Did 9/11 really kill Camillus?

[popcornpicker]

An article on another forum wrote that the inability to carry a knife was the reason that Camillus went out of business. I would have thought after WW1, WW2, Korea and Viet Nam, the gov't would have made Camillus one of their major contractors for this ongoing war. I've also heard that the Marines don't buy from Ka-Bar anymore, because they are considered a foreign company. With all the billions of dollars being spent on this war, can't the gov't even "Buy American"?

 

[Bob W]

An article on another forum wrote that the inability to carry a knife was the reason that Camillus went out of business.

I think a decline in knife carry by the general population played a roll of course. But to attribute that to 9/11 is over-dramatic. More simply, Camillus was run into the ground by the owners, and couldn't adapt to the competition from lower-cost imports.

I've also heard that the Marines don't buy from Ka-Bar anymore, because they are considered a foreign company.

I find that hard to believe. The military contracts all sorts of things from overseas.

 

[Codger_64]

9/1/1 was just one of many factors in the failing of Camillus Cutlery. Inept decisions by disinterested owners who failed to read and adjust to an everchanging market environment, lack of a sound advertising and promotion program, siphoning money from retirement funds and other monies (millions from the sale of SMKW shares) which should have been used to pay royalties to their best designers (Fisk, Becker, Gibbs, Ralph, etc.) and other debt or reinvested into infrastructure upgrades and operations all played a role. IMHO, the one man who could have, at any point, turned the company around and revitalized it died in 1997 and left no heir to his business accumen, only to his company stocks accumulated since the 1920's. The one remaining man who, again IMHO, could have made a difference in the outcome was in the end reduced by the other stockholders to a figurehead, relieved of any power to make decisions. But I could be wrong. I have been before.

Codger