now Gerber is ripping off Crawford/CRKT too?

B

Blackhearted

Joined
Jul 6, 2005
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307
gb1433.jpg

gerber 'evo'.

m16-03.jpg

CRKT M16-03

its the same design, right down to the 'carson flipper'. i expect this from lower end knife manufacturers - especially foreign ones - but Gerber? wtf? :mad:
i am totally losing all of my respect for this company - which is sad, because they used to be among my favorites. their trend towards lower quality steels and materials, lower quality control and now knockoffs of popular best-selling knives is ruining a former reputable name in knife manufacturing.

i just looked through their 'new products' and i see many design elements and styles reminiscent of benchmade, CRKT, kershaw, etc. now i know in such a highly competitive and saturated industry there are bound to be some similarities, but the above example is going way too far. i would expect this from a cheap chinese knock-off company with no respect for patent laws or designs, but not from gerber - a tier 1 US manufacturer. its disgusting :barf:
 
Gerber isnt Gerber anymore- they are owned by Fiskars. they are also, in my view, a bottom-end company. I never even glance at gerbers anymore. :rolleyes: :barf:
 
When I was buying my M16, I ran into this knife and seriously took a look at it thinking it was some new M16 edition (There ARE like 30 of them)...
it's kind of sad...to be honest with you though, I never liked gerber....my friend has an older low end gerber that has such useless steel...it stays sharp for negligeable amounts of time. It might as well be a trainer.

What's worse, I think, is that in my mind, the M16 is the essential CRKT folder. Right now CRKT folder simply equals M16. I mean, they're ripping off the main part of the company in my opinion.
 
wow, that's pretty blatant.
I too, used to really like the Gerbers, but they have fallen towards the bottom of my mental list when looking for knives.
 
that thing looks like it rides too low in the pocket for me.

good for those who want to carry concealed though.
 
I would rather buy a Cold Steel, and that's saying a lot. Gerber was a damn good company a few years ago, now it's a joke. That has to be the biggest ripoff ever.
 
*cough*, yeah i meant carson :) i got it right in the post, just messed up the title.

Artfully Martial said:
When I was buying my M16, I ran into this knife and seriously took a look at it thinking it was some new M16 edition (There ARE like 30 of them)...
it's kind of sad...to be honest with you though, I never liked gerber....my friend has an older low end gerber that has such useless steel...it stays sharp for negligeable amounts of time. It might as well be a trainer.

What's worse, I think, is that in my mind, the M16 is the essential CRKT folder. Right now CRKT folder simply equals M16. I mean, they're ripping off the main part of the company in my opinion.
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no doubt. the M16s/M21s might not be CRKTs most expensive knives, but they are definitely their best selling and therefore 'flagship' line. i love my M16s/M21s - they are economy priced knives that are just excellently designed - i cant find a single fault with them (although i would love to see them in premium blade steels). this is what makes it all that much worse that gerber is totally ripping them off. this is beyond just a 'similarity' - its a blatant copy of the design, it looks like someone just made small adjustments to the shape so as not to be a direct copy (like changing the holes to ovals, etc).

if you go to http://www.gerbergear.com/ktg/knives.php and check out their other 'new' knives you can see many design elements 'borrowed' from other companies like benchmade, kershaw, etc.
for example, many people might not notice, but something like the carson flipper is a significant innovation in folding knives. its a shame that a formerly reputable company cant respect other peoples designs and come up with some of their own. i mean i am aware that gerber is slipping - has been for awhile - but somehow i didnt think theyd stoop so low.

cheers,
-gabriel
 
Gerber's multi tools have also gone downhill. Their older models were solid, made in the USA. Newer stuff is lightweight, flimsy, and made in china. Disappointing.:barf:
 
Yeah, that's a shame... yada yada yada.
So aside from the horribleness of ripping off another company, does anyone else actually like the Gerber's appearance more than the CRKT's? I won't buy it because of the steel and it seems to be only tip down carry. But aesthetically, does anyone like the Gerber more?
I find the blade a little more appealing, and the handle looks pretty comfortable. I'm probably going to get flamed for this. Dang.
 
Why being Fiskars knives is a problem, I don't know. On their own products Fiskars does pretty well. But I guess they feel they bought a company for its old name and reputation and can get away with using it for their budget line.

Did they think no one would notice? They figured the low end knife buyer wouldn't even think to care.
 
