• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

Whats going on with Emerson

Status
Not open for further replies.
Those rates are robbery.

I have a FedEx account and regularly ship 50 pound boxes 2nd day FedEx, with waived pickup fees, for about 45 bucks per.

And my packages ship over the United States, from California to New York. I add a ten dollar handling fee, which includes a inner poly package, a double wall cardboard box (30x12x10), full taping (including all seams), and the labor.
 
mmyron1 said:
Interesting. I have different shipping options when I make a selection. Wonder what that's all about.

xAigFDV.jpeg
Click to expand...

Different shipping distance???
 
It seems like he's going out on a limb making this move. Yes, with social media things are different but there are bound to be some issues. Might be a good move but you go this direction you gotta have the social media marketing down or else you lose the visibility that you get with dealers.

Just look at the two big dogs, Knife Center and Blade HQ, both have a huge presence on social media, very popular youtube channels.

Also, I don't know that Emerson has the name recognition it used to either. I bet a lot of younger knife guys don't own one, never have and some don't even know the name. I give them credit trying to take it into their own hands but they need to get on top of the marketing part or they're going to really feel the loss of the big dealers pushing their products.

I don't have a lot of confidence in this myself. Their knives are overpriced already, shipping is high, and now you can only get them direct. The only good thing to come of this for knife buyers is you won't be getting fakes of overpriced knives.
 
Unless it's a custom, Zero Tolerance still makes the best Emersons, and Kershaw still makes the most budget-friendly ones.

I do wish Ernie well. Hopefully while he is considering his manufacturing processes, he will also consider blade hardness other than RC57-58 and discover blade steels other than 154CM, and who knows, maybe even discover other locks but the liner lock.
 
Trust me when I say that I detest saying anything in Ernbag's defense, but the facts are that he has made knives in other steels (well, S35vn), and has models that have framelocks rather than liner-locks. Mostly rarer models, but they are out there.

That shipping charge is clownshoes though, and I hope he sees such a decline in business that he's forced to change it. That's like back in the day when people on Ebay would charge you a "handling" fee of like $10 on or some nonsense on top of their shipping charge, because it cost like two minutes of their time putting your item in a box (that was free from the post office) and taping it shut. I would report those guys and get out having to pay for the auction every time. As for Ernbag, Charging nearly $18 for putting a knife box into a small Priority box?! Candidly speaking, I hope the guy goes out of business.
 
I'm sure they keep more profits by doing this, that's probably what Ernie was getting at when he mentioned he poured over the data for hours. Of course it's going to be more profitable to not have to supply middlemen and worry about fulfilling dealer orders. Now they can just crank out whatever they want.

I do wonder if the name recognition is still there for them. How do they plan to attract new customers? Is their social media as popular as BHQ and other dealers? I'd say no. Ten years ago I wanted a horseman bad and was enthralled by the wave and how you could sharpen the chisel edge on a rock! But I never got one and I haven't yearned for an emerson since. Seems they went full tacticool, which is fine, it's a huge market. But yea, I wonder if that fad has an expiration date...

Also, those shipping costs are crazy.
 
Pretty sure he'll do fine making money.
Name recognition is there enough to keep sales going...been around for a number of years.

Being in Canada it sucks that dealers will be out of the loop; makes it much harder to get the knives.
Wasn't planning on buying another Emerson anytime really soon, but some day. He has some good designs and ergonomics are usually spot-on.

If profits suffer from cutting dealers out, he'll just start supplying them again.
 
So will Emerson set up at SHOT 22? SHOT is about selling wholesale to dealers not the public so it would seem like he has lost a reason to be there. That could save a lot of money fast. Just go to Blade and deal with that crowd.
 
They still sell stuff at the SHOT, just to dealers or people that are purchasing the whole isle, seen it many times there. Emerson always have booth at SHOT. Big publicity stunt, Stephen Segal is regular at his booth.
Here is James Yeager at his booth, old picture but I can’t dig more recent one with Segal or with Eric Prince

kwh3.jpg
 
Last edited:
POCEH KOCEB said:
They still sell stuff at the SHOT, just to dealers or people that are purchasing the whole isle, seen it many times there. Emerson always have booth at SHOT. Big publicity stunt, Stephen Segal is regular at his booth.
Click to expand...
I know, I'm always there too. But the point of this whole thread is that he isn't going to be selling to dealers anymore. Actually, if you follow the rules you are not supposed to sell items directly to the public at the show. I caught hell from a dealer in nylon gear one year for trying to buy a duffel bag on the last day of the show to ship my companies catalogs etc back to main office. He seemed to take that no direct sales at the show very serious.
 
I know, and you are correct but this is how it goes there, they are still rules for everybody and none for ‘our people’…
They are actually few exhibitors that sell small things, I got decent knife from Double Star.
I agree about Emerson’s selling policies too, looks like this is the way companies like his will move on so they can protect their product, I guess.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top