What is it with USA manufacturers?

R.A.T.

R.A.T.

Randall's Adventure & Training
Joined
Feb 4, 2004
Messages
10,400
No one seems to want to quote doing any work inside the USA any more, much less actually do the work. No damn wonder all the business is going overseas!

I have contacted several companies asking them to quote 250 lanyards for us and no one even returns my damn emails or phone calls.

If anyone on here knows a company or individual that will produce this style lanyard for us: http://thelanyardzone.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=31 in red, green and black cord 250 pieces at a time, then we are willing to write the check to get it done.

Email me jeff@eseeknives.com
 
I need a sample ASAP and the stock within 90 days. Quote with skulls and without skulls.
 
Not each color. Has to be 3 pieces of cord in each lanyard: red, black and green.
 
R.A.T. said:
I need a sample ASAP and the stock within 90 days. Quote with skulls and without skulls.
Click to expand...

Send me an email with a shipping address, I'll get some done tonight. Better yet, I'll send you one. Your email isn't listed, please send me one. Noticed your email. :eek:

R.A.T. said:
Not each color. Has to be 3 pieces of cord in each lanyard: red, black and green.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how to do that unless you have red / black / green combo colored cord. The lanyards are made with one piece comprising the loop and half the colors, the other piece filling in the other color.
 
I talked with one guy that said he could do a 3-cord lanyard without a problem and use just the black cord for the loop with the rest stringing out the other end - but he never did anything with the project. I'm not sure how to do it, but this is what we need, so if you can figure it out we can work with you. As a side note, I can by off-the-shelf lanyards with single cord but that's not what we need.
 
R.A.T. said:
I talked with one guy that said he could do a 3-cord lanyard without a problem and use just the black cord for the loop with the rest stringing out the other end - but he never did anything with the project. I'm not sure how to do it, but this is what we need, so if you can figure it out we can work with you. As a side note, I can by off-the-shelf lanyards with single cord but that's not what we need.
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That can be done, I sent you an email.
 
As a side note, think out of the box and come up with your own style as long as it uses the three color cords. Doesn't have to be exactly like the link I posted.
 
R.A.T. said:
As a side note, think out of the box and come up with your own style as long as it uses the three color cords. Doesn't have to be exactly like the link I posted.
Click to expand...

Black for the loop, red & green for the body. I think I have those three colors. I'll have to check when I get home.
 
Thank you, sir. Once again Bladeforums proves to be the best source available when it comes to such projects. Manufacturers nowadays just plain suck though, as a whole.
 
if i had my new glasses i'd be on this. but right now i'm a bit behind the curve.

o used to do lanyards 30 years ago and seeing how popular they are now with some people i'm planning on doing them again.
 
If I had new glasses I wouldn't be hanging around ugly crazy chiks! :D
 
Hmmm... This sounds suspiciously like it may become part of the "special packaging" for the numbered edition of the H.E.S.T. Folder.
 
R.A.T. said:
No one seems to want to quote doing any work inside the USA any more, much less actually do the work. No damn wonder all the business is going overseas!

I have contacted several companies asking them to quote 250 lanyards for us and no one even returns my damn emails or phone calls.
Click to expand...

Jeff, I think it's greed and laziness, plain and simple.

My last company, we had a stretch of about 4 months with no work or pending orders in what we made. I pointed out to the company president that:
A.) We still had the machinery to produce a product that we had produced, but stopped because we had so much other high-dollar business we couldn't keep up with both. He said there wasn't enough profit.

B.) We had a full CNC machine shop, i could make anything that I had a blueprint for. Being a small outfit, we could underbid most of the large machine shops in the area, and since we were slow, we could deliver fast. Maybe it was time to branch out?
But then he'd have to go out, find the jobs, advertise and get the company's name out there. It was too much work.

Company I'm in now is in a slump. I keep my eye on the business because it's a hobby of mine. Several times I've brought up new products I see are coming out, and the company making those products are saying they are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. So I suggest maybe they call them (who we've done business with in the past), and see about getting some of that work.
The answer? Not enough profit.

Now, maybe I'm crazy, but when things are very slow, profit is profit. When the alternative is having equipment that you have to pay taxes on, sitting around not running, even breaking even is good enough.

IMO the only reason to not take low profit jobs is because you have more high-profit work than you can keep up with.

But it seems most businesses would rather lay people off, and even close down, than admit that the sugar tit is dried up, and it's not coming back real soon.

I think right now, small businesses that are fairly new is where it's at. These are guys that got started in tough times, will take what they can just to get their names out there, and know that they will be golden if they can survive these times while their competition dies off.


With that, I hope things work out with Josh.
 
