The knife lifestyle pops up in GQ mag

Since you suggested it, I did so. That was the most pretentious, self-absorbed bunch of hipster-esque marketing drivel I have ever heard. It almost came across that they invented the concept of a knife.

I can't believe any humans who live in the real world talk and think like that. But apparently so. Company is based in Portland, Oregon. Not sure if that is germane or not.

I'm a professional illustrator and designer with over 25 years of experience and I can indeed verify that there are plenty of people that talk and think like that. There's so much bullshit in the design and creative community it would drive most of you guys insane! Nobody gives a crap about practicality, function, quality or actually making anything. It's all about creating a narrative that feels all warm and fuzzy and makes uninformed people part with their money.

I'm not sure how I've dealt with these people for so long without going nuts. I'm not a snappy dresser, metrosexual or a hipster. I'm a regular looking, middle aged dad with an expanding waistline. I boat, fish, fix cars, remodel my house and can make or fix just about anything including knives. I draw and paint for a living, but I'm as far away from the guys and BS message on their video as a person can get.

And yes, I believe the location in Portland, Oregon has a lot to do with it.
 
it reminds me of the russells for men catalog; super retail and overpriced stuff that is hardly necessary....
 
I live on a farm just outside Portland, OR. I would say two things about the location. 1, lots of hipsters for sure. 2, The Portland area has quite a few of knife making companies. I'm sure this company has roots from another, maybe.

I will stick with other Portland area knives and tools, like leatherman and Benchmade. I have not seen the video, but pretentious hipster crap drives me nuts, so I will pass. It would just give me another reason not to go into town.
 
12$? They are selling on The James Brand website for 150$. I don't know how or if they are being faked, but until I see evidence to the contrary I believe JamesBrand knives are coming off Chinese factory lines.
The eBay seller was a pawn shop. They thought it was a novelty knife for a man named James. It came with no packaging. I would never pay $150 for it, but it's a decent knife.
 
I'm a professional illustrator and designer with over 25 years of experience and I can indeed verify that there are plenty of people that talk and think like that. There's so much bullshit in the design and creative community it would drive most of you guys insane! Nobody gives a crap about practicality, function, quality or actually making anything. It's all about creating a narrative that feels all warm and fuzzy and makes uninformed people part with their money.

I'm not sure how I've dealt with these people for so long without going nuts. I'm not a snappy dresser, metrosexual or a hipster. I'm a regular looking, middle aged dad with an expanding waistline. I boat, fish, fix cars, remodel my house and can make or fix just about anything including knives. I draw and paint for a living, but I'm as far away from the guys and BS message on their video as a person can get.

And yes, I believe the location in Portland, Oregon has a lot to do with it.

The part boasting, seriously, about people liking the packaging more than the knives was just simply stunning... Note they were some kind of balsa wood: I guess the boxes looking nice and being biodegradable was what makes them "great"...

The "camping portable" surround sound boom boxes in the GQ article were also funny...

For all the urban "sophistication", I still have a feeling reading books is not high on the list of priorities... It seems "Zoolander" was not as cartoonish as I thought...

Gaston
 
Gaston,

Do you find an advantage to using alpaca vs merino for your in the pants survival sock sheaths? Thanks.
 
Friend of mine bought one and brought it over a year or two ago. He picked it up trading around on a style forum, and I mentioned seeing them in an email from the huckleberry. Decent quality, about on par with the imported Kershaws which is to say quite nice with some spots of funky. Grinds were slightly washed out, few odd gaps from materials not being flat enough, and useless serrations. Talked him into selling it on ebay and buying a Benchmade. They're a neat maybe $75 knife, I didn't see the packaging though maybe that would have sold me haha
 
Ok, since nobody has done it yet, with a combination of trepidation and solemnity, I shall don the ass-hole hat and rain on the hipster/"knife lifestyle" bashing parade...

What's the problem? We want knives to become mainstream and more accepted among people other than stereotypical demographics (yes, you in the flannel shirt and Carhartts, reading this while on break in your pickup truck with the Molon Labe window sticker on the back... I'm talking to you) We want people to accept it as more than a weapon, but of the tool that it really is, and we want to turn around the politics in traditionally "sheeple" territory because that's where organizations like Knife Rights meet the most resistance. So, if a bunch of skinny jeaned doofuses (doofii?) with ironic shirts and waxed mustaches start riding around Williamsburg on their single speed bikes with pocket knives, what better way is there to infiltrate what would normally be traditionally hostile territory to knife carriers?

