Are some knife Mfg. Using cult following to boost their profits.

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Tommy-Chi said:
Nope. An online "Custom Shop" that hosts these knives for six, nine or twelve months supplies and closes 100% of the orders needed. Nothing else suffices.
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Dude, Spyderco runs their business well, whether you are happy with it or not. They have a reputation for building great knives that just outcut the competition. The sprint runs are just another way to add more dough to their profit, on top of their regular production models. I don't see what's wrong with what Spyderco is doing; great products that perform well and will always be the cutting edge of knife tech. I mean come on. What other company makes a million model knives, in a million different steels in a million different colors, with a million different lock types? Don't hate, congratulate!
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
Have you emailed Sal of Spyderco to tell him of your disappointment? —————It’s called giving your customers what they want! If you don’t like it? Don’t buy any! Whining here about your frustrations isn’t going to harm Spyderco or help you, in the least! Have a nice evening!
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Where are you seeing that I am in any way having a disappointment? And where do you see me whining or having any frustrations about anything? And where do you see me trying to harm anyone?
And you also have a nice evening or is day where you reside.
 
91bravo said:
Dude, Spyderco runs their business well, whether you are happy with it or not. They have a reputation for building great knives that just outcut the competition. The sprint runs are just another way to add more dough to their profit, on top of their regular production models. I don't see what's wrong with what Spyderco is doing; great products that perform well and will always be the cutting edge of knife tech. I mean come on. What other company makes a million model knives, in a million different steels in a million different colors, with a million different lock types? Don't hate, congratulate!
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I like Spyderco. I'm absolutely fine with them. I think you're reading too much in to the analysis.

What they are doing is two things: propping up a false valuation on their other knives, and NOT getting knives in to people hands who really want them. The solution, I've said two or three times in this thread and a dozen times on the Spyderco Forums is to have a Custom Shop, just like Buck and other manufacturers, where they can batch out the knives desired over a six, nine or twelve month period where the knife attributes are popular.
 
snapshot2017 said:
I find some knife Mfg.s have a cult following of their knives, for example Spyderco, have many of the same type knives that they change handle color and Material they change the blade Material, they make a "sprint Run" and the prices go from the $140 to $225 as an example.
And people are begging for new sprint runs of the same knives, it seems to be working well i feel are they using these sprint runs to just boost their profits?
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Would you mind giving references in these lopsided prices from dealers ?
I’m not seeing it, I just bought a sprint military with Rex 45 and the price I paid was about ten dollars more than a military in S30V. Now, if you’re referring to the secondary market prices, that’s completely different.
 
Tommy-Chi said:
I like Spyderco. I'm absolutely fine with them. I think you're reading too much in to the analysis.

What they are doing is two things: propping up a false valuation on their other knives, and NOT getting knives in to people hands who really want them. The solution, I've said two or three times in this thread and a dozen times on the Spyderco Forums is to have a Custom Shop, just like Buck and other manufacturers, where they can batch out the knives desired over a six, nine or twelve month period where the knife attributes are popular.
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I don't understand how it's "propping up a false valuation on their other knives". I would also guess that the retailers who work with Spyderco on these sprint runs are much happier than they would be if Spyderco brought everything in house for a custom type shop.

There is also a different side to this that I think this conversation has missed. While Spyderco does this most frequently with knives like the PM2, they also do it with much less popular knives. Last year's Meerkat is a prime example of this. I had always wanted one and their re-release sprint run allowed me to purchase one at MUCH less than previous versions of the Meerkat were selling at (if you could find one at all). It's not like the sprint run of the Meerkat flew off the shelves either. I love when Spyderco brings a knife back for this treatment and I'm hoping they bring a Dodo back at some point.
 
When I saw the title of this thread, Spyderco absolutely did not come to mind! I was thinking of the Instagram makers who seem to have cult following while producing ... er, "knives" ( I suppose ) that look like something from outer space and are priced like they were fabricated from moon rocks or the rings of Saturn. There are some FANTASTIC and TALENTED knife makers on Instagram making great knives at a good value - but when I think of cult following and overpriced, I think of Instagram - NOT Spyderco.
 