Cpl Punishment said:
Jeff, I think it's greed and laziness, plain and simple.

My last company, we had a stretch of about 4 months with no work or pending orders in what we made. I pointed out to the company president that:
A.) We still had the machinery to produce a product that we had produced, but stopped because we had so much other high-dollar business we couldn't keep up with both. He said there wasn't enough profit.

B.) We had a full CNC machine shop, i could make anything that I had a blueprint for. Being a small outfit, we could underbid most of the large machine shops in the area, and since we were slow, we could deliver fast. Maybe it was time to branch out?
But then he'd have to go out, find the jobs, advertise and get the company's name out there. It was too much work.

Company I'm in now is in a slump. I keep my eye on the business because it's a hobby of mine. Several times I've brought up new products I see are coming out, and the company making those products are saying they are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. So I suggest maybe they call them (who we've done business with in the past), and see about getting some of that work.
The answer? Not enough profit.

Now, maybe I'm crazy, but when things are very slow, profit is profit. When the alternative is having equipment that you have to pay taxes on, sitting around not running, even breaking even is good enough.

IMO the only reason to not take low profit jobs is because you have more high-profit work than you can keep up with.

But it seems most businesses would rather lay people off, and even close down, than admit that the sugar tit is dried up, and it's not coming back real soon.

I think right now, small businesses that are fairly new is where it's at. These are guys that got started in tough times, will take what they can just to get their names out there, and know that they will be golden if they can survive these times while their competition dies off.


With that, I hope things work out with Josh.
Click to expand...

:thumbup: +1 to all you've said.

I spent over thirty years running my own business (advertising/graphics), and during that time I watched far too many companies go under for the very reasons you've outlined. I'm retired now, but in the day, I would take anything to pay the bills — pride be damned.

Here's another wish for things working out with Josh. It's good to see someone going after something, rather than saying "not enough profit."
 
Cpl Punishment said:
Jeff, I think it's greed and laziness, plain and simple.

My last company, we had a stretch of about 4 months with no work or pending orders in what we made. I pointed out to the company president that:
A.) We still had the machinery to produce a product that we had produced, but stopped because we had so much other high-dollar business we couldn't keep up with both. He said there wasn't enough profit.

B.) We had a full CNC machine shop, i could make anything that I had a blueprint for. Being a small outfit, we could underbid most of the large machine shops in the area, and since we were slow, we could deliver fast. Maybe it was time to branch out?
But then he'd have to go out, find the jobs, advertise and get the company's name out there. It was too much work.

Company I'm in now is in a slump. I keep my eye on the business because it's a hobby of mine. Several times I've brought up new products I see are coming out, and the company making those products are saying they are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. So I suggest maybe they call them (who we've done business with in the past), and see about getting some of that work.
The answer? Not enough profit.

Now, maybe I'm crazy, but when things are very slow, profit is profit. When the alternative is having equipment that you have to pay taxes on, sitting around not running, even breaking even is good enough.

IMO the only reason to not take low profit jobs is because you have more high-profit work than you can keep up with.

But it seems most businesses would rather lay people off, and even close down, than admit that the sugar tit is dried up, and it's not coming back real soon.

I think right now, small businesses that are fairly new is where it's at. These are guys that got started in tough times, will take what they can just to get their names out there, and know that they will be golden if they can survive these times while their competition dies off.


With that, I hope things work out with Josh.
Click to expand...

Good post and I totally agree. My background is in manufacturing and I know what can be done with motivation, hard work and thinking outside the box. Problem is those two components are now missing in a lot of shops. We can't even get shops to quote work, much less do it. A lot of American companies have grown stale and it simply pisses me off to hear all these shops bitching about work going oversease when people are begging to pay more fo USA made product than overseas product. It's a freakin' shame.

Here's another example for you. We ask a well known manufcaturer to do an OEM multi-tool for us. They wouldn't even quote it but yet I see them at the shows and they're complaining about slow knife sales.
 
I tell ya Jeff, it's bad news and good news.

I went into business in January. Up to now, Ive been buying things I knew I could sell often at very deep discounts from companies going out of business. Mostly I've done well, although things really slowed around late May. When fall comes, maybe late September and the northerners come down, much of that should start selling again. Right now, I'm doing this to save money for some equipment.

Some will be knife related -- I've some sheaths in mind that no one has been able to implement right yet (because they can't see the picture I have in my head).

But the rest -- when I get a mill, lathe, surface grinder and a shed to put them in, watch out. All this little business that doesn't offer "enough profit" is exactly who I'm going to target. As a one-man shop;, and still holding onto my night gig, I can bid a lot lower, and as a sole owner, the only shareholder I have to please is me. I'll take the very work these guys won't so much as bid on.
 
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