Whats up with Gerber?

[sunrunner]

At the Gerber store they have a knife that is a very close copy of a CRKT M-16.Take a look and see what you guys think. It's called a Gerber EVO

Had to do some work at an Academy sporting goods store today, while I was inside the store, I had a chance to look around, they had the new EVO on display in the hunting section.

Put that EVo side by side with a M-16 and you can't tell them apart, except for the name stamped on the blade. Same size, shape, weight, balance, if there's a closer copy of a knife made, I haven't seen it yet.

Sad to see CRKT's lineup go down the drain in a splash of 420J2, but even worse to see the best knife they manufacture get copied.

 

[shootist16]

There are way too many makers out there to collaborate legitimately with than to steal someones designs.

It is a sad day when a company resorts to this type of thievery.

 

[Evil Steel]

I hear and agree with all the Wal Mart bashing but how many of you are buying products from Wal Mart? After all Wal Mart wouldn't have the power they do if we didn't buy there. So lets just boycott them .....Problem solved!

 

[paulwesley]

i bought a gerber torch. Its really tight and appears to be made well

 

[Ryan8]

I hear and agree with all the Wal Mart bashing but how many of you are buying products from Wal Mart? After all Wal Mart wouldn't have the power they do if we didn't buy there. So lets just boycott them .....Problem solved!

I try to avoid them whenever possible. Sometimes it's kind of hard when most of your other local retailers are out of business because of them though.

Gerber's diminishing quality is a symptom of Walmartism. Quality matters not - sell for less. Some also attribute it to Fiskars. Either way, it's too bad.

Let's see now. A large number of manufacturers have been hurt. A large number of retailers have gone out of business. This gives you less choice in what you buy and creates unemployment.

A disproportionate amount of Walmart employees are on welfare of some kind. The taxpayer picks up the bill because they destroy other businesses and then pay crap wages.

Usually when a company has a PR (damage control and propaganda) campaign like Walmart's, it's a good sign that the company is scummy. Look at Philip Morris's.

 

[Psychopomp]

I hear and agree with all the Wal Mart bashing but how many of you are buying products from Wal Mart? After all Wal Mart wouldn't have the power they do if we didn't buy there. So lets just boycott them .....Problem solved!

I haven't been in wal mart in months. Last time I went in was to get something to eat on my way home from work and even that felt wrong. I'll pay more elsewhere.

 

[Nimick]

I just noticed something today. I went to gander mountain (they have some really sweet deals on knives). and I looked at the gerber rack. and I noticed that all the multi tools had names now, and were no longer labeled by ther numbers. no 400, 600, 800, they all had names (don't really remember what they were except for the legend of course) I didn't think the 400 or 600 had names. I mean, I used to own a 600. (I also used to like gerber).

(I need to cut down on my use of parenthesis.)

 

[Keith Montgomery]

maybe bills foodland market should learn to play the system better

whatever walmarts motivation is ( good pr etc) maybe bills foodland might do a little PR for themselves and hire even ONE disabled person

whatever walmarts motivation, they do hire disabled

my question remains: why DOESNT your local grocer, deli, beauty salon, etc hire disabled people? cause maybe they're just too embarassing to have around??

Many stores that I go into have disabled people working there.

As bad as Wal-Mart are in many ways, they are definitely doing very good things as far as helping the victims of hurricane Katrina.

 

[Carl64]

I hear and agree with all the Wal Mart bashing but how many of you are buying products from Wal Mart? After all Wal Mart wouldn't have the power they do if we didn't buy there. So lets just boycott them .....Problem solved!

An old episode of South Park was rerun recently. Wal-Mart comes to South Park, and the boys go on a quest to destroy it. They learn that each store has a "heart" somewhere in the AV section which, if destroyed, will take down the whole store.

When they finally find this mysterious "heart," it's a mirror!

 

[Horn Dog]

As a long-time Gerber fan, I am also disappointed in some of the new cheap Gerbers. I always liked my Mk. 2. I have a new Silver Trident, and it looks to be very high quality, but I haven't used it yet. The Gators were always good, solid, affordable working knives. They still cut well. Don't know what the steel is. I am only guessing, but I imagine that they want to expand into the low-end market to increase sales. Hopefully, they will always have a "top of the line" that upholds the Gerber reputation for quality. I just wish they wouldn't call their cheap stuff Gerbers. Maybe Red Army Knife would be a good moniker.

 

[sigman69]

I went ahead like an idiot and bought one of these evo knives as a cheap carry...well forget it get the CRKT...cause

1. The metal clip is made out of pot metal...damn thing broke in a week, and i was just taking it in and out of the my jeans.

2. Took gerber 6 weeks to mail me a new clip and two phone calls..their customer service stinks

3. put the new clip on and it broke too....right at the top where it curves over...dont try to bend it at all or SNAP.

I have an AIR Ranger and it ok....so I will go back to carrying my cheap benchmade ascent...at least it has held up and the clip wont break for a less expensive knife.

 

[goldie]

It seems to me that after gerber advertised the airframe model for over a year & had all those production problems with it, they said "screw this, lets go to tawain & china" !the airframe was their last good knife, it went downhill right after that........

 

[Carl64]

The whole "Ricardo" line shows you where Gerber wants to be. Importing Chinese junk. No, not the good Chinese stuff we have seen with other brands.

 

[gjestr1]

winchesters are ok for a throwaway.the older gerbers are the best.got a new paraframe for christmas-supposed to be "easy open".it is...if you have 3 hands.

 

[Junior33]

Here are some comparison pictures.
First one is the Gerber EVO, second one is the CRK&T M16 EDC.

Kit, I gotta say man, the Carson flipper is hands down a brilliant piece of engineering, and I have ALOT of respect for you for having thought of soemthing so simple, yet effective, and yet still original. It's stuff like that that makes us slap our forheads and say "man, why didn't we think of that 100 years ago!?"

I had a long history of gerber knives, I more or less always had one in my pocket from the time I was about 6 or 7 till this year, my most recent one is an evo, and it's a complete piece of crap. The design is brilliant (wonder why) but the production quality is absolute crap, cheap bushing, a weak pivot pin, it's crap. I now have an M16-14, best damned knife I've ever owned.

long storey short... congratulations on an incredible design, and it's DAMNED unfortunate that myself and probably many others bought the Evo and had to correct and get the M16 after the fact due to lack of information.

 

[stevekt]

My early exposure to knives was while I was in the US Army from 1995-1999. Most soldiers bought whatever the PX sold. Being stationed in Germany made it impossible to drive down to K-Mart or Wal-Mart to see what else was available.

From what I remember, if a soldier carried a knife it was either a Spyderco Endura or a Gerber Gator. Some had Buck 110's but it didn't have the modern "tactical folder" appeal that was just starting to become popular, especially with younger soldiers. If he carried a multitool it was either a Leatherman PST or a Gerber Multiplier.

I recall many soldiers who coveted their Gerber Multipliers. Many Gerber vs. Leatherman debates took place in the chow halls, motor pools, barracks, and on back decks of M1 tanks. I never owned a Gerber while I served. I was a Buck 110-Spyderco Endura-Leatherman PST kind of guy. But the Gerber guys were loyal to a cult like degree. They were hardcore about their Gerber knives and tools.

That is the Gerber I remember.