How sustainable is CRKT's business model?

[3fifty7]

Yeah but if you are selling 24,000 knives a year and making $100 a piece you make the same amount of money doing less work. Id rather have that business model. I doubt many makers are envious of doing more work for the same profits. But if you are CRKT and don't actually make anything its sort of a hard argument to have either way.

I understand what your getting at. Although I'd venture to say there is less work to make the higher volume than than to make the higher quality for the same profits or sales whatever the metric may be.

 

[photoman12001]

I like my CRKT fixed Stubby Razel, enough that I would like to get a real Graham version. The SS7 is a bit ridiculous but kind of neat. I wish it didn't have serrations on the spine. I handled one of their folding Razels and passed on that. Luckily I have a Graham GMT folder. The little Ashworth Turtle is neat too.

 

[Dfunk1210]

I dunno. When you have Gerber selling 06 FAST with 7cr17 fo $60 and SOG selling aus-8 for $60-90, is CRKT the worst value out there?

 

[Vinifera]

Maybe or maybe not but the original question was whether the CRKT business model is sustainable which I don't think anyone can authoritatively opine about without having access to information from a non-public company. Yeah we can speculate based on nothing but what does that accomplish? Carry on amigos.

 

[craytab]

I dunno. When you have Gerber selling 06 FAST with 7cr17 fo $60 and SOG selling aus-8 for $60-90, is CRKT the worst value out there?

Not sure. But it puts them with those worse other two. Same model. Different companies.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Bottom line is we're not really their market for the most part, other than juuuust enough intersectionality to rope us in on certain models. Their market is the average joe who buys a knife because it looks neat and feels way more solid than a jarbenza.

 

[Danke42]

Yeah but if you are selling 24,000 knives a year and making $100 a piece you make the same amount of money doing less work. Id rather have that business model. I doubt many makers are envious of doing more work for the same profits. But if you are CRKT and don't actually make anything its sort of a hard argument to have either way.

Bread and butter pays the bills. Always has and always will.

 

[emjay4248]

I own a few CRKTs. They hooked me with interesting, good looking designs (not to be confused with engineering) at an acceptable price. I don't buy them anymore, but I'm a little more informed now, and willing to spend a little more. For most people, they are still miles ahead of the "average" folding knife.

I absolutely agree.

 

[emjay4248]

CRKT knives are designed for guys and gals who are rough with their knives (I don't necessarily mean so-called "hard use" but rather "rough use") and frequently blunt the edges by contacting them with stuff that will dull any knife. Mechanics, contractors, plumbers, people who just play hard, etc. They don't think twice about how they care for their knives, but they're proud enough of their tools to want something cool that isn't total garbage. Since these knives will routinely be blunted no matter what you make them out of, ease of sharpening takes a high priority and so softer steels are the ideal. Most aren't even ever going to sharpen them, but for those who do it makes sense to make it easy to do because they'll be doing it a lot, and probably not with the highest proficiency. They're great knives for that very large market sector.

Very well put. In addition to those people there is the starting out collector who wants quantity not high quality. Eventually people move away from the inexpensive knives and move up to ZT, Benchmade, and some of the better middle quality such as Real Steel etc. the quantity goes down and the quality goes up

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Very well put. In addition to those people there is the starting out collector who wants quantity not high quality. Eventually people move away from the inexpensive knives and move up to ZT, Benchmade, and some of the better middle quality such as Real Steel etc. the quantity goes down and the quality goes up

Or start bargain hunting for high performance low cost stuff. Hunting out the value in utilitarian tools instead of the "wow factor" aesthetics or mechanisms. I actually started mid-high end, progressed to high end, then went to value stuff based on price/performance. Most of my blades these days are pretty humble, but they're just extremely pleasant to use.

 

[gadgetgeek]

I don't follow things as close as some, but it seems that CRKT follow the market faster than some others. SOG seems to have struggled for a while to really find where they fit, Gerber is very conservative, but CRKT seems to push new stuff and drop it if it doesn't get traction. Which may be why they will continue to do fine, for every lemon, they have a winner, and the lemons don't drag the winners down since they will likely look very different, where as Gerber and SOG both really seem to stick to having all their knives identifiable within the design language even if they don't slather them in branding. Dunno, I'm not a marketing expert, but evidence would suggest that if your marketing is good enough, might be all you need.

 

[PirateSeulb]

There are many companies in their market but I think in their market, which generally doesn't really include us, they still have a solid reputation and they are everywhere plus they offer that little bit of wow aesthetics to make their products stand out. Their products also come with a name often making their market feel more comfortable paying more if it is more than the competitor knife right next to it on the shelf at Wal-mart, Dicks, Cabela's, etc. They are marketing and doing it well I used to love their knives now I typically don't really even look at them. Things like the Homefront catch my attention but is overpriced to me but interesting and curious where it may lead. I still own and love my Swindle from them has a great comfortable design and mine works great and was an exemplary model to come through their QC.