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It takes some doing to have a cult following.
If a brand achieves that, they must be doing something right.
No amount of advertising or spirit runs can artificially create a cult if the produck sucks.
Such marketing moves appears to only target a specific niche segment of its consumer base.
So yeah that would be milking true belivers
That can't be entirely wrong for a business to explore
the depths of an existing ever ready revenue source.
Selling is all about profit
There is no gurantee in creating sale.
One simply maximises what which has proven to work or go bust.
 
Doo doo doo doo, you have entered the twilight zone ;)
I think it is strange that spyderco (or whatever company) produces variants of their regular production models that are available to ANYONE who wants one and gets an order in before they are sold out, and they get criticized for it. Weird. I am glad they offer the truly incredible variety they do, but if they made more of any one of them, they would necessarily not be able to offer that variety.
 
Tommy-Chi said:
Nope. An online "Custom Shop" that hosts these knives for six, nine or twelve months supplies and closes 100% of the orders needed. Nothing else suffices.
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I'm not sure you realize the logistics of such a thing. Mass customization requires very exacting conditions to be feasible, and typically still involves having a lot of component parts fabricated in advance. Setup costs to manufacture your particular configuration from scratch would be astronomical, so they'd have to pre-fab all the parts and then assemble them to spec, all of which complicates production at multiple levels. In producing sprint runs they're able to do up a small batch they know will sell promptly and they end up without any leftovers kicking around, and they can do them all the same way so they're still taking advantage of their existing manufacturing and assembly infrastructure.
 
snapshot2017 said:
Where are you seeing that I am in any way having a disappointment? And where do you see me whining or having any frustrations about anything? And where do you see me trying to harm anyone?
And you also have a nice evening or is day where you reside.
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Because you started this thread is the reason that I and others see you have frustrations & are whinning ————It’s not a cult in any way shape or form. —————/——————————————No one is forced to buy Spyderco knives. Never said you were trying to harm anyone.
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
Because you started this thread is the reason that I and others see you have frustrations & are whinning ————It’s not a cult in any way shape or form. —————/——————————————No one is forced to buy Spyderco knives. Never said you were trying to harm anyone.
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And no one is forcing you to reply right?
 
BilboBaggins said:
I don't understand how it's "propping up a false valuation on their other knives". I would also guess that the retailers who work with Spyderco on these sprint runs are much happier than they would be if Spyderco brought everything in house for a custom type shop.

There is also a different side to this that I think this conversation has missed. While Spyderco does this most frequently with knives like the PM2, they also do it with much less popular knives. Last year's Meerkat is a prime example of this. I had always wanted one and their re-release sprint run allowed me to purchase one at MUCH less than previous versions of the Meerkat were selling at (if you could find one at all). It's not like the sprint run of the Meerkat flew off the shelves either. I love when Spyderco brings a knife back for this treatment and I'm hoping they bring a Dodo back at some point.
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This is just my hypothesis. Spyderco in NO WAY produces a TON of knives in superior steels, but the 5 to 10 knives that they do produce in superior steels makes it look like their entire line-up is the penultimate resource for these steels. It is not, but it creates an image, a false valuation on their other knives in S30V and VG10. Heck when you consider the Byrd line, 8CrMo13 is probably Spyderco's #1 steel.

Few can get these knives. This is Spyderco's desired image >> Rare Materials For Blades. The 5 to 10 knives sell out, and they are officially on the books for these knives. It's not a lie, they did make 500 of them, and as I said, few can get them, and they are not satisfying the order requirements. My guess is that the super small segment of their fan base get the knives, do not use them because they are after all rare...but it does not broaden the uptake or use of the steels by other manufacturers. They are not creating competition, they are creating an image.

Spyderco does this over and over. They have this small batch process down to a science.

The retailers get their names exposed for FREE. They are looking for repeat customers and in some ways they probably get it. St Nicks, and Bento Box Shop are very popular on the Spyderco Forums. There are like, maybe 5 small retailers that have these sprint runs.
 
91bravo said:
Same can be said for anything else in life. I'm a cult member of Toyota trucks, Knipex tools, Browning Rifles,Remington shotguns, Ruger handguns and yep, you guessed it...Spyderco knives!
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I have 8 Spyderco knives already and have at least 15 to 20 more on my short list. They are very good knives. I see no harm in to trying to develop or understand their business case as I have a degree in Management.
 
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