SOF Week 2026: Meeting the Community SAFEgaiter Was Built For

In May, Watchbird had a stand at SOF Week in Tampa with NADIC, the largest annual gathering of the global special operations community. We've come to expect a lot from trade shows, but this one is different: for the third year in a row, SAFEgaiter was in front of the exact community it was designed for, and the response made the trip worth it on its own.

Why SAFEgaiter exists

SAFEgaiter™ started with a problem, not a product idea. It grew out of operational experience in Afghanistan, where personnel were routinely exposed to heavy dust, burn pits, exhaust and other airborne particles with no real respiratory protection built for the job. A full gas mask wasn't always the answer, too much burden for environments that didn't call for it. So Watchbird together with FFI (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment) built something in between: a simple, low-burden gaiter that gives meaningful protection against airborne particles without getting in the way of the mission.

Hearing it straight from the community

That history is exactly why SOF Week mattered. Talking with SOF operators at the stand meant talking with people who've lived the problem SAFEgaiter was built to solve — and hearing, directly, that it holds up. It's one thing to know a product works from your own testing; it's another to stand across from the community it was designed for and hear them say the same thing.

"We created SAFEgaiter around a problem experienced in Afghanistan, and we've tested it for years in the lab and with operators. But nothing beats standing at SOF Week and hearing operators describe the exact same problem — and confirming that SAFEgaiter addresses their needs.

— Axel Krabbrød, Operations Manager, Watchbird"

SOF Week didn't just put SAFEgaiter in front of a bigger audience. It closed the loop between where the idea came from and the people it was always meant to serve.