Gerber Bear Grylls Slipjoint?

[Humppa]

That smiley made me laughing like fool... :thumbup:

 

[glocktenman]

Wow, I think it's a slipjoint.....This was as bad as my "slipjoint with a pocket clip" thread.......sorry for all the heartburn guys and gals!

If you already own one, is it a slipjoint?

 

[pinnah]

I'm sorry, but I laugh myself to tears every single time I see the picture, it's too much. :highly_amused:

Gerber, it's time to stop.

While I agree that it's ugly, I predict it's going to sell like hot cakes.

When am forced to visit brick and mortar outfitting shops of any kind, I almost always glance a the knife selection. What I see is that Gerber, Kershaw and CRK (and Benchmade) are picking up retail real estate along side of Leatherman and Victorinox. Buck appears to be loosing ground and this includes stores like Bass Pro Shops.

I work in a knife shop. Had someone ask me about a 'survival' knife (many things to many different people). I showed him some Bark River knives, some RATS and stuff. Good, solid knives. Then he saw the lone Grylls knife we had. Hey, he wondered, why didn't you show me that, it's just what I want. Well, said I. I don't consider it a real knife.

I'm fascinated by the huge differences in how people see and understand being in the outdoors. There appear to me to be 4 major camps:

1) The Field & Stream crowd. Hunters, fishermen. Very traditional.

2) The mountain climbing and backpacking crowd. This is the REI and North Face fleece crowd.

3) The Bushcraft crowd. Alternative, primitive survival stuff.

4) The Tactical crowd. Lots of black, velcro and plastic buckles.

Bear Gryliss is in the second camp. He's from the mountain climbing group. Say what you want, but he summited Everest for heaven's sake and he looks spiffy in the latest Arc'Teryx goretex jacket. No maker of traditional knives has been appealing to modern climbing/backpacking/outdoor sport set for a very long time. Victorinox, Wegner and Leatherman have long ruled those stores with Gerber having a steady presence due to their multi-tools.

We don't need a picture to know that this thing is ugly. We knew that as soon as we knew it was from Gerber. Gerber seems to relish in ugly as a goal, I suspect owing to their heritage in making "tools" for the tactical set.

In any event, almost no modern buyer of outdoor recreation gear (backpacking, rafting, kayaking, climbing and the like) is going to be interested in something they perceive to be old fashioned.

FWIW, I do think it is possible to leverage traditional chops to appeal to modern climbers. Opinel is heading this way with their Opinel Sport (or whatever they call it).

IMO, somebody could challenge Victorinox for the small slip joint market too, but neither Buck nor Case seems poised to that. So that leaves Gerber and Leatherman perhaps?