Blade Magazine - Letter to the Editor

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David Mary said:
That was Mr. Emerson’s point. He’s saying let’s stop doing it to ourselves by voting with our wallets. And as an (north) American, as I said, I agree to a very large extent.
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Can you consider it an attack if you voluntarily elect not to let them do it to you?
Let me propose another theory- it's in China's best interest to manufacture whatever it can for other countries, so they do.
We all collectively understand that we'd want that for the US, and so we could naturally assume that'd be in the best interest of China.

To drum it up as a political maneuver is a little over the top.
They might as well ask Hong Kong nicely if they can rule them.
 
EngrSorenson said:
Can you consider it an attack if you voluntarily elect not to let them do it to you?
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Analogy: Who cares whether you say tobacco companies are attacking the world's youth, or simply marketing to them, whatever you call it, they are doing it, and the effect will be the same. It's in tobacco companies' best interest to get people hooked young, so they do.
 
David Mary said:
Analogy: Who cares whether you say tobacco companies are attacking the world's youth, or simply marketing to them, whatever you call it, they are doing it, and the effect will be the same. It's in tobacco companies' best interest to get people hooked young, so they do.
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Well... there's a duty to protect people who aren't yet considered able to protect themselves.
In this case, we're a bunch of functional (I hope), rational (I pray) consenting adults.

The real problem is that we've become very comfortable living lives where we're happy to push all the menial manufacturing labor jobs to China, because frankly I don't care who's making my curtain rods, and I don't want to pay American minimum wage to have some guy out of high school stamp out a bunch of them, and that guy doesn't really want that job, anyway. We live in more financial comfort because of it, and it's hard to get people to separate themselves from their financially comfortable situation.
 
The West plans for the next quarter, the Chinese plan for the next century. A little hyperbole, but only a little.
 
America is 248 years old. China is over 4000 years old. Just a little perspective. Someone knows how to play the long game and those who don’t get on that will be left behind.
 
EngrSorenson said:
The real problem is that we've become very comfortable living lives where we're happy to push all the menial manufacturing labor jobs to China, because frankly I don't care who's making my curtain rods, and I don't want to pay American minimum wage to have some guy out of high school stamp out a bunch of them, and that guy doesn't really want that job, anyway. We live in more financial comfort because of it, and it's hard to get people to separate themselves from their financially comfortable situation.
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It's a bit more complex than that. There is not only labor costs. For example, compared to the US, China charges about 1/4th the price for water, and about 1/2 the price per kWh electricity for urban house holds (these are averages, much worse for some US states). Here, it's hard to get people to separate themselves from their financially comfortable situation for consumer goods, but they don't seem to understand that they are paying for it otherwise.
 
dano said:
He's still silent about the Chinese made Keyshaws, etc.
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What do you think he needs to say about that? He’s not the boss of Kershaw, as far as I know.
 
David Mary said:
What do you think he needs to say about that? He’s not the boss of Kershaw, as far as I know.
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I think the issue many have is that he makes this statement in its entirety, and specifically "My knives are, were, and always will be 100 percent made in the USA". This is outright a falsehood. Sure, he might claim that Kershaw is an American company, and thus not what he was referring to, except for the fact that he indeed entered into a business agreement with Kershaw for them to produce a line of knives with his designs, all of which were made in China. That's not something he would have discovered after the fact, and disagreed with. He was certainly aware from the jump where this run of these knives would be made. So, it makes his comments in this article look like lies on their face, and hypocritical grandstanding at worst. Additionally, his comment: "Please do not ever be taken in by "Designed in America, built overseas" was rich, considering that multiple sites advertised those Kershaws as exactly that!

Of course, he could always attempt some semantics BS like "Well, I meant MY knives, like, Emerson Knives knives." Even then, other products that are direct from Emerson have been posted in here already that were made elsewhere. Sooooooo......(giant air shrug). Factually, the guy had no problem making extra cash selling his designs to a company who would have made it absolutely clear where they were going to be made. He could have passed when this was made clear during the contract discussion phase, but didn't. Guess he really needed the money back then.

Concluding, I don't take issue with the overall message, though I disagree with various elements of it. It's the poor attempt at revisionist history in front of an audience that's aware of past products he's sold that are in outright contradiction to what he's attempting to push or state unequivocally, and worse, portray himself as here. It's disingenuous, but candidly, it doesn't surprise me one bit.
 
To make one further comment. Some assertions in that article also are almost certainly false. Does anyone here really believe companies like Knifecenter, SMKW, BladeHQ, plus the dozens of smaller drop-shipper internet knife companies are actually paying "$3.72 each" for knives from companies like We, Reate, Bestech, etc. and then selling them to American customers for "$500"? Like, I would be entirely onboard with an assertion that a box of cheap gas station knives could have been sold by the pound as stated, or that an entire jug of Jarbenzas cost a reseller or Autozone $3.72, after which they're put on the counter with a "$5 EACH!" sticker on the jug or whatever, that I'd believe.

But his claims that he's an industry insider who has been courted by "dozens of Chinese companies" being used to base his other claims on, is actually pretty funny. Maybe it WOULD only cost a Chinese company a few bucks to put together an Emerson, given how outdated the materials are on most of the line. Maybe that's what he meant. 🤔

Because I'm just going to say it outright, using an easy example I picked entirely at random, if he's attempting to assert that this knife was purchased from We by Knifecenter for $3.72:


Yeaaaahhhh, I'm going to need to see some proof of that, because "I'm an industry insider" is about on the same level as "Source: TRUST ME BROH" for me, and I say it unapologetically. Let's see some paperwork. Better yet, anybody from a knife company who may read this want to show us where you guys were buying Reates or BesTechs by the pound?

The more I pick the article apart, the more ridiculous it all becomes.
 
Interesting points Quiet Quiet . It is possible to overplay ones' hand, or overstate one's case. It sounds like you make a rational argument that this might have been the case with the article. I would be interested to see the responses to your points.
 
David Mary said:
Interesting points Quiet Quiet . It is possible to overplay ones' hand, or overstate one's case. It sounds like you make a rational argument that this might have been the case with the article. I would be interested to see the responses to your points.
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I candidly do not expect answers to those points, if I'm being honest. EE is known for these hit and run postings, so we're used to it by now.

I think the issue here is that some fairly serious hyperbole was being used, and there's a fine line between hyperbole and outright false statements. This article as written clearly crossed the line into the latter.
 
David Mary said:
What do you think he needs to say about that? He’s not the boss of Kershaw, as far as I know.
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I mean, as Quiet Quiet pointed out, the dude is trying to call out custom makers and designers using Chinese manufacturing when he had zero problems with KAI (A Japanese company, not an American one) selling his designs and producing them using Chinese manufacturing.

Hell, as jlauffer jlauffer pointed out, his claim that his knives have all been made in the US is simply not true, as there have been Emersons branded knives produced in Japan and, if BladeHQ's listings for the Emerson multi tools is correct, China and Taiwan.

If his message was, "I've made this mistake and I regret it despite the money I made," that's totally fine. But claiming never to have done it and chastising others for doing it at the same time just reeks of bitterness, not any kind of principled message.
 
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