Firstly, I apologize for the delay in making a statement over here. This has gone through a few revisions in an effort to avoid tl:dr, especially since most of these topics have been discussed a few times already.
Availability
This is a simple supply and demand issue. We cannot supply the knives fast enough to satiate current demand. In order to help increase our supply, we offer prepaid preordering which allows us to invest in larger production runs. If there is any question about how many knives we actually produce, I would encourage people to check out @SurviveKnives on Instagram to see pictures of each production run.
While Guy did initially give out knives to a few reviewers back in 2013, we have not done anything to try and increase our demand since then. We do not attend shows, give knives away in exchange for good reviews, pay for advertising, or whatever else companies do to boost demand. Weve been doing our best to hide under a rock as we try to catch up on things.
Wait times
This is where I bring up the old adage: Good, Fast, Cheap, pick two. We picked Good and Cheap. It is very important to us to QC at every step to make sure everything is the best it can be along the way. There is a lot of time spent hand finishing each order and we will not do something simply because it is faster or easier. We do not believe in cutting corners. Guy is working on training someone to help him out in the workshop so you will see an increase in speediness once he gives the thumbs up.
Even so, we expect demand to continue to rise so there will likely always be some wait for the GSO knives. As a solution, we plan to introduce the SK Series to satiate the folks who are more in the Fast and Cheap market. Those blades will still be quality materials and designs, but they will not go through the slower hand finishing steps we do for the GSO knives.
Complicated ordering process
It is unconventional right now and I believe Ive apologized for that a few times. But with limited availability, there isnt an easy fix. Solving the above issues will solve this issue. In the meantime, we do our best to keep folks as informed as possible. We have the How to Buy page, FAQ, Production Schedule, and a Monthly Newsletter. We are also always happy to answer questions and concerns via email, phone, or any of the social media accounts.
Missed delivery dates
I know this has not been our strongest area historically, and I apologize for the frustrations there. Because the production process has so many variables we decided to go with the no guaranteed delivery date and figured people would take that in to consideration before placing a preorder. With the Monday sales the 5-day promise was a bit optimistic, especially with the amount of hand finishing that has been required. The 15-day quote was going well for a bit, but we have fallen behind that with the July orders. Guy should have the reworking done for those over the weekend and we are expecting to be back on track by the end of next week. We are currently changing the way we do things in the workshop so that we can tend to any fitment issues before the blades are sharpened. Guy is also delayed slightly right now due to training.
For other ordering, we do our best to provide as accurate of an estimate as we can, given the current circumstances. Unfortunately, things come up and cause delays. There is a lot involved in setting up product pages with this system and a lot involved in getting orders fulfilled so mistakes do happen from time to time. We will do our best to be more careful when listing knives to minimize confusion. We are also looking into ways to improve communication on the various information pages on our website.
Charging for full payment up front
I noticed some mention about funding from banks rather than customers. If anyone here has tried to get a bank loan with a newer business since 2008 they will know that it isnt easy. Most banks want to see 3 years of positive revenue before even starting to look at your application. SURVIVE! officially opened as a business in 2012. The only full run really made that year was the GSO-10, which sold for $180. I think you can all figure out that it wasnt exactly a high profit year for the then garage based business. Guy knew 2013 was going to be different so he brought in a business partner who he trusted to manage the finances and other business aspects. When Guy realized that SURVIVE! had been paying a slew of employees (more like friends and family) who spent most of their time working on the partners other business entity he began questioning his decision to bring him on and eventually the partnership was dissolved. As a result, the books at the end of 2013 didnt leave much to be desired. 2014 was better but that was before we really started selling Factory 2nds so we still had a high proportion of loss. So by the time we were even old enough to consider bank financing, we were still not eligible for it. That didnt change the fact that customers were banging down the doors asking us to take their order. We knew we needed to grow substantially, so we decided to go the same route as many other young companies: crowdfunding.
Why full payment and not a partial deposit? There is the obvious answer: more money = more growth = more knives going out to happy customers. The actual reason though, is that it allows us to fulfill orders faster. It means I can be in the workshop, rather than in the office trying to get ahold of people for their payment information (We do not hold on to customers credit card details because of how sensitive that information is).
Production - Custom - Craft
When Guy completed his first drawing at the very end of 2010 his plan was to simply be a knife designer. Over the next couple of years, he figured out that trying to realize his designs through another knife company just wasnt going to work. Well skip the gory details. In the end, Guy decided the best approach would be to seek out individual contract manufacturers who excel at specific heavy machining processes. Through those first years, he lost a lot of time and money in his search for companies to work with, but it paid off as we believe we currently work with some of the best people in the industry.
Yes, we use other companies to do the heavy machining and we have never hidden that fact. Many, MANY knife companies out there operate under the same model. Smaller companies and start-ups cant justify millions of dollars worth of machines to do everything in house. A host of well-established medium to large companies have good relationships with their contractors and never bother making the investment in their own machines, instead focusing on finishing processes. Even many custom makers who produce only a few hundred pieces a year rely on contract manufacturers to have their blades cut and sometimes partially machined to save time with hand work and to improve consistency.
The difference is in what happens to the blade during the finishing steps. In the SURVIVE! workshop we take the extra time to look closely at each and every knife to make sure those final processes are being done well. We care about all aspects of the blade, how the handles and sheaths fit, and especially the edge. If something isnt right, it gets fixed or added to the Factory 2nd pile. Most of the finishing is currently being done by one person. We are working on getting another person trained on some of those tasks, which will help speed things up considerably. Dont worry, the trainee also has really high standards.
In closing:
SURVIVE! has officially been in business for 4 years. We did not own businesses before this. Guy is just a person following a dream. Have we made mistakes? Definitely. Since no one has figured out a time machine yet, we cant change the past. The important thing is that we learn from those mistakes and we adapt. When we say SURVIVE! is an innovative company we arent talking about only the knife designs. We are always looking for better ways to do production, sales, customer service, and everything else. I can promise that we will never again: sell GSO-10s for under $200, or trust an outsider with the money, or underestimate how much demand may have grown, or offer unlimited preordering. We will: hire as needed, maintain our quality standards, and continue doing the best we can to make everyone happy (even though we know that probably isnt possible).
. But in truth, I have no idea how many S!K ships out each day, nor how many knives are in each of those >10,000 orders.
I want my knives, but I have time and other knives to keep me company. I bought in as an investment in Guy's efforts, and hope that anyone else who participated did the same. And their still better than any production or mid-tech knife that I've seen from any other company, especially for the price. I can wait.
