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Tensaw

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How does the knife community refer to the area of the market made up of U. S. companies that do the designing and marketing but the manufacturing is done overseas, usually in China? Brands such as Chaves, Vero, Sharp by Design, Null, Berg Blades, and Pena participate in the area of market I'm talking about. Thanks for any info.
 
madcap_magician said:
What do you mean by "how they are referred to"?

Overseas midtech production?
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Unless the designer is a custom knife maker and is doing final assembly, tuning, etc, to each individual knife, I would not call it a midtech, and I don't think that's what most of them are doing. They are just using the overseas company as an OEM.
 
Tensaw said:
How does the knife community refer to the area of the market made up of U. S. companies that do the designing and marketing but the manufacturing is done overseas, usually in China? Brands such as Chaves, Vero, Sharp by Design, Null, Berg Blades, and Pena participate in the area of market I'm talking about. Thanks for any info.
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I'm pretty new at this and it's probably a dumb question. I was just wondering because it seems that a large part of my small collection is "outsourced, US designed, limited production knives". I guess I was hoping for a better name that I wasn't aware of.
 
Tensaw said:
I'm pretty new at this and it's probably a dumb question. I was just wondering because it seems that a large part of my small collection is "outsourced, US designed, limited production knives". I guess I was hoping for a better name that I wasn't aware of.
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Not a dumb question. But I'm not aware of a specific term for it.

With the decline in manufacturing in the US, I generally assume that unless the outfit is known to have a US factory (Buck, Kershaw, Spyderco, etc.), the production occurs offshore. And even with the companies I mentioned, one needs to check country of origin on the sales site or the manufacturer's site. There's only a couple of companies who only produce knives in the US.
 
I call them unscrupulous traitors...

KIDDING.

I don't think the knife community has a particular name for those companies. Specially considering that most knives in the market are made outside of the US. In general the practice is called outsource manufacturing as has been said before. Since many companies are hybrid(i.e. still have some form of US manufacturing) the distinction really is IMPORTED products vs US-Made products.
 
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I’ve been to 4 blade shows in the last 2 years. It’s striking how many knife startups are there with this exact business model. There are many many more than mentioned in the op that most have never heard of and probably won’t ever hear of. Any joe schmo can come up with a design and just find a oem (usually china) to make their knives. I suppose the improved quality of chinese oems make this model possible and relatively easy to jumpstart a knife company.

Personally I am not a fan of these companies. I prefer to support companies that have put the work in as makers and are skilled craftsmen making their own knives. Or have built a company from the ground up and does their own manufacturing.

Unfortunately due to the high quality overseas manufacturing I tend to think this outsourcing business model is the future and the latter will be a thing of the past. Only us the consumers could prevent it buy steering the market through our purchases but from what I’ve gathered the majority of the knife community doesn’t seem to care. “Value” seems to win over paying more to support what is still a strong American made market for now at least.
 
mitchnola said:
I’ve been to 4 blade shows in the last 2 years. It’s striking how many knife startups are there with this exact business model. There are many many more than mentioned in the op that most have never heard of and probably won’t ever hear of. Any joe schmo can come up with a design and just find a oem (usually china) to make their knives. I suppose the improved quality of chinese oems make this model possible and relatively easy to jumpstart a knife company.

Personally I am not a fan of these companies. I prefer to support companies that have put the work in as makers and are skilled craftsmen making their own knives. Or have built a company from the ground up and does their own manufacturing.

Unfortunately due to the high quality overseas manufacturing I tend to think this outsourcing business model is the future and the latter will be a thing of the past. Only us the consumers could prevent it buy steering the market through our purchases but from what I’ve gathered the majority of the knife community doesn’t seem to care. “Value” seems to win over paying more to support what is still a strong American made market for now at least.
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I fully agree! Though I will embrace our allies as well. Friends help friends.
 
mitchnola said:
I’ve been to 4 blade shows in the last 2 years. It’s striking how many knife startups are there with this exact business model. There are many many more than mentioned in the op that most have never heard of and probably won’t ever hear of. Any joe schmo can come up with a design and just find a oem (usually china) to make their knives. I suppose the improved quality of chinese oems make this model possible and relatively easy to jumpstart a knife company.

Personally I am not a fan of these companies. I prefer to support companies that have put the work in as makers and are skilled craftsmen making their own knives. Or have built a company from the ground up and does their own manufacturing.

Unfortunately due to the high quality overseas manufacturing I tend to think this outsourcing business model is the future and the latter will be a thing of the past. Only us the consumers could prevent it buy steering the market through our purchases but from what I’ve gathered the majority of the knife community doesn’t seem to care. “Value” seems to win over paying more to support what is still a strong American made market for now at least.
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Time for tariffs 😬
 
We've moved beyond General Knife Discussion...
 
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