Second Chance is an American

body armor Body armour, personal armour (also spelled ''armor''), armoured suit (''armored'') or coat of armour, among others, is armour for human body, a person's body: protective clothing or close-fitting hands-free shields designed to absorb or deflect ...

manufacturing company. The company was founded in the early 1970s by

U.S. Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

and

pizza delivery Pizza delivery is a service in which a pizzeria or pizza chain delivers a pizza to a customer. An order is typically made either by telephone or over the internet, in which the customer can request pizza type and size, and other items to be ...

owner/driver Richard Davis. Davis developed the idea of a bulletproof vest after shooting three armed robbers in self-defense during a delivery. This incident was later documented in a 1995 book written by firearms instructor

Massad Ayoob Massad F. Ayoob (born July 20, 1948) is an American firearms, self-defense instructor and security advisor. He has taught police techniques and civilian self-defense to both law enforcement officers and private citizens since 1974. He was the ...

called ''The Ayoob Files: The Book''. Davis started his company out of his garage. In early sales demonstrations, he would put on one of his vests and then shoot himself, usually with a firearm provided by whatever agency he was demonstrating for. In 1998, Second Chance introduced

Zylon Zylon (IUPAC nomenclature, IUPAC name: poly(''p''-phenylene-2,6-benzobisoxazole)) is a trademarked name for a range of thermoset liquid-crystalline polyoxazole. This synthetic polymer material was invented and developed by SRI International in the ...

-based body armor (bullet-resistant vests), as a lightweight alternative to kevlar. The Zylon material used in the vests was supplied by Japan-based Toyobo. In June 2005, the

National Institute of Justice The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the research, development, and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Offic ...

, the United States government agency responsible for developing safety standards, determined that these Zylon-based vests did not meet the required standards and might have been defective. The

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

advised law enforcement agencies to replace the vests used by police officers. On August 2, 2005, Second Chance was acquired by Armor Holdings, Inc. for US$45 million. In 2022,

Ramin Bahrani Ramin Bahrani (; born March 20, 1975) is an American Film director, director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert ranked Bahrani's Chop Shop (film), ''Chop Shop'' (2007) as the sixth-best film of the 2000s, calling him "the new director of ...

directed a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

called ''2nd Chance'', based on Davis's life and company. It premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

References

Further reading