About TBO-TECH Self Defense Products
Most people find us on a bad night.
Something happened. A car followed you too long. A neighbor got broken into. Your daughter is moving into her first apartment and you can't stop thinking about the parking lot. So you start searching, and here you are.
We know that feeling. It's why this company exists.
TBO-TECH Staff - We're here to help you be more secure!
Tea, Jennifer, Shannon, Steve, Warren
How This Started
I started TBO-TECH in April of 2000, during my last tour of an eleven-year career in the United States Army.
I'd spent over a decade around people whose job was staying prepared. Then I looked at the civilian side and saw regular families with almost nothing between them and a bad situation. Not because they didn't care. Because nobody had ever handed them a decent option or explained how to use it.
We started small. Over twenty-five years later, we're still doing the same thing — just for a lot more people.
Why We Chose Non-Lethal
This is the part people ask about most, so let's take it head-on.
Non-lethal isn't a downgrade. It's a decision.
Most dangerous situations don't call for lethal force. They call for a few seconds and some distance. Someone grabs your arm in a parking garage. You need him to let go, and you need to be moving. That's the whole problem. A stun gun, a can of pepper spray, or a personal alarm solves that problem — and you go home without having taken a life or spent the next two years in court.
A tool you'll actually carry beats a tool you leave in a drawer because it scares you.
That's the standard everything on this site has to meet.
What We Carry, and What We Don't
Every product on this site had to earn its spot.
We look at how it holds up, whether it works the same way on day four hundred as it did on day one, and whether an ordinary person can operate it under stress without reading a manual first. If a product looks impressive on a spec sheet but fumbles in a real hand on a real bad night, we don't carry it. We've dropped products for exactly that reason.
We also won't tell you something works better than it does.
You'll notice we describe what a product is designed to do rather than promising what it will do to an attacker. Anyone who guarantees you an outcome is selling you a feeling, not a tool. We'd rather you buy the right thing and know its limits than buy the expensive thing and count on something that isn't there.
Straight Answers Before You Buy
We've spent 26 years answering the same handful of questions, and we've never gotten tired of them.
Which pepper spray for a keychain versus a purse. Whether a stun gun is legal where you live. What to actually do in the four seconds after you use one. Whether the small one is enough for your mother.
Ask us. That's what the contact page is for, and there's a real person on the other end of it.
We also put a lot of work into the guides and product write-ups on this site. Read them even if you buy somewhere else. Somebody walking around prepared is a win, and we're not picky about where the gear came from.
A note on the law: Self-defense product laws vary by state, and sometimes by city or county. A few places restrict stun guns or limit pepper spray strength and canister size. We flag what we know on our pages, but the rules change and we can't give legal advice. Check your own state and local laws before you order.
Still a Family Business
TBO-TECH is still run by family.
That's not a marketing line — it's why the reviews are honest and why the person answering your email knows the products. When a customer has a bad experience, it lands on our desk. We like it that way. It keeps us careful.
Hopefully you'll never need anything you buy from us.
That's the honest hope. Buy the pepper spray, carry it for 3-4 years, and throw it out expired. That's the best possible outcome and we'll take it every time.
But if you're ever in the ten seconds where it matters, we want the thing in your hand to work, and we want you to know how to use it.
That's the job. It's been the job since 2000.