Ever heard of GSM Outdoors? They just bought Cold steel.

stonproject said:
I worked at a 100 million dollar company that sold to an investment firm, nobody had any idea, including top level employees in the company. We had a plant meeting and the owner said "we sold and sign papers next week".
Click to expand...

In a $100 million company, a "plant meeting" tends to involve mid-to-lower level employees who are fairly divorced from what happens at corporate, beyond maybe the person in charge of the plant and an on-site HR person. At the very least, finance and HR people in corporate are going to know, because they're involved in the due diligence process. Of course, it can vary a lot, a few years ago we bought a competitor for over $300 million , and all of their facility-level folks knew about the deal ahead of the actual transition with over a month of lead time (I'm an in-house corporate/transactional lawyer for a Fortune 1000 company). The operations-level employees of the company we acquired were virtually all retained, only corporate employees who were redundant after the merger were let go. In a company with fewer than 100 employees and one location, it'd be impressive if news of the deal hadn't leaked out to the rank-and-file staff.

Eli Chaps said:
I don't really use the big river site so I don't have a basis for reference but out of curiosity I looked up the first three brands displayed on the GSM site. Keep in mind I just clicked on the first product for each that popped up.

Stealth Cams only has a 61% 5 star rating and a 12% 1 star
Walker's Game Ear has a 58% 5 star and a 6% 1 star
Muddy Outdoors has a 61% 5 star and 9% 1 star

Those don't seem to me like encouraging numbers. Am I wrong? Is that fairly normal?
Click to expand...

When you search "game camera," the first item that pops up has 62% 5-star and 7% 1-star, so yeah, probably within the realm of normal.
 
I have only one CS knife, a CTS XHP Recon. It's an outstanding knife and I always viewed it as one of the best in their lineup and an embodiment of CS's philosophy and quality, when they were at their best. I'll keep the Recon and use it hard until it falls apart. I've always been interested in their knives and would consider buying more, for example I've been tracking the 3V Master Hunter for some time.

ETA: I'm getting senile, forgot that I also have a CS Ultimate Hunter folder, also in CTS XHP, and custom-ground by REK. Have too many knives to keep track of them all! :D

Anyway, always sorry to see ANY innovative company get sucked up in the brutal mergers and acquisitions game. It seems clear this is good for the founder, and perhaps for the parent company that will manipulate this established brand name to score some quick profits, but really hard to see how this is good for anyone else. Especially sorry for the employees, and the loyal CS fans, who will be damaged by this action. And in particular, the likely prospect of shifting more production to China as a cost-cutting measure. I don't want to distract from this thread as I know there are strong feelings either way, but will just say for the record and because it has some relevance to the CS brand's future direction: I will not buy any knife, firearm, or ANY product at all--where I have other options and enough information to make an informed choice--if it was made in China. The Chinese CCP government (not the Chinese people in general) is the worst enemy of democracy and freedom and human rights that exists on this planet. Any company that shifts most of its production to China will lose ALL of my business just on principle. I hope that the new management of the Cold Steel brand doesn't make this error, but have a sinking feeling they will. It's the way of the world with the mergers & acquisitions gang: bottom line trumps all other considerations, including quality, concern for other human beings, and morality.
 
Last edited:
They always had tiers of products and the top tier products will probably remain just that.
In fact, they are rereleasing the Black Bear Classic in March or so, as for the swords and low end stuff, I don't think it makes much difference.
 
Just ordered 2 more SRKs in SK5 at $35 a piece. Couldn't pass them up. I might unload one of them, I really just wanted the free shipping but I don't mind having 3 SRKs.
 
Hopefully this new company keeps things together;i can see them thinning out those spears,roman swords and similar stuff, which is fine to me,and i dont see things like the SRK or Voyagers going away, they are affordable. Only the higher end tantos, bowies, San Mai, and 3v items might go away hopefully we are wrong about the uncertain future of Cold Steel.
 
Hackenslash said:
I think those are fairly normal numbers for decent products. People tend to be more outspoken about a bad experience than a good experience. Lately the Big River reviews are almost worthless. They let a bad review for a shipping box go against the product in the box. There's no filter and every idiot has a voice, kinda like Facebook :cool:. Also, there are so many new "imports" with names like "MESELLYOU" giving products away for free or deeply discounted in exchange for a positive review. Big River reviews have no credibility and it keeps getting worse.

