- Joined
- Oct 2, 1998
- Messages
- 5,461
A couple of years ago I wrote an article for our then in house magazine "To The Point" about Knock Offs. The title was Knockoffs - The Good, the Bad, and the Really Ugly!
Here is a link.
And in it
Well it has taken me a bit longer than thought but I am now a part of the solution. I am now what amounts to the "marketing director" for a company that is based in China, and which, up to this point, relied primarily on knock offs for sales. I have seen several US companies make a B-Line for China because of the extremely low labor cost and many of the products you own today are made their. In fact many of the knives you carry are either partly or in whole made there, whether or not they are marked as such.
I am now working with a major US importer and my goal was and is to try to introduce a new line of knives, all with original designs. I figured if you are going to make a new knife anyway, why make a knock off when you can make an exclusive design that only you have? Heck every importer in the country has the same knock offs and it is always a race to see who can sell 'em cheaper. This can not be profitable so I figured it would be easy to convince them to look to my idea. Well it took a while but I have finally teamed up with some great people and several factories who are listening. The really cool thing is they are liquidating their entire line of knock offs to concentrate on two new lines of knives, BOSS and LILE (Yes, Jimmy Lile). Once gone, we will no longer have ANY knock offs and only offer our exclusive designs. We hope in some ways that we will be copied, but in the end there will always be those companies that make there living knocking off others. That is sad, but it is a fact of life that will never change.
What you will all be able to witness, first hand, over the next few months is the birth of a new company, based in China with a marketing concept never seen there. This has NEVER been done in our industry. We should have most of the new product in within 60-90 days with the full scale launch scheduled for the Shot Show early next year. The best part is that you can (and in some cases already are) a part of it. We are not limiting our designs to only those of famous makers. Like my contest a few months ago, which will never end BTW, we will be testing new ground with new designs regardless of who submits them.
Here is my promise to you all here at BFC.
You will see the knives here first. We will give away knives each month and there will be a Salsa floating around at all times. I want your feedback on our knives and I want nearly LIVE. I want our knives to be the highest quality we can produce and without your feedback this is not possible. Our knives will NOT be the quality of Microtech, Chris Reeve or Benchmade but I think you will see that it will rival that of many US manufacturers (In fact we already make some US knives). Not to mention that our price point will be nearly 100% below $50 and perhaps 80% below $30 making them within reach of just about anyone.
I started my business selling knives at the Flea Market here in Jacksonville. I moved on to sell virtually every brand of knife made and many customs as well. I now want to get back to my roots and make quality knives at an affordable price. I would love to see BOSS and LILE knives sold at the largest retailers and the smallest Flea Market vendor but most importantly I want people to be able to afford them. I am putting everything I have into this project to make it work. So I am putting my tag line to test. I am going to "Do It, Do It Right, and Do It Right, NOW!"
Stay Tuned
Here is a link.
And in it
Well it has taken me a bit longer than thought but I am now a part of the solution. I am now what amounts to the "marketing director" for a company that is based in China, and which, up to this point, relied primarily on knock offs for sales. I have seen several US companies make a B-Line for China because of the extremely low labor cost and many of the products you own today are made their. In fact many of the knives you carry are either partly or in whole made there, whether or not they are marked as such.
I am now working with a major US importer and my goal was and is to try to introduce a new line of knives, all with original designs. I figured if you are going to make a new knife anyway, why make a knock off when you can make an exclusive design that only you have? Heck every importer in the country has the same knock offs and it is always a race to see who can sell 'em cheaper. This can not be profitable so I figured it would be easy to convince them to look to my idea. Well it took a while but I have finally teamed up with some great people and several factories who are listening. The really cool thing is they are liquidating their entire line of knock offs to concentrate on two new lines of knives, BOSS and LILE (Yes, Jimmy Lile). Once gone, we will no longer have ANY knock offs and only offer our exclusive designs. We hope in some ways that we will be copied, but in the end there will always be those companies that make there living knocking off others. That is sad, but it is a fact of life that will never change.
What you will all be able to witness, first hand, over the next few months is the birth of a new company, based in China with a marketing concept never seen there. This has NEVER been done in our industry. We should have most of the new product in within 60-90 days with the full scale launch scheduled for the Shot Show early next year. The best part is that you can (and in some cases already are) a part of it. We are not limiting our designs to only those of famous makers. Like my contest a few months ago, which will never end BTW, we will be testing new ground with new designs regardless of who submits them.
Here is my promise to you all here at BFC.
You will see the knives here first. We will give away knives each month and there will be a Salsa floating around at all times. I want your feedback on our knives and I want nearly LIVE. I want our knives to be the highest quality we can produce and without your feedback this is not possible. Our knives will NOT be the quality of Microtech, Chris Reeve or Benchmade but I think you will see that it will rival that of many US manufacturers (In fact we already make some US knives). Not to mention that our price point will be nearly 100% below $50 and perhaps 80% below $30 making them within reach of just about anyone.
I started my business selling knives at the Flea Market here in Jacksonville. I moved on to sell virtually every brand of knife made and many customs as well. I now want to get back to my roots and make quality knives at an affordable price. I would love to see BOSS and LILE knives sold at the largest retailers and the smallest Flea Market vendor but most importantly I want people to be able to afford them. I am putting everything I have into this project to make it work. So I am putting my tag line to test. I am going to "Do It, Do It Right, and Do It Right, NOW!"
Stay Tuned
