2018 Women's Innovation Product of the Year: LWRCI IC-Diadem

While many handgun manufacturers have introduced models designed for women over the past few years, AR makers have lagged behind—until now. LWRCI sought the opinions of more than 100 women affiliated with The Well Armed Woman organization to create the ideal AR-15 rifle for female gun owners, and the resultant LWRCI IC-Diadem is just that. Rather than merely coloring the handguards pink and slapping an adjustable stock on the rifle, LWRCI incorporated multiple changes to its IC-DI line to ensure fit, comfort, recoil mitigation and a touch of pizzazz, as requested by actual women, to create an AR-15 that women actually want.

"…140 women within [The Well Armed Woman organization gave] their recommendations, and the wheels for the perfect woman’s AR started turning.”—Barbara Baird

To build the LWRCI Diadem, Carrie Lightfoot, founder of The Well Armed Woman, and her team compiled a spreadsheet with the results and sent it to LWRCI to use as part of the design process. Lightfoot understood that LWRCI told its engineers to “give the women what they want.” The first gun rolled off the line in July 2017, with a run of 1,000 units and only available for a short time at a discount to TWAW chapter members across the country. The LWRCI Diadem now is available to the public.

In her review, SI Contributor Barbara Baird noted that LWRCI did not create this rifle from whole cloth, as several of the LWRCI Diadem’s features are the same or similar to other rifles from the company’s DI line, including the integrated gas key on the rifle’s nickel-boron-coated bolt-carrier group, a spiral-fluted NiCorr-treated barrel and LWRCI’s Monoforge upper receiver.

It did, however, meet the requirements for a group of women who knew what they wanted. To date, Lightfoot says feedback about the Diadem has been extremely positive. “The women appreciate that the gun is not ‘girly,’ and that it’s in black,” added Lightfoot.