Celebrity endorsements

R.c.s

R.c.s

Joined
Dec 23, 2013
Messages
1,530
Bear gryills . Les stroud . Dave canterbury . Lofty wiseman . Ray mears . And lots more . Have put ther names to knifes . Are they any good . or just average knifes . and the companys uses ther names to put the price up . What do you think ? Ps please feel free NOT to coment on my spelling
 
Syncharmony said:
A good knife is sold by the name of it's designer, not a celebrity.
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Well, yes and no. I have many knives, and unless their name is somewhere on the blade (like Kershaw and CRKT like to do) I couldn't tell you who designed them, only what company they're from. I buy instead from reputable companies, comfortable that the product should be well made, and that the company will stand behind the product if I happen to get a lemon.

As for the original question asked, I think most of the celebrity endorsement is laughable. An example for me is R. Lee Ermey. I mean, gotta give the guy credit for having milked eleven years of military service into a saleable persona, sure. But the whole Gunny thing that SOG's beaten to death is just clownshoes at this point. Similarly, the Bear Grylls thing. I mean, Gerber has an entire line with that guy's name on it now. Canteens, a "survival belt", and so on. What real survivalist would wear ANY of that trash? You damn sure know BG isn't.

I don't know why companies even still bother with celebrity endorsements anymore. A thinking man understands that a celebrity endorsement means "Stand here, hold this product and read from this ad copy that was carefully prepared by our marketing team. You can collect your check on the way out." and nothing more. Bear Grylls isn't hacking his way through a rain forest with a Gerber Bear Grylls Parang, we all know that. I'm pretty sure Les Stroud isn't using that cheap Chinese Camillus "arctic" knife. So, in my mind, celebrity endorsements could actually be taken as a sign that the company is trying to move a low-to-middling quality product and charging more than it should cost, because they've slapped a celebrity's name on it and hope that people will buy it based on that fact.
 
I can tell you that the knives that have Bear Grills name on them are made in china crap! You are buying his name not a quality knife.

I have not had any experiences with the other endorsed knives.
 
Bear Grylls knives = Gerber = I do not need to spell it out, do I?

As soon as I saw that I became very wary of "celebrity endorsement knives"... and when I handled some of those BG Gerber knives I knew why...
 
IMO, celebrity endorsements are meant for the masses. Not for the relatively small niche of knife enthusiasts we have here. Companies use them because it sells a lot of knives, plain and simple. Just not to us. :)
 
The only one I've seen consistently getting praise is Michael Waddell and the Benchmade lineup. I love my 15020, but it looks like they are discontinuing them soon.
 
Stroud's camilllus knife looks to be pretty much the Bear Grylls knife, but his Helle knife is probably very good. It might be more expensive just from his name being on it, but they make good knives that I would use.
 
I'm pretty pleased with the only celebrity-associated knife I own, a Kershaw 1680 / Steven Seagal.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
The Bayley was priced way out of ordinary woods people's budget. Ray Mears at least designed those knives and developed a lot of the lore that went into bushcraft. He wasn't a popular celebrity as much as an acknowledged expert.
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This ^^^

Les's Helle is a good knife, the Woodlore is a great design.The BHK knives for Dave arn't bad either.

The Gerber and Camillus stuff for Bear and Les are usable but not my cup of tea. The Tops stuff for Joe and Mike aren't my style either.

But in the end I won't begrudge any man from earning a living off his name.
 
Good for them that they have an endorsement deal but I could care less who endorses any product. I can make up my own mind whether a product works for me or not.

Thankfully I'm not exposed to most of that crap in the first place. I watch so little TV these days that I wouldn't know most celebrities if they walked up and introduced themselves.
 
I have a Benchmade Bone Collector (mini) with Michael Waddell's name on the blade - have no idea who he is other than I think he has a TV show centered around hunting. But I love the knife, and would actually have preferred it if it didn't have the skull/antler symbol on the blade that's associated with his name.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
The Bayley was priced way out of ordinary woods people's budget. Ray Mears at least designed those knives and developed a lot of the lore that went into bushcraft. He wasn't a popular celebrity as much as an acknowledged expert.
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Yes, but people bought them. And Mears was an expert who became a celebrity/tv survival guru just like the current class of goofs. I'm sure many, many tv viewers bought his knives ( and bought Scandies!) so they could be " just like Ray."

Would I have bought either, or would buy one from the current crop of survivo- celebrity endorsed knives? No.

But! I can't help but wonder if some knifemakers have become celebrity enough to where their name merely serves as "celebrity endorsement" of large scale production knives. No one in particular in mind, but I could imagine incorporating a makers "signature design element" on a knife could involve minimal (to no) input from said maker, and the makers name on the blade would serve as a selling point.

Like I said, I'm not accusing any manufacturer/maker combo of doing that, it's just that I'm cynical enough to think about stuff like that!:D
 
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