Sigmalites by LiteTek

Sigmalites by Litetek are an interesting, if not brief, chapter in flashlight history. As is the theme with most posts in this blog Don Keller was the founder of the company. Don was involved with the development and design of most flashlights throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s starting with his invention of the aluminum flashlight in 1968, his self-titled Kel-Lite. Don left Kel-Lite and had a few ventures before starting Maglite with Tony Maglica in 1979. I've covered early Maglite history on my Maglite blog. By 1986 Don was ready to move on, mainly due to creative differences.

The Mini Maglite debuted in 1984 and was a wild success for Maglite as it was the first reliable, durable AA flashlight. However, many consumers wanted more. The most common request was a push button switch for momentary, one handed, and tactical operation. Efforts to add this to the Mini Maglite failed at Maglite so seizing the opportunity to move on after 8 years at Maglite Don ventured out on his own.

In the summer of 1986 Don formed Litetek with a few investors. The idea was to produced a line of AA and AAA mini lights with a rear push button marketed towards both the budding civilian market and legacy law enforcement sales. The idea was to develop a competitor to the Mini Maglite, which was nearly alone in the market. The result was the Sigmalite. Shown below are some of Sigmalite's earliest advertisements showing the different models available. There is an 2 - AA, 2 - AAA, and 2 - AA Flex Light.

Around 100,000 combined models were produced during the first year, a very strong sales number. Each unit was individually serialized. The overall look of the light is remarkably similar to a sized down Bianchi B-Lite or Pro-Light, both of which were designed by Don. Shown below are my 2 Sigmalites. The 2 - AA model is the prototype Sigmalite and is numbered 0000000. The smaller model is a proof of concept 1 - AAA light which was never sold to consumers but was produced to test tooling and and design. It is not numbered.

About midway into 1987 Litetek ran into financial trouble and had to shut production. The partners in the company were over extended on their loans and the money was mismanaged. They unfortunately were not able to get back on their feet and after only one year the Signmalite was no more. Sigmalite made its debut years before Surefires first flashlight and was more or less the same concept. A reliable, hard running, bright mini light that was easily mountable to a weapon and had a push button rear. It is interesting to think that had Sigmalite not run into financial difficulties that most officers and military personal might be carrying Sigmalites today instead of Surefires.

Don moved on to an executive position in Brinkmann where he developed a mini light that's similar to the Sigmalite as well as a full size line of flashlights. I've covered that chapter here.

As always I'm looking to buy vintage and rare aluminum flashlights. Please let me know if you have any, top dollar paid.