Fort Knox is a hunting and archery brand founded in Orem, Utah, in 1982.
Fort Knox got its name before it had a safe. Around a campfire on a hunting trip, one of the friends who started the company said that whatever they built had to be as secure as Fort Knox, according to American Rifleman. Tom James shared the idea with those friends on a 1978 trip, and in 1982, after the group had built safes for their own collections, he launched Fort Knox Security Products in Orem.
It still runs from the Orem building where it started, and the original shop is now part of the factory. In 2019 American Rifleman counted about 25 safes a day, with 90 percent sold to dealers before they were built. Spacers slip over pins to leave a thin air gap between the outer wall and the fire lining, which slows the heat.
The founder's son TJ became president in the early 1990s, and the company is still family owned, with a third generation now working there. Fort Knox says tornadoes have picked up its safes and thrown them 150 yards, with everything inside saved. Most of us just need one big enough to hold the rifle we have not bought yet.
In 2025 Fort Knox said it had replaced a customer's safe from 1988 under its lifetime warranty after an attempted break-in.
