthened.
The bank knew BlackOvis desperately needed additional flexibility and cash.
Neither side moved enough.
The deadline was getting closer.
And eventually, the decision went to the board.
Kendall Refused to Vote for Bankruptcy
Kendall was still a shareholder.
He was still on the board.
He still had responsibilities to the company.
But when the final bankruptcy vote came, he couldn't do it.
He told the board he would not vote to file bankruptcy on a company he'd founded.
According to Kendall's recollection, he was told his vote wasn't needed.
That hurt.
He then made one last request.
If the company had to shut down, let BlackOvis and Camofire do it themselves.
Let them liquidate the inventory through the channels they'd spent years building.
Let them take care of people as best they could.
In Kendall's words:
Let us do it honorably.
October 17, 2025
On Friday, October 17, the decision was made.
Employees were told.
Kendall says the board believed bankruptcy was the most responsible option given the creditor situation and the approaching date when the bank's secured position could strengthen.
The company websites were shut down so they wouldn't continue taking orders that might never ship.
But there were already customer orders in the system.
Kendall wasn't willing to leave them there.
Employees Came Back to Ship Orders
Kendall rallied employees who were willing to stay.
They started picking.
Packing.
Shipping.
They worked through the existing orders.
Then they returned Monday.
Kendall remembers roughly six or seven people helping.
His wife came too.
They shipped every remaining Camofire order.
According to Kendall's recollection, they shipped all but roughly 34 BlackOvis orders.
The remaining orders were canceled and refunded before the bankruptcy filing.
His wife shipped the final package.
Then they closed the doors.
October 20, 2025
On Monday, October 20, the bankruptcy was filed.
For Kendall, it appeared to be the end of a 17-year chapter.
He recorded a video outside the building that he never posted.
He thanked the employees.
He thanked the customers.
He acknowledged that there wasn't some giant financial payday waiting for him at the end.
And he believed it would be the last day he ever walked into the BlackOvis building.
It wasn't.
Then the Internet Started Filling in the Blanks
News traveled quickly.
Customers tried visiting the sites.
Orders wouldn't go through.
People started texting.
Forums started discussing what had happened.
Social media comments appeared.
And people began creating their own explanations.
That's understandable.
From the outside, Kendall was still BlackOvis.
He was the founder.
The face.
The person customers knew.
What people couldn't see were years of ownership changes, board decisions, banking negotiations, debt, investor relationships, leadership transitions and Kendall's own reduced authority inside the company.
Kendall describes it like looking through a narrow opening in a fence.
You can see part of what's happening on the other side.
But you can't see the entire landscape.
Why Kendall Wanted to Tell This Story
That's one of the reasons Kendall agreed to this four-part interview.
He hadn't publicly shaped much of the narrative after the bankruptcy.
Other people did.
Some had only small pieces of information.
Some drew conclusions.
Some blamed Kendall.
He doesn't fault people simply for asking what happened.
He does believe parts of the story surrounding his role were unfair or incomplete.
So this series gives him the opportunity to explain what happened from his perspective.
Not as the definitive perspective of every person involved.
But as the account of a founder who was there from the beginning.
The Bankruptcy Was Filed. The Story Wasn't Over.
BlackOvis and Camofire were now in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The websites were down.
Employees had been told.
Customer orders had been shipped or refunded as far as Kendall and the remaining team could manage.
The doors were closing.
For most people, that's where the story would end.
For Kendall, it wasn't even close.
Because after the bankruptcy filing came the warehouse.
The inventory.
The creditors.
The public criticism.
The accusations.
And an aftermath Kendall says he never anticipated.
That's where Part 4 begins.
FAQ's
When did BlackOvis and Camofire file bankruptcy?
According to Kendall's account, the board made the decision on October 17, 2025, and the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing occurred on October 20, 2025.
Why did BlackOvis file bankruptcy?
Kendall describes a combination of excess inventory, debt, changing banking relationships, cash constraints, difficulties raising additional equity, tariffs, leadership changes and a failed attempt to obtain additional flexibility from the company's lender.
Did tariffs contribute to BlackOvis' problems?
According to Kendall, tariffs created significant uncertainty because much of the BlackOvis-branded product was manufactured in China. The company had to consider whether to accept significantly higher costs, walk away from existing production or move sourcing elsewhere.
Was BlackOvis trying to find another bank?
Yes. Kendall says the company came extremely close to completing a deal with another lender that would take over the existing debt and provide a new line of credit, but the deal fell through before signing.
What was BlackOvis' plan before bankruptcy?
The company planned to dramatically reduce the number of outside brands it carried and focus more heavily on BlackOvis-branded products. The strategy intentionally called for lower revenue but potentially higher margins and profitability.
Did Kendall Card put more money into BlackOvis before bankruptcy?
According to Kendall, yes. He says he committed a substantial amount of additional personal money in 2025 in an attempt to help save the company. He says this is why bankruptcy documents list him as both an owner and a significant creditor.
Why was the UCC filing important?
A UCC financing statement can establish a lender's secured interest in business assets. Kendall says a filing issue involving the company's bank created a period during which the bank's secured position was potentially vulnerable, making the timing of any bankruptcy filing extremely important to the treatment of creditors.
Did Kendall Card vote to file BlackOvis bankruptcy?
No. Kendall says he refused to vote in favor of filing bankruptcy on the company he had founded. According to his recollection, he was told his vote wasn't required for the board to move forward.
What happened to customer orders when BlackOvis shut down?
Kendall says a small group of employees returned to fulfill as many existing orders as possible. He recalls every remaining Camofire order being shipped and all but roughly 34 BlackOvis orders being fulfilled, with the remaining affected orders canceled and refunded before the bankruptcy filing.
Why is Kendall Card telling the BlackOvis story now?
Kendall says he wants to explain his perspective after watching other narratives develop publicly following the bankruptcy. He acknowledges that his account is his perspective and that people outside the company often had only limited visibility into the events leading to the filing.
What happened after BlackOvis filed bankruptcy?
The bankruptcy filing began an entirely new chapter involving the remaining inventory, warehouse, creditors and public response. Part 4 of this First Generation Bowhunter series covers that aftermath.
Continue with Part 4: Bankruptcy and the Unanticipated Aftermath
Watch Part 4 Here
Listen to First Generation Bowhunter
First Generation Bowhunter tells the stories, lessons and realities behind bowhunting and the outdoor industry.
Hosted by Adam Buchanan, the show features conversations with hunters, founders and outdoor industry leaders alongside the experiences of figuring out bowhunting as a first-generation hunter.
Watch and subscribe on YouTube