I would say that the vast majority of buyers who only purcase 1 or 2 knives and then for limited jobs, have no idea about the materials that go into making them. I have spoken to people that like knives as tools for Camping or Hiking but the second I mention VG-10 or 1095 I just get a confused look. Gerber is going to be able to sell knives at a decent rate because they are catering to the Walmart buyer, not exactly what you would call 'discerning'

Gerber used to be the equivalent of Buck, now they arn't. But, there are still enough people that know the name, associate it with quality, but are not that savvy in regards to materials. So, Gerber should have another 20-30 years of living on their name.

I mean, look at this forum. Its the largest one in the world, yet anyone that comes here everyday recognizes most of the other posters. So in a world with umpteen billion people and a lot of them (or at least the ones on line and with money to by knives) are readily identifiable, so what does that say about the real knife nuts? We should be on a CITES list!

Now look at all the companies that make knives, there are quite a few, there are also a lot of models from the bigger makers and they have been in business for a reasonable amount of time, so somene must be buying them. We know that these buyers are not freaks like us as we dont see that many people posting here :) but it does go to show that a lot of knives being sold are being bought by people that couldn't care less about the steel or the ethics of the company making it.
 
Temper said:
Gerber used to be the equivalent of Buck, now they arn't. But, there are still enough people that know the name, associate it with quality, but are not that savvy in regards to materials. So, Gerber should have another 20-30 years of living on their name.
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they used to be far beyond buck, at least in the mid 80s. when buck was mass-producing $30-50 generic hunting knives (that all looked the same) gerber was already creating the predecessors of many of today's premium 'tactical' knives like the BMF/LMF, Loveless Guardian, etc. there was a time in the mid-late 80s, and even early 90s, when gerber was synonymous with quality. i was proud to own those knives: they represented pretty much the upper level of production knives at the time.

now? i look at sh*t like this 'Evo' (god, what an ironic name) and it just makes me sad.

its a shame that people will still buy it for the name alone... they went from $200+ knives to sub-$30 ones, people should smarten up. but quality isnt all about numbers and material names - im sure when some of those people take their new gerbers out and use them in the field they will soon realise that they are nothing like the gerbers of old, and they will not purchase one again. its foolish to believe that you can just buy a reputation and get by on that alone - you will never get repeat business, and especially in this day and age a bad reputation will spread like wildfire on the net. it wont take long until they are exclusively sold through walmart for $9.99.
 
does anyone else actually like the Gerber's appearance more than the CRKT's?
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Well, all things aside, I definitely prefer the looks of the M16 to be honest. The M16 is up there with my favorite looking production knives ever....so saying that I don't like the evo as much as the m16, visually, isn't really a bad thing...I DO like the evo visually.

In any case, I definitely prefer the bm42 esque skeletonized hilt to the Evo's...I really like the titanium nitride black blade on the m16 also...even though it's next to IMPOSSIBLE to keep clean...that stuff is tough too...hasn't scratched yet (unlike my d2 minigrip's matte black stuff which streaks easy)....I also prefer the better rounded spearpoint in the M16

But I do like the evo visually....I guess when you copy a successful design that closely, looking good is almost guaranteed...

But at least they have taste on who they copy
 
Did we just have this discussion, or has Gerber done it again? We have recently discussed a Gerber knife that was a knockoff of a well-known design. The discussion centered around the legality of the copy. I agreed the Gerber was a rip-off, but thought they had changed enough details to avoid a court settlement.

If this isn't teh same knife, it's an identical situation. You can see obvious differences in the two knives, just enough to distinguish the original from the copy even if the brand markings were removed.

As far as whether Gerber actually 'improved' the design? Well, I prefer the round holes and the blade grind of the CRKT. And on the CRKT I like how the thumb stud fits into the handle when closed. But I do like how Gerber cleaned cleaned up the blade kick by filling in the hole. Unless the hole is there for a reason?

If I were buying one of these knives, I'd definitely choose the Columbia River.

-Bob
 
Damn, that is outright bad for a company to behave like that, but i guess it is just the begining of things to come, everyone's designs are being copied to the letter,or close to it.

Wonder if they tried to do the LAWKS system too?
Maybe their marketing department thought it better to only be harrased by a few different poeple at a time.

No more Gerbers will be purchased by me anymore.

WR
 
Fiskars takes down every company they buy out. CMG's infinity ultra, which is loved by many took a severe cheapening
 
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