How Proven Industries Can Repair the McNally Damage 

A Path Forward After the McNally Court Case

You can read the first two blogs in this series HERE - but read the UPDATE one second, obviously.

In the wake of the very public fallout between Proven Industries and YouTuber Trevor McNally, one question lingers like an unopened return box: can Proven Industries recover from this?

They’ve suffered reputational damage, social media backlash, negative press, and - most importantly - a complete loss of trust among lock picking enthusiasts. After their product was defeated with a soda can on McNally’s channel, instead of owning the issue, they took him to court. And the court case did not go their way.

They didn’t just lose in legal terms - they lost in the court of public opinion, where transparency, accountability, and basic humility go a lot further than cease and desist letters.

By the way, this is the lock that started it all. I used the image of the blue puck lock in the previous blogs, as that's the one in the videos that McNally has been continuing to pick, and as far as my research tells me, it's the same locking mechanism, the same vulnerability, and therefore the same exploit. Let me know if I'm wrong, I won't take you to court!

But this doesn’t have to be the end of the story. If Proven Industries want to turn this around, they need to stop fighting and start listening. They need a reset - not a rebrand, but a rebuild. Here's what that could look like.

1. Own the Flaw and Acknowledge the Lock Picking Community

McNally didn’t break the rules. He exposed a flaw. That’s what responsible lock pickers do - test security, document weaknesses, and hold manufacturers accountable. Treating that as an attack rather than a service was the first major misstep in this court case.

Proven Industries must now recognize that the lock picking scene is not the enemy - it’s the proving ground. Pun intended.

2. Stop Litigating. Start Collaborating.

The more they filed, the more McNally filmed. Each new video further dismantled the narrative they were trying to protect. Every attempt to suppress content became another boost to its reach.

Litigation isn’t a PR strategy. The only path back is engagement. Ask questions, invite feedback, and bring critics into the conversation rather than trying to silence them.

3. Take Inspiration from the Medeco Model

When Medeco’s high-security Biaxial M3 lock was compromised, they didn’t run to court. They contacted the researcher who found the flaws - Marc Weber Tobias - and worked with him to improve future designs. It wasn’t just a recovery, it was a reputational win. They became stronger by admitting they weren’t perfect.

Proven Industries could follow this exact route. In fact, they still can.

4. Issue a Genuine, Public Apology

If there’s one move that could shift the entire mood around this story, it’s this: a nuclear-humble apology. Not legalese. Not spin. Just honest, public accountability. Here’s what they should say:

“We got it wrong.
We’re sorry - to Trevor McNally, and to the entire locksport and YouTube lock picking community.

We now realize there’s a better way to handle criticism. But at the time, we panicked. This is our business, a family business, and it began with the best of intentions. Years ago, we had our trailer stolen - over $40,000 of equipment gone. And the heartbreaking part? We’d secured it with a cheap coupler lock. That’s what inspired us to start Proven Industries.

We’re an American company, and we manufacture in the USA. But being patriotic isn’t the same as being right. Looking back, our response to McNally’s video was knee-jerk. We felt our livelihoods were under threat, and we lashed out instead of listening.

That ends now.

We’d like to publicly invite Trevor McNally - or any skilled lock picker - to work with us. We want to build better locks. Premium locks. Products that genuinely live up to their claims.

Our reputation has taken a hit, and we own that. But we also believe this could be an opportunity - not just to put things right, but to improve on what we started.

As of today, we are dropping all legal action. We're going back to basics: making American locks that do the job they're supposed to do - secure trailers.

This won’t be quick, and we won’t pretend it’s simple. But we’re committed to earning back the trust we lost. With help from the very people we once saw as adversaries, we believe we can create something better than before.

In the end, this could be a win-win. But only if we do our part."

Final Thoughts: It’s Not Too Late, But It’s Close

The court case didn’t just reveal a flawed lock. It revealed a flawed mindset - a company trying to protect its brand by silencing the people showing the truth.

Proven Industries now has a choice. They can keep playing defence, or they can step up, show some humility, and start making the kind of locks they claim to make. The kind that people like McNally would find hard to open - not because they haven’t tried, but because they’ve been involved in the improvement.

It’s not about being unbreakable. It’s about being honest.

Let’s see what they do.

Oh, one last thing. Three years ago, Proven Industries uploaded this video to YouTube, entitled: "The Lock  Lock Picking Lawyer Would Use". In a way, they're right; he'd use it to give to Trevor McNally to make a simple bypass video and expose a terrible vulnerability in the locking mechanism. Oh well, sometimes you can't get a break!

Happy Picking, people.

Chris Dangerfield