If you read the 1-star reviews it's stuff like
"My new pants arrived a day late! I was forced to wear an un-stylish pleat! My life is ruined!"
"It was a different color blue than the picture and now I have to repaint my bedroom!"
"The picture showed a kitten in the cat bed and I only got a cat bed!!!"

If you can't tell, I've mostly lost faith in the universal superior intelligence of humankind. :p

Anyway, take Big River reviews with a grain of salt. If you drill into them you'll usually find that most can be ignored.
Click to expand...

Eli Chaps said:
I did read all of the 1 star comments on the first product and they were pretty significant issues.

I always feel like review stats are somewhat artificially skewed to the positive because people write them right after using the product.

But, if that is a fairly normal representation, maybe that's somewhat of a positive sign.
Click to expand...

I always go right to the 1 star reviews when researching something. Agreed that many are stupid/useless, but the others are where you learn about any gotchas that could be significant.
 
OrangeBlueOrangeBlue said:
KnifeCenter is doing a sale through Monday night on all in-stock Cold Steel products...

Could be a coincidence, but that seems to me like a liquidation, so I grabbed an SRK and a 4-Max Scout.
Click to expand...
Does anyone know the reason the black AD15 is more expensive than the green one?
 
unwisefool said:
Does anyone know the reason the black AD15 is more expensive than the green one?
Click to expand...
Probably just less popular in green . I've enjoyed good discounts on those Coyote brown handle CS models for same reason .
 
unwisefool said:
Does anyone know the reason the black AD15 is more expensive than the green one?
Click to expand...

Probably because it's newer, and it was the color that people all stated they wanted when the green one came out first.
 
unwisefool said:
Does anyone know the reason the black AD15 is more expensive than the green one?
Click to expand...

Probably based on current inventory levels, especially if they're trying to clear inventory. If they've got a bunch of green ones sitting and they know the black is more popular, an extra discount for the green could help drive some sales.
 
RealVendetta said:
I am no Cold Steel fanboy but they certainly made many quality products. Sad to see that go away in the current world climate.

That being said if the rumors of them cleaning house right before the holidays are true, well... thats a travesty that sits squarely on Lynn Thompsons shoulders and will, at least in my eyes, forever stain his reputation.
Click to expand...
Excellent point! I own over 100 Cold Steel Products but that would be a despicable thing to do.
 
I wouldnt worry about some knives like the SRK being phased out, its only around 40.00 and these knives are even sold in military px's so i couldnt imagine this knife or the voyagers being discontinued....
 
soc_monki said:
Just ordered 2 more SRKs in SK5 at $35 a piece. Couldn't pass them up. I might unload one of them, I really just wanted the free shipping but I don't mind having 3 SRKs.
Click to expand...
"You can never have too many knives." Joe Abercrombie, author of The First Law trilogy (and a whole bunch of other great books with a lot of knife content):D
 
OrangeBlueOrangeBlue said:
KnifeCenter is doing a sale through Monday night on all in-stock Cold Steel products...

Could be a coincidence, but that seems to me like a liquidation, so I grabbed an SRK and a 4-Max Scout.
Click to expand...
Recon Tanto ordered... shockingly still cheaper even with $25 shipping than buying in the UK.
 
Quiet said:
Probably because it's newer, and it was the color that people all stated they wanted when the green one came out first.
Click to expand...

I had originally thought that too, but after seeing the all-black one, I like the green. Think part of it is that the black isn't the same across the lock bar and handle...the handle looks darker. So if there's going to be a difference anyway, might as well make it totally different. But I think blue would have been awesome.
 
goldie said:
I wouldnt worry about some knives like the SRK being phased out, its only around 40.00 and these knives are even sold in military px's so i couldnt imagine this knife or the voyagers being discontinued....
Click to expand...

Yeah, for right now, if I was planning my pre-change over buying, I'd be picking up any of the over 4" blade length models I was interested in. I'd also buy any of the oddball things they made. They were using Windlass for a lot of that stuff, and I can't see them being able to supply the quantity and quality something like this new company would need. I can see the Spetnaz shovel being gone, the tomahawk range being shortened, etc.....

I'd also buy any of the of more expensive older models too. I don't think they're going to be discontinued, but I do think we'll a drop in quality shortly.

Anything that can compete with Schrade, S & W, CRKT, and Buck and Spyderco's lower end models pricewise I'd consider safe at the moment.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top