SOG rebranding by consultancy

GIRLYmann said:
look, they have expanded their product line
with other stuff like backpacks, flahlights,
and even a time piece.
it wouldn't surprise me if someone
sold them the idea of packaging weed in fancy sog lable boxes with zippo art lighters.
what i m saying is they tried everything in so
far as to sell the brand;
without ever having realised that their core
products just did not have enough of a
following to warrant all the other neat stuff
which aids with brand loyalty amongst
fanboys...
in short, whatever future left of sog knives
as a cutlery brand , must comei n the form
of knives created by a bunch of credible
knife designers i don't claim to know how
a cutlery business should run, but sog
knives the company seems more of a marketing firm selling oemed products.
and since the present owners have no manufacturing capability,
they can always refocus their business
without cutlery altogather or perhaps
upscale with jointly financed runs of mid tech. :)
Click to expand...

I looked closely at one of their packs. $50 bucks.
It was not overly priced but it was at the upper end of what it should go for.

I ended up buying the same basic pack under a different brand name for $35.
 
Ok, I'm bored so I've tried to see that I can find in their price range. I'm using my favourite dutch website, which shall not be named (not a partner) but has some good filtering options. I've rounded off the prices to increments of €5. Let's look at the fixed blades:

Bigger fixed blades:
SOG Seal Team elite (AUS8): €180 for one version, €220 for the other ?
SOG Bowie 2.0 (AUS 8, out of stock): €230
SOG Tech bowie (AUS8): €190

Alternatives:
ESEE model 6 (1095): €185 (€160 for the modified bushcraft version)
Fällkniven A1 (VG10): €235
Fox Bushman (D2): €175
Lionsteel M7 (Sleipner): €240
Benchmade 119 Sibert Avensis (154CM): €220
Cold Steel SRK San Mai (VG10): €150
Böker Arbolito Esculta (N695): €155
Spartan Blades Damysus (1095CV): €210
Bark River Mountain Man 5" (CPM3v): €210


Normal sized fixed blades:
SOG Pillar (S35VN!): € 210 (Hey this actually looks good on paper!)
SOG seal pup (AUS8): between €70 and €100 depending on version (sheath?)

Alternatives:

Mora Garberg (14c28N): € 80
Benchmade Puukko 200 (CPM3v): €150
Real Steel bushcraft plus (14C28N): € 105
Fällkniven F1 (VG10): €145
Brisa (Formerly Enzo) Trapper 95 (n690co): € 115
Real Steel Bushcraft III (D2): €55
Lionsteel M4 (M390): €145
EKA Nordic W12 (12C27): €80
Buck Selkirk (420HC): €80 (Small Selkirk €70)
Buck 102 (420HC): €75
White River knives hunter (S35VN): €215

Both lists go on, of course.

Final impressions:

  • The SOG Pillar and the cheapest version of the Seal pup are the only knives that seem to offer a decent value-for-money proposition, but the competition is still pretty strong.
  • Looking at SOG's big knives in AUS8: Ouch! What are you doing, SOG? It's so easy to find a knife in a better steel! Half the time even cheaper too!
 
kylemiller said:
Anyone else feel like they could turn things around at SOG?
Click to expand...

From a product perspective, that would be easy.

A few true "knife guys" could turn their product line around in a month or so.

Bringing back their old knives would be the easiest way to start.

Marketing would be much harder considering their poor reputation over the last 10 years or more.
 
Mitchell Knives said:
From a product perspective, that would be easy.

A few true "knife guys" could turn their product line around in a month or so.

Bringing back their old knives would be the easiest way to start.

Marketing would be much harder considering their poor reputation over the last 10 years or more.
Click to expand...

Let me know when you want me to start, Mitch.

This sounds like a fun project.
 
The direction they're going now is not good. The $75-$150 import crowd is going to be able to find a more attractive knife. WE, Kizer etc. The ones who buy Benchmade's and Spyderco's aren't going to start buying imported SOGs. They also shouldn't ditch the Special Operations Group side of things. There's a market for that.

I'd start from scratch with the vision. Have the Studies and Observation side and the Spec Ops side. Abandon the sub $100 market. Move all production to USA and publicize the hell out of it. Have a Bugout tier knife be your Cabela's special. Very doable.

