I recently came across this cheap brand called "Combat Ready Knives," and noticed, as I was browsing their site, that at least five out of their eight models are ripoffs of other people's designs. The Prodigaul is a Strider ripoff; the Necker Primo, of the Spyderco Spot; the Framed Tanto, of the Boker Magnum Commander (Boker Magnum rips designs off as well, so this one kinda gets a pass from me); the Comred 88 of the DPx HEST; and the Uptown Necker of the CRKT Ritter RSK MK5. The others there may be clones as well, but if they are, I don't know what they're based off of.
Anyway, something that really struck me as odd was Combat Ready's frequent and correct use of the English language. A lot of people here can't write even half as well as those guys. It's definitely not the kind of thing you'd expect to see being put out by a few Chinese rip-off artists using Google Translate.
So, I looked around bit, and it turns out that this brand is owned and operated by SMKW. (It's stated at around the 1 minute mark in this video.)
I've never been able to get myself worked up over Chinese fakes and copies the way others here do; there's nothing you can do about them, and they don't seem to be hurting anyone's business, so why bother? But, I think this is different. These aren't just a few guys, half a world away, trying to make a quick buck off some cheap or stupid foreigner. SMKW is directly involved in the knife industry, and whoever commissioned these knives to be made has full knowledge of exactly who they're stealing from. They may even have met at one time the designers who they ripped off, though that's obviously a stretch.
I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that, even though I acknowledge that knockoffs are something of a fact of life in the knife industry, this just plain feels like a stab in the back. Hell, SMKW even sells some of the ripoffs alongside the knives they're based on! It's just a scummy thing to do.
To make matters worse, Combat Ready tries to bill itself as some sort of patriotic brand, and advertises towards the US military. I found one other thread on this subject, and Marcinek says it better there than I can:
So, I'm open to suggestions on what to do. Contacting SMKW and telling them to stop producing the offending knives seems like a good start. (It seems to make sense to contact SMKW rather than Combat Ready. The threat of Combat Ready losing business it most likely would never have gotten in the first place would be meaningless. The threat of SMKW as a whole losing business would be more effective.)
Thoughts, comments, questions, concerns, e.t.c, are welcome.
Anyway, something that really struck me as odd was Combat Ready's frequent and correct use of the English language. A lot of people here can't write even half as well as those guys. It's definitely not the kind of thing you'd expect to see being put out by a few Chinese rip-off artists using Google Translate.
So, I looked around bit, and it turns out that this brand is owned and operated by SMKW. (It's stated at around the 1 minute mark in this video.)
I've never been able to get myself worked up over Chinese fakes and copies the way others here do; there's nothing you can do about them, and they don't seem to be hurting anyone's business, so why bother? But, I think this is different. These aren't just a few guys, half a world away, trying to make a quick buck off some cheap or stupid foreigner. SMKW is directly involved in the knife industry, and whoever commissioned these knives to be made has full knowledge of exactly who they're stealing from. They may even have met at one time the designers who they ripped off, though that's obviously a stretch.
I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that, even though I acknowledge that knockoffs are something of a fact of life in the knife industry, this just plain feels like a stab in the back. Hell, SMKW even sells some of the ripoffs alongside the knives they're based on! It's just a scummy thing to do.
To make matters worse, Combat Ready tries to bill itself as some sort of patriotic brand, and advertises towards the US military. I found one other thread on this subject, and Marcinek says it better there than I can:
So, I'm open to suggestions on what to do. Contacting SMKW and telling them to stop producing the offending knives seems like a good start. (It seems to make sense to contact SMKW rather than Combat Ready. The threat of Combat Ready losing business it most likely would never have gotten in the first place would be meaningless. The threat of SMKW as a whole losing business would be more effective.)
Thoughts, comments, questions, concerns, e.t.c, are welcome.
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