From a strategic point of view, if carrying a knife becomes the "in thing" that only serves our objectives! It means more people buying knives, so influx of cash to the industry. Normalizing of an otherwise demonized tool works for us politically. And normalizing also means that those who work in an office setting don't have to be quite so timid about carrying a knife, because it's more acceptable and less likely to have HR down your throat.

I am thrilled about this. Now if only we could get Hipsters to adopt the AR15 as the "trendy" rifle, so that we can make them more palatable to the public we'll be all set!
 
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Ok, since nobody has done it yet, with a combination of trepidation and solemnity, I shall don the ass-hole hat and rain on the hipster/"knife lifestyle" bashing parade...

What's the problem? We want knives to become mainstream and more accepted among people other than stereotypical demographics (yes, you in the flannel shirt and Carhartts, reading this while on break in your pickup truck with the Molon Labe window sticker on the back... I'm talking to you) We want people to accept it as more than a weapon, but of the tool that it really is, and we want to turn around the politics in traditionally "sheeple" territory because that's where organizations like Knife Rights meet the most resistance. So, if a bunch of skinny jeaned doofuses (doofii?) with ironic shirts and waxed mustaches start riding around Williamsburg on the single speed bikes with pocket knives, what better way is there into infiltrate what would normally be traditionally hostile territory to knife carriers?

From a strategic point of view, if carrying a knife becomes the "in thing" that only serves our objectives! It means more people buying knives, so influx of cash to the industry. Normalizing of an otherwise demonized tool works for us politically. And normalizing also means that those who work in an office setting don't have to be quite so timid about carrying a knife, because it's more acceptable and less likely to have HR down your throat.

I am thrilled about this. Now if only we could get Hipsters to adopt the AR15 as the "trendy" rifle, so that we can make them more palatable to the public we'll be all set!
The only flaw in this that I see is that hipsters themselves are not well accepted by the folks we need to accept the carrying and use of knives. I know it is not true for some areas of the country but in a lot of places a hipster with a knife will be seen as even more dangerous than a normal person with a knife.
 
Ok, since nobody has done it yet, with a combination of trepidation and solemnity, I shall don the ass-hole hat and rain on the hipster/"knife lifestyle" bashing parade...

What's the problem? We want knives to become mainstream and more accepted among people other than stereotypical demographics (yes, you in the flannel shirt and Carhartts, reading this while on break in your pickup truck with the Molon Labe window sticker on the back... I'm talking to you) We want people to accept it as more than a weapon, but of the tool that it really is, and we want to turn around the politics in traditionally "sheeple" territory because that's where organizations like Knife Rights meet the most resistance. So, if a bunch of skinny jeaned doofuses (doofii?) with ironic shirts and waxed mustaches start riding around Williamsburg on the single speed bikes with pocket knives, what better way is there into infiltrate what would normally be traditionally hostile territory to knife carriers?

From a strategic point of view, if carrying a knife becomes the "in thing" that only serves our objectives! It means more people buying knives, so influx of cash to the industry. Normalizing of an otherwise demonized tool works for us politically. And normalizing also means that those who work in an office setting don't have to be quite so timid about carrying a knife, because it's more acceptable and less likely to have HR down your throat.

I am thrilled about this. Now if only we could get Hipsters to adopt the AR15 as the "trendy" rifle, so that we can make them more palatable to the public we'll be all set!

http://www.thejamesbrand.com/about-james/

Sure, I can handle it. iKnife. iRifle. Why not? :D
 
Nah, I don't buy it. It doesn't serve the knife community to be selling bullshit to anyone, even if we find them ridiculous. Sell hipsters a well-made, appropriately priced tool not an overpriced lifestyle and they might actually become long-term allies after the fad wears off.
 
I never knew they wore polyester in the days that atlatl throwing arrows were used.

Did anybody say hipster ?

Flint spear points by Abercrombie and Fitch. Pre-distressed. $425 per pair. Match with the black houndstooth coat and crocodile shoes.

