Did Maxpedition team up with Kevin McClung?

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K Williams

K Williams

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I just got an e-mail from Maxpedition and their new fixed blade knives look a lot like the Mad Dog knives made by Kevin McClung. Did they join forces?
 
I figured by now that they had worked out an agreement.

They have been running ads for them almost every month for the past few months since the 2014 SHOT Show in Blade magazine.
 
GCG199 said:
I figured by now that they had worked out an agreement.

They have been running ads for them almost every month for the past few months since the 2014 SHOT Show in Blade magazine.
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Where did you hear they reached an agreement?
 
Well, after all of the outrage that came out of these being shown at the 2014 SHOT Show.

It was announced that they weren't going to be produced after all, and at a serious loss of money for Maxpedition.

But like I said in my post above, they have been running ads for these over the past few months consistently.

My best "educated guess" at this point is that a deal has been worked out between Maxpedition and Maddog since the show.

I don't have anything else to go on though.
 
Or, according to this article, he could have just said "screw it, I'm gonna do it anyway, sue me if you dare"

http://kitup.military.com/2014/02/maxpeditions-fixed-blades-menu.html

Maxpedition owner Tim Tang has decided to start selling his new line of fixed-blade knives, despite accusations from Mad Dog Knives owner Kevin McClung that Tang ripped off his designs.

Tang had originally pulled the new line of knives after the dispute erupted recently at SHOT Show 2014 in an attempt to salvage his friendship with McClung.

Apparently that friendship is now over.

Tang called me the other day and explained his decision to re-introduce the new knife line. He admits his knives are very similar to McClung’s but said he took steps to ensure they were different enough to avoid any legal problems.

“From the intellectual-property standpoint, we checked trademarks, copyrights and patents on a wide range of knives … and there was no infringement or none that we could perceive,” Tang said.

“From our research, there are a lot of knives that look similar. Our knives do have similarities to Mad Dog Knives, but they have similarities to a lot of other knives as well.”

McClung does not agree.

“I have trademarks and direct copyrights on those [designs] as a result of them being original work of mine as an artist,” he told KitUp!. McClung said he hasn’t decided if he will take legal action against Tang; that decision will come when Tang’s knives put on the market.


Tang’s new line will be available in late March. It will have short clip, long clip, fish belly, and tanto blade styles, made from hard-chrome finished D2 steel. Large models featured 6.25 inch blades that are .22 of an inch thick. Medium models had 5.5 inch blades that are .188 thick. And small models had 4.75 inch blades that are .15 of an inch thick.

There was also kydex sheath for each blade size. The large models will retail for $120. Medium models will retail for $110. And small models will cost $100.

McClung’s Mad Dog Knives cost between $700 and $1,300 each, but he said he isn’t worried about losing business to Tang.

“I don’t think that his [expletive] … copies of my knives are going to steal any of my business,” he said. “I make a far superior product than he does,” McClung said. “In this day and age, people are expected to license what they do when they are copying something or making it so close.”

If there is one thing I have learned covering the tactical gear and knife industry is that there are very few truly original designs and many, many variations of those original designs.

“The fact that it happens all the time in the industry does not make it right,” McClung said.

Tang has a different view.

“This thing has played out for several weeks, and in the beginning it was more emotional, but as things progressed it became more and more clear to me that no matter how we sliced it, Kevin was going to be unhappy with it,” Tang said.

“This is not about our relationship anymore; this is about Maxpedition having a good product. … We greatly improved accessibility of the product – the price of the product in terms of taking a similar product and making it available to everyone at an affordable price.”
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I still want one though...... Hard chromed D2 tool steel blades, mad dog designed ergos, nice kydex, for around 100 bones? Count me in! I know it's a big morality question. I know they are nearly blatant ripoffs, but I have always wanted a Mad Dog and just can't resist. The closest I have to a Mad Dog right now is an Alan blade MEUK... He was Kevin's assistant for quite a while, so it was as close as I could get without spending a grand.
 
McLung could have made some easy money from licensing the designs. He must feel pretty strongly about it, or got so mad he is , as they say "cutting off his nose to spite his face". It might have brought a larger market to Mad Dog knives in the future as most newish guys have never seen or heard of them. I've had knives since the late 60's and I have never seen a Mad dog knife outside of magazine pictures. I know nobody personally who has one to show me. McLungs ego seems bigger than his business. It is his intellectual property though and that counts IMO to where he should have the power to nix the project.
 
Thank you for posting that information, DrFish.

It is too bad that they weren't able to work-out an agreement.
 
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While I don't agree with what Maxpedition did, Kevin should've worked out something. It really is a damned if you do, damn if you don't scenario, the Chinese already had the patterns, tooling, etc.... all developed, so even if Maxpedition pulled out, they probably would've knocked them off anyway.
 
I remember lusting for and almost getting a mini shrike a long time ago. Sigh... May have to look into to these.
 
Yep.... These are looking better and better. I have yet to pull the trigger, but I will on payday. Now the main question I have is which one to get. I'm in Texas, so 5.5" blades are legal..... I'm thinking about the medium size with the short clip point.
 
They are very nicely done.

I always thought, and still do, that the MadDog(Kevin McClung) knives were insanely overpriced for what they were....which is basically, hard chromed O-1 steel with very basic handles....VERY similar to the Busse Basic knives, but at a much higher price. Still don't understand the justification.

Maxpedition is making a cool product with nice materials and very similar ergos. This will give people a chance to decide if the MadDog product is worth the money, in their minds, and may increase his business in the long run.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Ultimately this has little to do with knives and everything to do with Tim Tang's egregious lack of personal integrity.

For around 20yrs Tang was an authorized distributor of Mad Dog knives and he and McClung were friends. In fact, Tang invited Kevin's whole family to Taiwan for his wedding. Kevin had been a vocal supporter of Maxpedition and its products, and two of his daughters worked the trade shows for Maxpedition.

However, despite being an authorized distributor, Tang never actually sold any Mad Dog knives. Instead he kept them for himself and over time amassed probably the largest collection of Mad Dog knives, hawks, swords, and axes anywhere in the world. And he did so at wholesale prices. Not really the behavior of an honorable person.

And then, without ever seeking Kevin's authorization, permission, or sanction of any kind, he brazenly ripped off Kevin's designs for his own line of knives. And when I say ripped off his designs I mean he produced knives and sheathes that are visually indistinguishable from Kevin's except upon close inspection. This is a blatant attempt to defraud buyers into thinking that they are buying a licensed copy of an original design, when in fact they are buying a complete ripoff.

Not only did Tang not seek Kevin's approval and any sort of licensing agreement, he didn't even have the common decency to inform Kevin of his plans. It was only AFTER Kevin found out about the ripoff and a sh!tstorm ensued that Tang 'offered' to cut Kevin a deal. The deal he offered was so appallingly meager that it was less of a 'deal' and more of a gratuitous insult. Tang's lame protestations that he isn't infringing any copyrighted designs is both desperate and risible.

If you buy Maxpedition's knives at least know that by doing so you are supporting a guy who thinks nothing of ripping off his friends, stabbing them in the back, and making a buck off their hard work and intellectual property.
 
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