I don't own and don't plan on owning an orange Military, so I don't have any investment in this one way or the other, but thought I would pass this on. For those of you who missed the thread on the Spyderco forums, I'll try to cover what Sal said (going by memory, so I could be slightly off). Anyone who remembers better (or has corrections), feel free to chime in.
1) The "Sprint Run" designation was an error. Sal clarified that a Sprint Run is the re-issue of a previously discontinued knife model. Since the Military is a current production model, the orange version was merely a variation and should have just been called a limited production or something like that.
2) As for the 600 pieces, Sal had wanted to do a 1200 piece run or so, but it was decided that in the current economic climate, they would do 600 because they couldn't afford to have hundreds of Millies sitting around on the shelves if it ended up not being very popular. When it was seen that there was demand for more than the initial run, Spyderco decided to fill that customer demand by producing more. The knife is still made in limited quantities and, IIRC, Sal said he expects less than 1200 total pieces to be manufactured, so it is still a limited run; just not as limited as people thought it would be.
3) This was obviously a learning experience and Sal said they would be much more careful in the future about the terminology used and quantity promised. After the fiasco that this created, and the understandable irritation this has caused for collectors and speculators, I'm sure that Spyderco will do their best to stick by their guns and I have no problems whatsoever in keeping complete confidence in the company and the people who work there.
That's pretty much as I remember it. Would just add that Kristi and Sal and Kristi both apologized for any confusion the miscommunication between them regarding the status of the Orange Military may have caused.
Spyderco did this on purpose! Kristi did this just so they could make more money!
I know the way you meant this, but that's pretty much the tone some of the postings over there took. Which was why a few of the reactions to those postings were fairly strong. Can't recall seeing any I'd call threats.
You are in business you place an item for sale as a number limited model.
People buy it as a number limited model. You change that down the road, they didn't get what you sold them. Pretty simple. We read 600 and bought them as such. Now they aren't. In fact what are they? Limited to 1200? Or just limited till they stop selling well?
You're in business, you say, "Hey folks, we're going to make 600 of these". Some ASSUME you mean "we are only ever going to make 600 of these". Their assumption proves to be incorrect. Those people didn't get what they thought they got. Whose fault?
The grey FRN Calypso Jr., the knife which arguably started this whole Sprint Run business, went from a single 1200 piece run to at least two runs, possibly a third. The Pink Delica went from 600 to 1200 pieces. Me, I don't assume closed ended runs unless they are specifically advertised as such. Think there's been at least one other where production was ramped up to meet unexpectedly heavy demand.
Consistent nomenclature has never been one of Spyderco's strong points, so yes, in the past few years they've used "Sprint Run" to cover at least five different sub-categories of knives;
- Previously discontinued models revived in response to user requests. For example, the grey FRN Calypso Jr.
- Previously discontinued models revived for other reasons, For example, the almite CoPilot.
- Variations of current production models produced in response to user requests. For example, the pink Delica IV.
- Variations of current production models produced for other reasons. For example, several of the Military variants.
- Sponsored runs. For example, the foliage green Lums done for Moteng.
Perhaps in the future, those categories should each be given a unique name, and a set of rules on how many Spyderco can produce. If that does not sound presumptuous then, IMHO, your priorities are screwed up. Me, I'm happy to let them do what they do best, build knives.
Limited production is no guarantee of increased future value. All Kopas are 600 piece runs, only one version has increased significantly in value, many are currently selling for less than they did when released. Have not checked lately, but the BG-42 Military could be had for cheap for quite a while. Paying MSRP for any newly released knife is a roll of the dice. Paying above MSRP would be like betting they'll come up snake eyes, twice in a row.
Paul
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