Nah, I don't buy it. It doesn't serve the knife community to be selling bullshit to anyone, even if we find them ridiculous. Sell hipsters a well-made, appropriately priced tool not an overpriced lifestyle and they might actually become long-term allies after the fad wears off.

If it was appropriately priced, they would not be hipsters, though.

http://www.thejamesbrand.com/about-james/

Sure, I can handle it. iKnife. iRifle. Why not? :D

Just took a look. Their slipjoint doesn't look too bad, and the materials are respectable if not premium. A fair bit overpriced. A lot would depend on their OEM people. If they have a good manufacturer... well, I guess they'd still be overpriced. If they swap manufacturers every couple of years, they could be the hipster Cold Steel.
 
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The only flaw in this that I see is that hipsters themselves are not well accepted by the folks we need to accept the carrying and use of knives. I know it is not true for some areas of the country but in a lot of places a hipster with a knife will be seen as even more dangerous than a normal person with a knife.

More people carrying knives is more exposure. More exposure de-sensitizes the masses. Now, if hipsters start murdering one another (ironically of course) with knives, then that would obviously be bad for the cause.

Nah, I don't buy it. It doesn't serve the knife community to be selling bullshit to anyone, even if we find them ridiculous. Sell hipsters a well-made, appropriately priced tool not an overpriced lifestyle and they might actually become long-term allies after the fad wears off.

Maybe not at first, but if it puts more people on the slippery slope toward accepting knives as something other than weapons i'm cool with it I'm not talking about teaching hipsters how to discern which edge angles and and micro bevels are going to be best suited for their knife usage, and how the grain structure of the steel fits into the fineness of that edge, etc.... that gets heavy into knife knut territory. They don't wan't "appropriately priced tools." They want an image. It just so happens that the image they want means that they don't think "knife" is a dirty word any more. I call it a win.

I also realize that I am grouping "hipsters" into one thing as though they all think alike, and are all motivated by the same thing. If there's a flaw in my argument, it's most likely that I am using my large paintbrush...
 
Ok, since nobody has done it yet, with a combination of trepidation and solemnity, I shall don the ass-hole hat and rain on the hipster/"knife lifestyle" bashing parade...

What's the problem? We want knives to become mainstream and more accepted among people other than stereotypical demographics (yes, you in the flannel shirt and Carhartts, reading this while on break in your pickup truck with the Molon Labe window sticker on the back... I'm talking to you) We want people to accept it as more than a weapon, but of the tool that it really is, and we want to turn around the politics in traditionally "sheeple" territory because that's where organizations like Knife Rights meet the most resistance. So, if a bunch of skinny jeaned doofuses (doofii?) with ironic shirts and waxed mustaches start riding around Williamsburg on their single speed bikes with pocket knives, what better way is there to infiltrate what would normally be traditionally hostile territory to knife carriers?

From a strategic point of view, if carrying a knife becomes the "in thing" that only serves our objectives! It means more people buying knives, so influx of cash to the industry. Normalizing of an otherwise demonized tool works for us politically. And normalizing also means that those who work in an office setting don't have to be quite so timid about carrying a knife, because it's more acceptable and less likely to have HR down your throat.

I am thrilled about this. Now if only we could get Hipsters to adopt the AR15 as the "trendy" rifle, so that we can make them more palatable to the public we'll be all set!


problem with trendy or in...... is trends end and badly. where no one would carry a tool anymore as theyd get shunned much like the member only jackets way back when. many of those jackets stayed hidden in closets hoping for a second run of cool, never happened.

tools shouldn't be trendy or hip or in. they should always be in need and use as they are tools not fashion accessories and this magazine sure seem to be pushing these as fashion accessories.

i do find it humorous that these city kids want to dress like regular folks round here look like. having a beard and pocket knife are used as fashion and the fashion is kinda like a regular man costume. who would have thought.....
 
Nah, I don't buy it. It doesn't serve the knife community to be selling bullshit to anyone, even if we find them ridiculous. Sell hipsters a well-made, appropriately priced tool not an overpriced lifestyle and they might actually become long-term allies after the fad wears off.

I'l also add that some of them might get one of these "james" knives, get into it, and before long, they are into traditionals (because it's retro, and therefore super cool) and all of a sudden they are buying GEC, Queen, etc...
 
I thought Khal Drogo carried these...

Ol5VgP6.jpg
 
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