Anyone else concerned?

[Evil D]

I think if I were a company that keeps churning out new designs only to watch the sales flop and have to discontinue them after only one year of being on the market, I would be concerned about that and I would play it safe and make what continues to sell out within 5 minutes or less of being released.


While I may not be happy about this situation either, and I get the point of this thread, I also completely understand how Spyderco got here. A good example is the D'Allara 3. It takes a lot of R&D time and money to make a new model, it comes out and basically gets shat on and almost immediately discontinued. How many times would you put yourself out there and take a business risk before you stop taking those risks? Sure you can blame Spyderco for whatever flaws you think are wrong with that knife design, but ultimately this is how we got here. Meanwhile you can turn on the 'ol Para 2 sprint slot machine and have it spit out almost any combination of steel/scale material/color and it's all but guaranteed to make a profit. I said it a while back, Spyderco basically invented (or safe to say had a big hand in driving the popularity of) the sprint concept and they've honed their craft to deadly precision. They're bordering on being a semi-custom knife company at this point with all the sprints and exclusives.

But, as much as we can all agree that we want new stuff, just scroll down the first few pages of this forum or browse through the last couple weeks of comments and see how many "I wish they'd do this sprint" posts you see. We want everything all at once. As a customer base we're pulling the company in too many directions, maybe it's time they stop listening for once and do what THEY think is right.

[ABX2011]

I think if I were a company that keeps churning out new designs only to watch the sales flop and have to discontinue them after only one year of being on the market, I would be concerned about that and I would play it safe and make what continues to sell out within 5 minutes or less of being released.

Yep, this would be more concerning to me as well. Spyderco still innovates, just not as much.

[The Meat man]

Hey, what about the Pochi?

I like seeing the new and interesting collaboration designs, but truth be told I rarely can afford (or have interest in buying) them. However, I think having those collabs help make Spyderco a more interesting, more appealing brand. Having nothing but 50 varieties of the same knife sort of lessens the excitement. (And personally, I'm not a huge fan of the para models.)

I'm not concerned, though. I think that Spyderco has been responding to the market. I think there's still enough demand for something OTHER than endless re-makes, and that we'll continue seeing new collaborations in the future.

How about Elijah Isham?

Please no. I can't stand his designs.

[cycleguy]

With prices constantly increasing and disposable income constantly diminishing I'm concerned there will be a day when Spyderco will no longer be able to do what they have been doing/are currently doing. I think the first sign will be a reduction in the variety and quantity of choices they offer their customers ... a scaling down of the menu.

Having bread and butter/solid performer products provides the financial foundation and allows for the opportunity to pursue the other knife endeavors (the products you desire) while reducing the risk of having to shut down operations if a new deliverable doesn't pan out.

There are different types of collectors. Some seek variety, some seek every variation of a particular model that appeals to them. Suspect there are many other types, and degrees of cross-over between the types as well. Why not cater to most of them and diversify from having all your eggs in one basket. I don't see anything here to be concerned about. It seems to be a sound business model - a good proportion of cash cows mixed with a small proportion of new efforts of uncertain outcomes.

History tells us we have to keep evolving or we go dinosaur. So, given the nature of that beast, Spyderco will have to be innovative and creative and keep coming up with new models well received by the public (as well as new ways to produce and deliver those products) which is what you want; unfortunately it just may not happen as often as you would like.

[mikey177]

I'm not too concerned, because I am an accumulator, not a collector. That is to say, I buy designs that I like with the intent to use them. Over the past four years, I have bought 33 Spyderco models that are not in the PM2/Para 3 family. I'd say that's a decent amount of variety from the company.

I agree with Evil D that putting out collaborative or new designs entails a significant investment in time and resources from the company, and the returns do not always materialize. I trust the Glessers to do what is best to ensure the long-term growth of Spyderco.

[Manixguy@1994]

I think if I were a company that keeps churning out new designs only to watch the sales flop and have to discontinue them after only one year of being on the market, I would be concerned about that and I would play it safe and make what continues to sell out within 5 minutes or less of being released.


While I may not be happy about this situation either, and I get the point of this thread, I also completely understand how Spyderco got here. A good example is the D'Allara 3. It takes a lot of R&D time and money to make a new model, it comes out and basically gets shat on and almost immediately discontinued. How many times would you put yourself out there and take a business risk before you stop taking those risks? Sure you can blame Spyderco for whatever flaws you think are wrong with that knife design, but ultimately this is how we got here. Meanwhile you can turn on the 'ol Para 2 sprint slot machine and have it spit out almost any combination of steel/scale material/color and it's all but guaranteed to make a profit. I said it a while back, Spyderco basically invented (or safe to say had a big hand in driving the popularity of) the sprint concept and they've honed their craft to deadly precision. They're bordering on being a semi-custom knife company at this point with all the sprints and exclusives.

