- Joined
- Jul 11, 2001
- Messages
- 1,137
Posted here and at the Spyderco forum on their own site:
SHOT show with Spyderco
Well it was my first SHOT show so I suppose a little awe was in order. We (my buddies and business partners) drove up from New Mexico Wednesday afternoon and spent that evening partying in Vegas. I walked my ass off and enjoyed every minute of it. Now I was fortunate enough to know a veteran of these shows, fellah by the name of VanCook who let me in on a couple of secrets for handling the enormity of the event. Bring comfortable shoes he tells me, And plan out your route, make sure you know exactly what you want to get done or youll never get around to all of it. Folks Im here to tell you if youve never been to a show like this before Jerry knows what hes talking about. Bring comfortable shoes.
Planning out my route. Well thats a no-brainer. Walter (owner of the shop) had told me my job was to scout out knife companies and check out new product line for 04. You mean to tell me youre going to haul my butt to Vegas to the biggest knife show Ive ever heard of and you want me to just go look at knives? Oh please brer fox throw dis rabbit in the briar patch. To say that I was excited was an understatement. Bouncing off the walls? No not quite adequate. Vibrating is a little closer.
So who to hit first? Being the fan of their work that I am and being as Sal had made shadowy hints about a certain collaboration with Laci Szabo Spyderco was the first place on my list. And let me tell you folks walking into the Las Vegas Convention Center you get about ten yards in and suddenly the enormity of what youre seeing hits you. Everything was there. The gun guys where there, the tactical gear guys were there, the booth babes were there, people who sold stuff I never new existed, the archery guys were there, the guys who sell bottled deer wiz were there, Optics, tree stands, bullets, bullet proof vests, pepper spray, coffee mugs it was all there. I stopped dead in my tracks and damn near forgot where I was going.
Armed with a map that had tiny numbers on it and even tinier print I made my way through the hordes of camouflage vendors and hip wader hawkers to the land of the hole. It was a fairly sedate booth with a certain pride to it. It wasnt as garish as some of the other booths and certainly not as large. But there was a certain elegance to it. We know who we are and we know what we do, and we know we do it very well. It said. No sooner had I approached than a woman wearing a Spyderco shirt offered to sharpen my knife for me. I politely turned her down and commenced drooling over the displays there. They were all there. All of it, the Spyderfly, the Kerambit, the ATR it was all there. All of the really cool models that I hadnt had a chance to play with yet were there. Im sure I left permanent fingerprints on a concept model or two. In looking around the booth I had one thought in my mind. You see my friend Jerry had asked me to say hi to Joyce for him. That was my mission. I had to find Joyce and say hi. At this point I had been drooling over Spyderknives for about twenty minutes when I suddenly remembered my mission and then promptly forgot it as Sal Glesser appeared from the inside of the booth. Holy Crap the Godfather of the hole was standing right there! Right there man say something! Anything! Hablaghel I think is exactly what I said. I regained my composure before he noticed and managed a fairly normal introduction from there on out. Sal is a cool dude and very easy to talk to once you get over the fact that hes responsible for all that is Hole-ly.
After chatting with Sal for a while I told him the reason Id come. I must see the prototype Sal I have to, I dont honestly think I was frothing at the mouth or anything if anyone was wondering. Sal may remember it differently. He smiled and took me over to the prototype case and left me hanging out with Ed Schemp. You know Ed, the guy who designed the Persian? I was back in dribble mode as I got to play with a concept model of a collaboration between the Glessers and Laci Szabo. Im keeping mum on what it was thats Sals business but I wasnt disappointed at all. A word about Ed for a minute. Ed is the kind of guy you meet and then a day later its like hanging out with an old friend. Hes good people as they say. He is also an extremely talented knife maker/designer. Amazing work. Ed if youre reading this I mean it man, you do great work.
After drooling on every single prototype and concept model in the case I remembered I was supposed to be saying hi to Joyce for Jerry. I managed to track her down and did in-fact say hello for Jerry. I then introduced myself as Chambers from BFC and other places and she immediately recognized me, Oh, youre the Szabo freak! she said brightly. Guilty as charged. We talked a little and laughed at how quickly I had been pegged, and then I had to turn her loose. You see Joyce was handling the business end of the booth, talking to big customers and people who were ordering for the coming year and things like that. Every time I returned to the Spyderbooth, quite often in all honesty, she was working that corner engaged with a client, but every time she managed a smile and a friendly wave when she saw me circling. Once as I was swinging by she plopped my favorite concept knife in my hand without me saying anything and asked, Come to play with this again? Again, good people.
Even though Joyce was busy and Sal was busy with other people that hadnt yet told him theyd built a small shrine to him in their bedrooms I wasnt quite done with the Spyderbooth yet. You see theres one other figurehead of the Spyderco family and thats Eric Glesser. Eric was about my age and as friendly as they come. This guy has the Balisong down pat. I know my way around your average fly but when Eric gets a hold of the Spyderfly its magic. Easy going as anyone youre likely to meet, Eric even took some time out of an obviously busy schedule to teach me a new trick with the Spyderfly. Thats right I got to play with the Spyderfly ENVY ME!
All in all I spent several hours with the Spyderfamily over the next three days and every time I was greeted with a friendly smile and a warm welcome. You see, every time I went back I met someone new. I bumped into Michael Janich, Bram Frank, and even Chris Reeve. I left the Spyderco booth feeling like the luckiest man on the planet and went off to immerse myself in hip waders, camouflage and deer wiz a better person for the experience.
