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Whats going on with Emerson

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Blackfish775 said:
Questions of taste/hate, aside, I think that it is unnecessary to own and operating a well known knife manufacturing company to comment your opinion of their practices. Especially in a thread about their practices.
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It actually is helpful to have an understanding of marketing and manufacturing processes to make educated guesses as to why Emerson changed his distribution model. Sure, you can make uneducated/unskilled assumptions all day.. free country. But to understand the root issues and relate to them, it is helpful to have familiarity.

Whose opinions would you trust more… an operations manager for a manufacturing plant for example, or say some middle aged guy that doesn’t have a job and skateboards all day?
 
Steely_Gunz said:
What are you getting at? Like seriously, I'm asking an honest question. One has has a pattern welded finish with a plain Jane handle that would make a Cold Steel Voyager blush because of its basicness. The other is a frame lock with better steel that doesn't look like it was fished out of a half-off bin at a flea market. That's my subjective take on it, that the knife you posted is both fugly and stupid looking in comparison to the Emerson designs not made by them that are actually worth, in my pinky-dangling opinion, the asking price.

You keep saying things, but they come across like an AI bot that was fed 10,000 lines of obstinate dialog and turned loose on a very weary of your shtick populous. Now please, gimme another unintelligible line of something or a passive aggressive 🤣 and be on your way.
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The comparison was between kershaw Emerson’s (which are like $40) and the custom I showed. You want to fly off the handle calling me a “bot” because you’re mad I called someone out for their ridiculous assertion that “Kershaw makes the best Emerson’s”? You do you. You can have the $40 Kershaw… I’ll take the custom… and we can go about our business.

In other words, settle down. No one believes you would actually take the Kershaw over a $2,000 custom.
 
Oklahoma Outlaw said:
You see, it’s HIS business. HE has made changes as he sees fit. As I stated, I’m certain he knows what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.

Ten pages of conjecture won’t change that.
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... No one thinks that ten pages of conjecture will change that.

I am saying that complaining that people are conjecturing is silly, as the whole purpose of this thread is to conjecture on "What's going on with Emerson".
 
Blackfish775 said:
... No one thinks that ten pages of conjecture will change that.

I am saying that complaining that people are conjecturing is silly, as the whole purpose of this thread is to conjecture on "What's going on with Emerson".
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Complaining about conjecture is less silly than poking people over what time COB is on the east coast vs west coast as some sort of passive-aggressive play.
 
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Premature I’m Out:

Straight from the horse’s mouth, November 17, 2021:

We have transitioned into retail sales only. The only place you can now purchase a new Emerson Knife is directly from us. This was a huge decision for us and it was possible only because of the support from people like all of you, and it has given us the freedom to really steer the company in the direction that we want.

Then, as a result of this new “freedom” I realized that I needed to seriously evaluate our manufacturing process. It’s funny how many things become “institutionalized” after 30 years and they become “that’s the way we do it” rather than “this is the best way to do it.” I tore this company apart. It started with numbers and hours of data analysis and models before it finally hit the floor about two months ago. And it was brutal. I have been putting in almost 80 hours a week since last June to bring this to fruition. But it has paid off. We are now running so streamlined and efficiently that it seems like an entirely new company. We have the best crew we’ve ever had – all are true team players, and Rachael, Megan, Mary, Lucas and Danny have amazed me with their enthusiasm, expertise and efforts to make this possible.

As you can already see we have more knives, more models, more “special editions” and more new knives than we’ve ever had in the past. I hope you enjoy them.

This new reality has also given me the freedom and time I needed to do more of the projects that I’ve had to put on hold for the last couple of years. After we get through the holidays.
 
Oklahoma Outlaw said:
Well, we may have cleared the hurdle. My daughter will be released from the hospital on Sunday after a 2+ week stay for COVID. Things could change of course, but the doctors feel fairly confident. She’ll be able to go home and try to get back to normal. 🤞

Lots of Emerson hate going on in this thread. Funny thing is most, if not all posters don’t actually own and operate their own well known knife manufacturing companies. 🤔 Pontificating without knowledge is a fools errand. I don’t claim to know his new business model. I do know however that this isn’t something new, it’s been coming for some time.

I’m not a fan-boi of Emerson knives, but rest assured I have one on me every single day. They aren’t pocket jewelry, but rather tough as hell tools…akin to Medford or Strider. IMO Emerson’s G10 and ergos are about as good as it gets.

Don’t like 154CM? Don’t like chisel grinds? That’s too bad. A strop, a couple of compounds, and about 20 minutes later you have an awesome edge. They hold an edge well in my experience.