 

[PURPLEDC]

I understand what your getting at. Although I'd venture to say there is less work to make the higher volume than than to make the higher quality for the same profits or sales whatever the metric may be.

maybe, but maybe not. Probably depends on the brand. But IMHO machining is machining. Now Titanium uses up tooling and is much harder to cut into. But when I see so many brands that are doing very basic milling on titanium to me it almost seems like a even trade off. CRKT does accurate replications of the designs they license. The cheaper and easier to mill materials make that possible with less effort. But the higher end production companies seem to dumb down designs to compensate. Especially if these companies are taking these parts, tossing them into a tumbler and calling it a day. Then you have to consider assembly. All knives whether handmade customs, production or absolute junk need to be assembled by hand. No machine currently performs these duties. As such it would seem like there would be a cost savings not having to have as many employees assembling knives. But that may also be offset cost wise depending on where the assembling is actually being done.

 

[Danke42]

maybe, but maybe not. Probably depends on the brand. But IMHO machining is machining. Now Titanium uses up tooling and is much harder to cut into. But when I see so many brands that are doing very basic milling on titanium to me it almost seems like a even trade off. CRKT does accurate replications of the designs they license. The cheaper and easier to mill materials make that possible with less effort. But the higher end production companies seem to dumb down designs to compensate. Especially if these companies are taking these parts, tossing them into a tumbler and calling it a day. Then you have to consider assembly. All knives whether handmade customs, production or absolute junk need to be assembled by hand. No machine currently performs these duties. As such it would seem like there would be a cost savings not having to have as many employees assembling knives. But that may also be offset cost wise depending on where the assembling is actually being done.

It's not the machining that's the work; that's easy. It's the customer service for their dealers and then the public that costs way more. With an inexpensive knife they can afford to scrap it at the dealer level (just give that guy a new one , snap the blade in a vice and chuck it) while with a Benchmade or Spyderco or CRK they have to get it back and fix it and talk to people and ship it out and so on. Every time you touch something it costs money. Even writing the orders for the big box stores is easier. They'll see the buyer with some pictures and pricing and ask how many cases of each. Then they go to lunch.

The model is very sustainable. It's not as much of a labour of love kind of thing you'll see at the more expensive makers buy you never go broke catering to the lowest common denominator.

 

[PURPLEDC]

It's not the machining that's the work; that's easy. It's the customer service for their dealers and then the public that costs way more. With an inexpensive knife they can afford to scrap it at the dealer level (just give that guy a new one , snap the blade in a vice and chuck it) while with a Benchmade or Spyderco or CRK they have to get it back and fix it and talk to people and ship it out and so on. Every time you touch something it costs money. Even writing the orders for the big box stores is easier. They'll see the buyer with some pictures and pricing and ask how many cases of each. Then they go to lunch.

The model is very sustainable. It's not as much of a labour of love kind of thing you'll see at the more expensive makers buy you never go broke catering to the lowest common denominator.

This is the point in which I just say "agree to disagree". We will see where CRKT is in a few years. Regardless I disagree 100%

 

[PURPLEDC]

Bread and butter pays the bills. Always has and always will.

there are different qualities of bread and butter. Its relative to the person making it.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

there are different qualities of bread and butter. Its relative to the person making it.

As a friend of a professional premium butter manufacturing family I can attest to that.

 

[Danke42]

 

[PURPLEDC]

CRKT. Hey, 10 years ago people told me bearings would never be popular in knife making right on this very forum. People also laughed when i predicted that china was going to be the next big player in the knife market. Im not saying im the knife whisperer or anything but I am going to start working on my "I told you so" meme if in the event I am correct again.

 

[chucknduck]

I also don't understand the hate on CRKT. Especially with such a decline in quality and value from SOG, Gerber, and Kershaw. I have always been a Kershaw fan but sinice the growth of ZT, it's just a dumping ground for endless FRN and Speedsafe turds in various shapes and sizes. And now, they re-branded their USA-made models with 420 hc from 14c28n? Thanks but no thanks. Bottom line is 8cr13mov is a SUPERIOR steel to 420 hc, regardless where its made. And they consider it an upgrade?

CRKT on the other hand left a lot to be desired in the past. But with a lineup full of innovative designs, ball bearing pivots, and variety; I think they are the leader in the bang-for-buck value folder market. They seem to be a step ahead in quality control and they make knives with FRN, G10, aluminum, and steel scales. Since most CRKT's are manual actions, they require a higher level of quality control than simply throwing a torsion bar in every model. An assisted knife needs no detent, special smoothness, or lock bar adjustments to deploy every time you flip it. IMO, CRKT makes a great knife for the money.

Now if Kershaw could get back to the days when they were putting out designs like the Cyclone, Tyrade, and Lahar, then we would all benefit.