As others have stated, if you hold a ZT knife in your hands, it often becomes apparent why people feel about them the way they do. I have a ZT0300, and live in Boulder as well. If you want to see one in-person, you are welcome to contact me.
Might take you up on that here. I wouldn't mind getting a chance to see one in person before I invest in one.
To respond to the various points that have been raised here.
1. Weight. a half pound is certainly a big, heavy knife. I'm a pretty fit guy, so it's not like I'm going to get tired carrying it or something. That being said, I EDC'ed a Benchmade 530 for quite some time, and let me tell you, that's a LIGHT knife. So it would be a shift for me.
2. Locks/Cold Steel. I do not care about Cold Steel. I am sure they make some decent products, and they have a couple elegant designs that I do like. I will probably never buy one, because by and large, my experience with Cold Steel has been that they are way overpriced for what you get. I do like my CS shuriken and spear, but their knives aren't that great for what you're paying. Honestly, 300+ for a fixed blade production knife, when HI will give me a handcrafted work of art for half that? That being said, I think it's probably indisputable that the Triad lock is at least very strong; that's been tested pretty heavily.
3. As has been astutely pointed out, the use to which you put a knife will define what kind of knife you'd want to go for. I can buy that, but, that being said, there's enough of a boy scout in me that I want the EDC I bring with me when I go on road trips, or get in any kind of a situation where, in the event of some crazy unforeseen occurrence, I get in a survival situation, to be up to the task. A survival knife, in my mind, isn't one of those Rambo knives. It's the knife you have on you when you have an emergency, and for me, that's going to be an EDC knife.
Yes, I'm going to be cutting primarily cardboard, paper, food, etc, on a regular basis with my folders. I will probably never fight terrorists with it. In fact, in the unlikely event I am ever facing terrorists with nothing but a knife, I'm going to be smart enough not to play hero, because AK-47 and numbers trumps single guy with tiny knife any day.
But, I drive nearly 36,000 miles a year, oftentimes in remote locations. If my car breaks down, I think I would prefer to have an EDC that will help keep me alive, and won't break on me.
I've got a Ritter Grip inbound, which was designed for just that purpose. ZT seems to be the other option that's not 400+ dollars.