But, as much as we can all agree that we want new stuff, just scroll down the first few pages of this forum or browse through the last couple weeks of comments and see how many "I wish they'd do this sprint" posts you see. We want everything all at once. As a customer base we're pulling the company in too many directions, maybe it's time they stop listening for once and do what THEY think is right.

I agree 100% . MG2

[JRinFL]

Part of the issue is that Spyderco refuses to work with designers that have gone on to license designs to other makers like Boker or the numerous Chinese makers. I find that policy unfortunate and a few other less flattering adjectives. It does explain why there are no more Anso collabs , or Chad Los Banos (our own Daywalker) designs, etc., etc.

Another reason is that it takes years for a collab design to get to market with Spyderco where as more flexible makers can get new designs to market in months. If you were a designer would rather wait single digit months or single digit YEARS to see your designs in the hands of users?

Thankfully Spyderco has at least four excellent designers on staff, Sal, Eric, Ed Schempp, and Michael Janich. I suspect there is a lifetime of new designs each have that could be released to market. We can hope to see them.

[JRinFL]

As a customer base we're pulling the company in too many directions, maybe it's time they stop listening for once and do what THEY think is right.

Spyderco has always done what they think is right. We are not wagging the dog.

[jdw]

I like collaborations and new designs. You can only repackage the same model over and over again with a different color G10 and whatever the steel flavor of the day is and keep your long time customers interested.

[James Y]

I’ve accumulated knives over the years, but I’m not really a ‘collector.’ I don’t own many Spyderco collabs with outside designers. I’m trying to think of any, and at the moment, the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are the old Tim Wegner Hunter, a Michael Walker LWT, and a Jess Horn LWT. All much older, long-discontinued models, none of which are anywhere near as ‘exotic’ as many of the collabs of more recent years.

Whenever a new custom collab comes out, especially an ‘exotic’-looking design, it usually doesn’t last too long in the lineup. Why is that? Because they don’t sell as many units. Not as many people are interested in buying them. They are also usually more expensive. That’s the bottom line. Spyderco collectors certainly fuel a good portion of Spyderco’s revenue, but it’s pretty certain that the bigger share of the market is people who buy knives as users, and probably don’t even frequent knife-related forums.

I’m pretty certain that Spyderco knows what they’re doing.

Jim

[Bolster]

This is a great question! (And welcome to the forum).

People like me must be Spyderco's frustration: New knives are introduced. I get most excited about the unique, new, strange, collectable ones. Then I start thinking about actually using these new knives. Don't like linerlocks, so those go. Don't like huge ricassos so those are out. Not into flippers so those are off the table. Weird blade shapes might be difficult in use. Etc etc etc.

After all the sorting, I go and buy another Manix. I know I will love it.

I think there's something to be said about highly refined designs. On this forum you have educated consumers who are very thoughtful and critical of design features. If other people buy like I do, I can see how the exotic designs tend to sit on the shelf.

I broke down and bought a Parata. (It sits on my shelf.)

[Bolster]

Part of the issue is that Spyderco refuses to work with designers that have gone on to license designs to other makers like Boker or the numerous Chinese makers. I find that policy unfortunate...

I see your point but I'm on the other side. I appreciate that designers who have gone mass market elsewhere don't show up as Spyderco collabs.

[abbazaba]

I think threads like this are somewhat related to the lack of information we have on future models. Before there would be a lot of new models presented via the Amsterdam meet and the catalogue would list a bunch of models that we could talk about for months or years in anticipation. With the new reveal process being delayed and now tweaked, I'm guessing that being more in the dark has contributed to the vibe around here lately, despite having a record year as Ramzar points out.

Personally, I would prefer to deal with all the threads complaining about a model taking forever to be released, rather than not have any information on as many new prototypes and Wouters awesome Amsterdam thread. Seems like now we just have threads like these that take the place of the them. I know Sal likes feedback, and having those prototypes and future releases public with the resulting anticipation threads may have even assisted in deciding how large of a run to do or a tweak to make before production.

[anycal]

If the collaboration or designer side of business is so lucrative, profitable, or fulfilling, or what ever the metrics is for a company like Spyderco keep doing what they do, then maybe they can have a division dedicated to it. I would put the ethnic series into the same category. It's own classification, like the budget line. Although not sure if that would address any concerns folks have.

I am not concerned. I am a practical person, and I know what works for me. I don't need a knife I won't use. And honestly, most of the collaborations, the unusual/unique or designer models don't interest me. Give me a updated favorite, CQI an issue, introduce a new steel, drop a nugget like the Ikuchi once in a while, and I am a happy customer.