Throw bags of money at a couple big name knife designers. One for the Studies side, and one for the Spec Ops side. Give them the deal Lynn Thompson gave Andrew Demko. Basically free reign over the whole line.

With the right collaborations and "big news" of switching to USA production, social media will do a lot of the extra advertising on it's own.

No amount of advertising is going to sway the guy who buys a knife in for $17.99 in a clamshell. That's just luck and looking cool. If that's the route they want to go I suggest just teaming up with a firearms maker and racing to the bottom.

We saw Hogue and Southern Grind penetrate the $200 market. SOG probably has the resources to do it. I just don't think they have the vision. They're MBAs and not knife guys.
 
kylemiller said:
The direction they're going now is not good. The $75-$150 import crowd is going to be able to find a more attractive knife. WE, Kizer etc. The ones who buy Benchmade's and Spyderco's aren't going to start buying imported SOGs. They also shouldn't ditch the Special Operations Group side of things. There's a market for that.

I'd start from scratch with the vision. Have the Studies and Observation side and the Spec Ops side. Abandon the sub $100 market. Move all production to USA and publicize the hell out of it. Have a Bugout tier knife be your Cabela's special. Very doable.

Throw bags of money at a couple big name knife designers. One for the Studies side, and one for the Spec Ops side. Give them the deal Lynn Thompson gave Andrew Demko. Basically free reign over the whole line.

With the right collaborations and "big news" of switching to USA production, social media will do a lot of the extra advertising on it's own.

No amount of advertising is going to sway the guy who buys a knife in for $17.99 in a clamshell. That's just luck and looking cool. If that's the route they want to go I suggest just teaming up with a firearms maker and racing to the bottom.

We saw Hogue and Southern Grind penetrate the $200 market. SOG probably has the resources to do it. I just don't think they have the vision. They're MBAs and not knife guys.
Click to expand...

Your suggestions make a lot of sense.

They could keep the budget market very easily if they do something like the Spyderco/Byrd set up.
 
kylemiller said:
The direction they're going now is not good. The $75-$150 import crowd is going to be able to find a more attractive knife. WE, Kizer etc. The ones who buy Benchmade's and Spyderco's aren't going to start buying imported SOGs. They also shouldn't ditch the Special Operations Group side of things. There's a market for that.
Click to expand...

How attractive a knife is is in the eye of the beholder. I'm a big Benchmade fan and I like the look of a lot of their new XR knives.

You do know the original Vietnam-era Military unit they took their name from (MACV-SOG) was called the Studies and Observation Group right? It never stood for "Special Operations Group" and I don't recall any of their past advertising ever calling it that either.
 
Hello. New to the forum.

Like many in this thread, I owned a SOG or two and was always let down by the overall quality/execution of the designs. Actually wanted to love the Trident due to the blade shape, but the quality of the cheap plastic scales and horrible deployment action and blade shimmy left too much to off the table. Fast forward to the SOG SEAL XR. Expensive - YES! Excellent? YES! SOG finally nailed it with this particular blade. Agree it is not for everyone, due to the weight, aggressive gimping, etc., but for my purposes, it checks all the boxes, and the XR action with the heavy blade it exceptional. Even surpasses that of my BM Adamas - and that is saying something. I believe the blade itself is American-made, while the assembly is Taiwan or China? At that price, 100% American would be more appropriate IMHO. I've carried it for 6+ months now, use it every day, and have had zero issues. Truly love it. Sadly, I do believe SOG has discontinued it which is unfortunate, but honestly can't imagine it was a huge seller. Seems to have been priced well outside of the typical SOG buyer. Anyhow, if you can find one on clearance, and are looking for a no-B.S. duty knife, I highly recommend you at least give it a look.
 
Just throwing out there if you have some time and want to listen to something incredible ... The Jocko podcasts with Dick Thompson will give you real insight into what the SOG guys went through. The man is so calm talking about situations that are unimaginable. There are 3 long episodes and I felt like I couldn't turn it off it was so interesting.

As for the knives that use the name...no opinion. Just thought I'd share if someone was curious about what they did in Vietnam.
 
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