STI Guru

About STI

STI Interntaional, Inc is a well known Texas- based company. The company was founded in 1990 by Virgil Smith, gunsmith and mechanic, who started to build 1911 for competition use. Most of Virgil’s products were marketed and sold by champion shooter Ch. McCormick, under his company’s name.

In 1993 a hi-capacity 1911 frame for IPSC shooters had been revolutionized by Virgil Tripp along with a computer aided design (CAD) specialist named Sandy Strayer. After introducing the frame to the market and receiving a patent for it, Strayer and Tripp changed the company’s name to STI (Strayer-Tripp Inc.) and changed the focus of the company on building custom pistols solely. After changes in the ownership of the company  it was finally sold by the major shareholder Dave and Shirley Skinner (who bought the company from Virgil Tripp) to the employees of STI, making it the first ESOP company in the firearm industry. Today’s pistols are based on a modular frame made of steel or aluminium depending on the caliber variety.