[Kevinim82]

For the last year I have been waiting for the new Shawn Houston collab. Made in Golden, 10v or 15v blade, and heat treated to his spec. His take using a Spyderco lock with the signature hole in the blade. This knife is more a relationship between Houston/Glesser, and like always with the Spyderco collaboratives well worth the price of admission.

Everyone here forgot about all the amazing fixed blades in the line up and the Carter kitchen knives. More than half of the fixed blade line up are all collaborative designs!

I knew/know nothing of the history of these collabs without digging through this forum.

I just swiped past the Serrata by Stuart Ackerman, until I read on the rumor mill that this knife might be D/Ced this year. And though I have no use for an amazing camp knife, the info I read in this forum makes me want to be a part of Spyderco’s relationship with this maker.

There is the pocket jewelry camp, and the utility/function camp. The distributer exclusives cater to the jewelry camp. Sal and his relationships caters to the other.

I would like to see Eric continue to have more of a visible presence with the collabs that he is working on/with. Eric has a media presence, he talks of the reveals at Bladeshow and has taught us all how to disassemble the Para 3 LW. I am sure it’s hard for him to fill his fathers shoes, and maybe that’s not his exact focus in the company.

I for one look forward to the collaborations.

[phaust]

Only going off feeling, it does seem like exclusives are a weekly thing and new models or even new iterations of existing models have nearly died out. The new Salt folders are the only recent new iterations I can recall (and even there, it's been quite a few years for the Salt 2).

I don't collect multiples of the same knife, so my number of purchases over the last few years are nowhere near what they used to be. I'd guess I've bought over the years somewhere in the 100-150ish range of Spydercos (down to maybe 20-30 now) but only three I can remember in the last 3-4 years.

Similar to Ramzar, I can't blame Spyderco. It seems like exclusives of well liked models generate more buzz than a good amount of the new designs, and certainly R&D costs go down to nill for most.

[Nice marmot]

I’m not concerned. First and foremost Spyderco is a for profit company. They have to put money on the bottom line for the long term viability of the company and of course to support their employees. Sprint runs and popular models are what the consumer has wanted in recent years. They are simply answering consumer demand. I think we as members of this forum and certainly as knife aficionados tend to look at this with tunnel vision. We want the new, innovative, groundbreaking designs from knife manufactures whether it be spyderco, demko, trm, etc. Social media has certainly not helped this constant crave for the latest and greatest. We are fortunate Spyderco has been willing to offer these collaborations and niche pieces that appeal to us and not the masses. I can’t think of another knife company doing that. Let’s never forget we are very, very small community. The vast majority of the public does not even carry a knife in a daily basis, much less even but a tenth of the thought into it as we do.

[spydie-fan]

I'd like to see Spyderco do more collaborations, but I haven't been a fan of the last few offerings. Most of my recent Spyderco purchases have been exclusive offerings on a few of their more popular production models.
My biggest concern is the lack of availability of current production models. From what I read Spyderco is going to be a addressing that issue and is temporarily cutting back on exclusive offerings.

[Peter1960]

My 5 € -cents to the whole story:
As European, I am not interested in all the exclusive models of American dealers for several reasons - it is difficult to acquire them and above all I find it somehow unimaginative.

A look at my purchases over the past year shows what I like more:
Ikuchi, Kapara, SpyOpera, Pattadese and Swayback ...

Spyderco has changed - meanwhile there are so many variants that I only fish out the "pearls" and they can currently be found in collaboration designs IMHO.

And I have to say that there have been years recently when I only bought one knife or none at all. Above all, this has to do with the fact that no service is really offered in and for Europe, with extremely high purchase prices at the same time.
As the owner of several hundred Spydies, this fact makes me pensive, but at least I can't blame myself for asking for something but not having already done my part for it.

Edit to add:
Sal, the Ethnic Serie is a wonderful highlight and I hope it will continue!

[VooDooChild]

I also have a spyderco collection. So I understand whats being said.

But I also think its a little bit ridiculous.

I could go the rest of my knife with a vg10 endura and a couple salts and be just fine.

I personally prefer spydercos main lineup much much more than some potential new exotic design. Military, pm2, shaman, native chief, endura, police 4.... these are already my perfect knives. They are why I choose spyderco.

How many ways can you reinvent the wheel???
From a completely utilitarian point of view theres almost no difference between locking folding knife A and locking folding knife B.

I sort of get it.
The auto industry doesnt make the truck I want... but they do make trucks.
The motorcycle industry doesnt make the motorcycle I want... but they do make motorcycles.

I guess what Im saying here is any product in any industry is a compromise.