A couple of mine came from Action Concepts, an Emerson Premier Dealer. A couple came via the Emerson website. The tears for shipping charges have long since dried. We’re talking about $250.00 to $300.00 knives. They’re not high end knives monetarily. They are however just as functional as their high end counterparts.

The Sheepdog on bearings is a fantastic design and is one of my favorite Emersons, although I only own four.

I’m certain Ernie knows what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. I, however won’t be interjecting my FOS reasons why. I’ll leave that up to you armchair business owners.View attachment 1694169
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glad your daughter is doing better..best thing to read in this thread.....
 
Oklahoma Outlaw said:
Premature I’m Out:

Straight from the horse’s mouth, November 17, 2021:

We have transitioned into retail sales only. The only place you can now purchase a new Emerson Knife is directly from us. This was a huge decision for us and it was possible only because of the support from people like all of you, and it has given us the freedom to really steer the company in the direction that we want.

Then, as a result of this new “freedom” I realized that I needed to seriously evaluate our manufacturing process. It’s funny how many things become “institutionalized” after 30 years and they become “that’s the way we do it” rather than “this is the best way to do it.” I tore this company apart. It started with numbers and hours of data analysis and models before it finally hit the floor about two months ago. And it was brutal. I have been putting in almost 80 hours a week since last June to bring this to fruition. But it has paid off. We are now running so streamlined and efficiently that it seems like an entirely new company. We have the best crew we’ve ever had – all are true team players, and Rachael, Megan, Mary, Lucas and Danny have amazed me with their enthusiasm, expertise and efforts to make this possible.

As you can already see we have more knives, more models, more “special editions” and more new knives than we’ve ever had in the past. I hope you enjoy them.

This new reality has also given me the freedom and time I needed to do more of the projects that I’ve had to put on hold for the last couple of years. After we get through the holidays.
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The fifth post in the thread was Aflac Duck posting that. It's what we've been discussing in the ten pages of conjecture.
 
I have never owned my own business and will never own one. Mostly because I know one thing about owning one and that is in order to be successful you must be willing to change. Business are in business to make money. Period. I do not fault Emerson from moving everything in house. He is a smart enough business person to know that to continue being successful he had to make difficult decisions and changes to continue doing what he loves to do.

I will continue to buy Emerson knives because I like them for what they are. Purpose built tools meant to be used. They are not pretty or gold class collectors pieces. I use my knives so I will always respect an Emerson for being just that. I will suck up the shipping because I feel many of us have gotten spoiled with the free shipping from many places but let's understand that basically that's all that retailers can do to draw you in really. Their are now limits on how low one can drop the price if an item such as a spyderco or benchmade. So an offer of free shipping is all that can bring customers in really. Maybe one day Emerson will be in a place where they can offer free shipping but until then j will suck it up. As a matter of fact that UPS driver better get here soon with my new blade. 😁
 
Oklahoma Outlaw said:
You see, it’s HIS business. HE has made changes as he sees fit. As I stated, I’m certain he knows what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.

Ten pages of conjecture won’t change that.
Click to expand...
If people speculating about major changes by a knife company on a knife forum full of knife enthusiasts puts you off I have some exceedingly bad news about Bladeforums in general, my friend. 😉

Glad to hear your daughter is doing better. Sending smoke for your family and her continued recovery.
 
Ernie sez

We have transitioned into retail sales only. The only place you can now purchase a new Emerson Knife is directly from us. This was a huge decision for us and it was possible only because of the support from people like all of you, and it has given us the freedom to really steer the company in the direction that we want.

Then, as a result of this new “freedom” I realized that I needed to seriously evaluate our manufacturing process. It’s funny how many things become “institutionalized” after 30 years and they become “that’s the way we do it” rather than “this is the best way to do it.” I tore this company apart. It started with numbers and hours of data analysis and models before it finally hit the floor about two months ago. And it was brutal. I have been putting in almost 80 hours a week since last June to bring this to fruition. But it has paid off. We are now running so streamlined and efficiently that it seems like an entirely new company. We have the best crew we’ve ever had – all are true team players, and Rachael, Megan, Mary, Lucas and Danny have amazed me with their enthusiasm, expertise and efforts to make this possible.

As you can already see we have more knives, more models, more “special editions” and more new knives than we’ve ever had in the past. I hope you enjoy them.
This new reality has also given me the freedom and time I needed to do more of the projects that I’ve had to put on hold for the last couple of years. After we get through the holidays.
 
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