Size of production

Rykjeklut

Rykjeklut

Joined
May 23, 2018
Messages
1,590
I came across an Instagram post by Kershaw, where they said they made ~ 1 million knives every year, which got me wondering..

Does anyone know how many knives the more "household" brands make? Think your Benchmades, Spydercos, Cold Steel...;
 
I can't answer your question directly, but for comparison purposes, in 1940 Imperial was making over 100,000 knives per DAY. So a million per year now does not seem far-fetched.
 
Victorinox is the largest producer of pocket knives in the world and they make 30+ million per year. Opinel makes about 15 million per year. I'm fairly certain those two dwarf any other manufacturers in terms of production.
 
In all honesty, considering both US and China production, Kershaw probably outsells Spyderco, Benchmade and Cold Steel combined, at least in units moved.

Heck, the Kershaws sold in Walmart alone probably outsell the unit volume of Spyderco, Benchmade and Cold Steel combined.
 
Yalius said:
In all honesty, considering both US and China production, Kershaw probably outsells Spyderco, Benchmade and Cold Steel combined, at least in units moved.

Heck, the Kershaws sold in Walmart alone probably outsell the unit volume of Spyderco, Benchmade and Cold Steel combined.
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Buck too. I forget the # of 110’s they make in a day, but it was staggering.
 
Yalius said:
In all honesty, considering both US and China production, Kershaw probably outsells Spyderco, Benchmade and Cold Steel combined, at least in units moved.

Heck, the Kershaws sold in Walmart alone probably outsell the unit volume of Spyderco, Benchmade and Cold Steel combined.
Click to expand...

This is very likely true. It’s known thing that sales volume decreases very quickly as price increases. I’ve been told by a dealer that Benchmade owns something like 85% of the $100-$150 price range, but even that level of domination in that range doesn’t hold a candle to substantial presence in the $1-$30 range.

I suspect that the ZT comment may have been about Kershaw making that many in total, as opposed to 1,000,000 ZT branded knives per year. If ZT were making 20 models actively, that would be 50,000 units average per model to make 1,000,000 total. That seems a stretch, given serial progression across popular models. The 0450 is a top seller for them. We’d expect a serial over 150,000 on those by now.

Taken as a whole, I don’t doubt that KAI is over 1 units/year.
 
RBid said:
This is very likely true. It’s known thing that sales volume decreases very quickly as price increases. I’ve been told by a dealer that Benchmade owns something like 85% of the $100-$150 price range, but even that level of domination in that range doesn’t hold a candle to substantial presence in the $1-$30 range.

I suspect that the ZT comment may have been about Kershaw making that many in total, as opposed to 1,000,000 ZT branded knives per year. If ZT were making 20 models actively, that would be 50,000 units average per model to make 1,000,000 total. That seems a stretch, given serial progression across popular models. The 0450 is a top seller for them. We’d expect a serial over 150,000 on those by now.

Taken as a whole, I don’t doubt that KAI is over 1 units/year.
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I did ask wether that number was KAI or only Kershaw, and they said Kershaw only.
 
Pure speculation, but I would bet Kershaw easily outsells Benchmade, Spyderco and Cold Steel, but are, in turn, outsold by Gerber and Buck. SOG is likely another company that sells many more knives than their presence on this forum would indicate, as they have a number of models carried in big box stores. I would also put money on Leatherman being one of the top sellers.
 
Opinel claims to sell a knife every 10 seconds worldwide.
That's over 3 million knives per year. They are all made in their factory.
 
It wouldn’t surprise me if Spyderco sold around 75,000 knives a year. Given that China is now the largest market and knife laws there seem strict from what I’ve heard, not that many people there will spend more than a few dollars on a knife.
Benchmade probably sells half as many. These are not brands clipped to the pockets of many urbanites, nor do they have the name recognition or the affordability of Buck and Gerber.
 
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