Does Benchmade intro and drop knives fairly often???

[Maximumbob54]

Asking this because I've been scrolling the "Which Benchmade are you carrying today" and there are a LOT of them I've never seen. Looking them up they are gone or long gone.

Is it a lack of sales thing? Or maybe like Case they retire a design and then bring it back years later? Is it old school Disney sales of it's here and then going back into the vault?

I did notice not that long ago it looked like the Griptilian was dropped from the lineup but then came right back all in S30V steel now.

Or I could just be imagining things?

 

[Kryme]

Higher profit margins are the real answer. Why continue to manufacture old models when you can just pump out plastic at the same price and higher. Or reintroduce an old and loved model at 3x the price with a slightly better steel.

 

[Delta-v]

Their model is fairly typical of knife manufacturers and consumer goods in general. They have evergreen models like the 940, Adamas, Infidel and Griptilian, which by the way was never discontinued, just had the steel upgraded. Then there are models that do moderately well and stick around several years before inevitably seeing a sales decline and being discontinued. But models that don't perform well get cut. Benchmade has finite capacity, so if they want to introduce new products, they have to cut something somewhere. That is the product life cycle. Plus, they've been around for over 40 years. They've made a lot of different knives in that period.

Benchmade is a single US factory. I think the variety of their lineup is impressive given that fact. But some people actually complain that Benchmade doesn't introduce enough new knives annually. I see such complaints every year. Typically they debut 5-10 new models and several variations on existing models every year. They also discontinue a similar number every year. That seems reasonable to me. It keeps the product lineup fresh and allows for new stuff. And the new knives are exciting. I look forward to the new knife announcements. We should be hearing something soon.

 

[Skywalker31]

Asking this because I've been scrolling the "Which Benchmade are you carrying today" and there are a LOT of them I've never seen. Looking them up they are gone or long gone.

Benchmade's just been around a while. The Axis lock is 25 years old now - not even getting into the older liner/framelock lineup, that's a lot of time for models to come and go.

As others have said there's a core cast of perennial models and others rotating out around them, similar to other companies.

My only advice would be that if you see a model you like that's more of a "cult classic" vs the general, widespread popularity of a 940 or Bugout... Pick it up sooner than later, and consider a backup. In general, BM's not running limited editions of discontinued models much these days.

 

[Maximumbob54]

Benchmade's just been around a while. The Axis lock is 25 years old now - not even getting into the older liner/framelock lineup, that's a lot of time for models to come and go.

As others have said there's a core cast of perennial models and others rotating out around them, similar to other companies.

My only advice would be that if you see a model you like that's more of a "cult classic" vs the general, widespread popularity of a 940 or Bugout... Pick it up sooner than later, and consider a backup. In general, BM's not running limited editions of discontinued models much these days.

I did pass on buying a 710 when they were available and now my only option is that $400 new model that I don't see myself buying. Not that I'm big on FOMO buying anything but it does boil down to buy when available or overpay second hand. Or the low road of just don't have one.