SMITH & WESSON BRANDS, INC.

This summary highlights information contained elsewhere in this Proxy Statement. You should read this entire Proxy Statement carefully before voting. In this Proxy Statement, Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries) is referred to as "the Company," "we," "us," or "our."

• =Independent Nominee; ** =Committee Chair; §= Chairman

AC = Audit Committee; CC = Compensation Committee; SC = Sustainability Committee; NCG = Nominations and Corporate Governance Committee

2025 Proxy Statement I 1

Proxy Statement Summary

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Our key accomplishments for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2025 (“fiscal 2025”) include the following:

Executed Disciplined Capital Allocation StrategyIn fiscal 2025,•We returned $48.6 million to stockholders through dividends ($23.1 million) and share repurchases ($25.5 million)•We invested $21.6 million in capital expenditures.

GOVERNANCE HIGHLIGHTS

Board Refreshment

We recognize the importance of board refreshment. More than 70% of our director nominees have joined our board of directors (the "Board") since 2018, demonstrating the Board’s commitment to refreshment, including with independent nominees who provide perspectives and experience to support our strategy.

Risk Oversight

Given the nature of our business, the Board remains focused on overseeing risk management. In addition to the Audit Committee receiving periodic presentations on enterprise risk management, during fiscal 2025, the Sustainability Committee discussed the campaign against the firearm industry at each of its meetings.

Stockholder Engagement

We recognize the importance of stockholder engagement. In addition to our regular, year-round stockholder engagement initiatives, prior to the annual meeting of stockholders held on September 17, 2024 (the “2024 Annual Meeting”), we met with certain of our largest stockholders to discuss, among other things, the stockholder proposal that was included in our proxy materials for the 2024 Annual Meeting and the progress we have made on various corporate governance initiatives. In the first half of 2025, we again met with certain of our largest stockholders. We used these meetings to, among other things, provide an update on the progress we have made on various corporate governance initiatives.

COMPENSATION HIGHLIGHTS

Pay for Performance

Our executive compensation program emphasizes our pay-for-performance philosophy. For fiscal 2025:

•

100% of our named executive officers’ (“NEOs”) annual cash incentive goals were tied to Company performance (Net Sales and Adjusted EBITDAS). Adjusted EBITDAS also served as the threshold for which the failure to achieve this performance metric would result in no bonus payments regardless of the achievement of the other performance metric.

•

50% of our NEOs’ stock-based award value was tied to Company performance, as reflected by Adjusted EBITDAS Growth (as defined herein), subject to a modifier based on relative total shareholder return (“rTSR”) value.

•

Our NEOs received no annual cash incentive for fiscal 2025 because we failed to achieve the threshold target for Adjusted EBITDAS.

•

Our NEOs received none of the target shares of common stock for the performance-based restricted stock unit (“PSU”) portion of the stock-based award in 2022 because we failed to meet the minimum performance requirements.

2 I 2025 Proxy Statement