To every single person at the Spyderco booth this year: YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!
SHOT show with Spyderco
Well it was my first SHOT show so I suppose a little awe was in order. We (my buddies and business partners) drove up from New Mexico Wednesday afternoon and spent that evening partying in Vegas. I walked my ass off and enjoyed every minute of it. Now I was fortunate enough to know a veteran of these shows, fellah by the name of VanCook who let me in on a couple of secrets for handling the enormity of the event. Bring comfortable shoes he tells me, And plan out your route, make sure you know exactly what you want to get done or youll never get around to all of it. Folks Im here to tell you if youve never been to a show like this before Jerry knows what hes talking about. Bring comfortable shoes.
Planning out my route. Well thats a no-brainer. Walter (owner of the shop) had told me my job was to scout out knife companies and check out new product line for 04. You mean to tell me youre going to haul my butt to Vegas to the biggest knife show Ive ever heard of and you want me to just go look at knives? Oh please brer fox throw dis rabbit in the briar patch. To say that I was excited was an understatement. Bouncing off the walls? No not quite adequate. Vibrating is a little closer.
So who to hit first? Being the fan of their work that I am and being as Sal had made shadowy hints about a certain collaboration with Laci Szabo Spyderco was the first place on my list. And let me tell you folks walking into the Las Vegas Convention Center you get about ten yards in and suddenly the enormity of what youre seeing hits you. Everything was there. The gun guys where there, the tactical gear guys were there, the booth babes were there, people who sold stuff I never new existed, the archery guys were there, the guys who sell bottled deer wiz were there, Optics, tree stands, bullets, bullet proof vests, pepper spray, coffee mugs it was all there. I stopped dead in my tracks and damn near forgot where I was going.
Armed with a map that had tiny numbers on it and even tinier print I made my way through the hordes of camouflage vendors and hip wader hawkers to the land of the hole. It was a fairly sedate booth with a certain pride to it. It wasnt as garish as some of the other booths and certainly not as large. But there was a certain elegance to it. We know who we are and we know what we do, and we know we do it very well. It said. No sooner had I approached than a woman wearing a Spyderco shirt offered to sharpen my knife for me. I politely turned her down and commenced drooling over the displays there. They were all there. All of it, the Spyderfly, the Kerambit, the ATR it was all there. All of the really cool models that I hadnt had a chance to play with yet were there. Im sure I left permanent fingerprints on a concept model or two. In looking around the booth I had one thought in my mind. You see my friend Jerry had asked me to say hi to Joyce for him. That was my mission. I had to find Joyce and say hi. At this point I had been drooling over Spyderknives for about twenty minutes when I suddenly remembered my mission and then promptly forgot it as Sal Glesser appeared from the inside of the booth. Holy Crap the Godfather of the hole was standing right there! Right there man say something! Anything! Hablaghel I think is exactly what I said. I regained my composure before he noticed and managed a fairly normal introduction from there on out. Sal is a cool dude and very easy to talk to once you get over the fact that hes responsible for all that is Hole-ly.
After chatting with Sal for a while I told him the reason Id come. I must see the prototype Sal I have to, I dont honestly think I was frothing at the mouth or anything if anyone was wondering. Sal may remember it differently. He smiled and took me over to the prototype case and left me hanging out with Ed Schemp. You know Ed, the guy who designed the Persian? I was back in dribble mode as I got to play with a concept model of a collaboration between the Glessers and Laci Szabo. Im keeping mum on what it was thats Sals business but I wasnt disappointed at all. A word about Ed for a minute. Ed is the kind of guy you meet and then a day later its like hanging out with an old friend. Hes good people as they say. He is also an extremely talented knife maker/designer. Amazing work. Ed if youre reading this I mean it man, you do great work.
After drooling on every single prototype and concept model in the case I remembered I was supposed to be saying hi to Joyce for Jerry. I managed to track her down and did in-fact say hello for Jerry. I then introduced myself as Chambers from BFC and other places and she immediately recognized me, Oh, youre the Szabo freak! she said brightly. Guilty as charged. We talked a little and laughed at how quickly I had been pegged, and then I had to turn her loose. You see Joyce was handling the business end of the booth, talking to big customers and people who were ordering for the coming year and things like that. Every time I returned to the Spyderbooth, quite often in all honesty, she was working that corner engaged with a client, but every time she managed a smile and a friendly wave when she saw me circling. Once as I was swinging by she plopped my favorite concept knife in my hand without me saying anything and asked, Come to play with this again? Again, good people.
Even though Joyce was busy and Sal was busy with other people that hadnt yet told him theyd built a small shrine to him in their bedrooms I wasnt quite done with the Spyderbooth yet. You see theres one other figurehead of the Spyderco family and thats Eric Glesser. Eric was about my age and as friendly as they come. This guy has the Balisong down pat. I know my way around your average fly but when Eric gets a hold of the Spyderfly its magic. Easy going as anyone youre likely to meet, Eric even took some time out of an obviously busy schedule to teach me a new trick with the Spyderfly. Thats right I got to play with the Spyderfly ENVY ME!
All in all I spent several hours with the Spyderfamily over the next three days and every time I was greeted with a friendly smile and a warm welcome. You see, every time I went back I met someone new. I bumped into Michael Janich, Bram Frank, and even Chris Reeve. I left the Spyderco booth feeling like the luckiest man on the planet and went off to immerse myself in hip waders, camouflage and deer wiz a better person for the experience.
To every single person at the Spyderco booth this year: YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!
