When it's not exactly Made in the USA - Hoback

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This is gonna be a spicey-ass thread.
I always thought they were USA made, as in all the way, in his Idaho shop. I have never seen, heard or read anything that implied otherwise, or anything from him or someone close to him implying that any parts were outsourced. I'm feeling a little less great about my Alphahunter warbpwie as well, and have reached out to Chad regarding the situation. I haven't heard anything yet.
Edit: apparently it's on the website. I just never read it.
 
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Chuck_Nunface said:
This is gonna be a spicey-ass thread.
I always thought they were USA made, as in all the way, in his Idaho shop. I have never seen, heard or read anything that implied otherwise, or anything from him or someone close to him implying that any parts were outsourced. I'm feeling a little less great about my Alphahunter warbpwie as well, and have reached out to Chad regarding the situation. I haven't heard anything yet.
Edit: apparently it's on the website. I just never read it.
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Yeah it's on his website and I guess it has been on there. In that regards Hoback has done nothing wrong or ever tried to hide anything.

This issue is that every dealer out there advertised his stuff as made in the USA. Every reviewer and forum mentions Hoback when talking about knives made in the USA. Apparently everyone thought they were so it just seems deceitful to never correct anyone on that. Maybe he was just oblivious that 99.5% of his dealers and customers thought they were USA made.
 
Monofletch said:
On every knife……

Jake Hoback Psalm 23

We are Christians who share our faith, in part, through the inscriptions on our knives. Ps23 stands for "Psalm 23," and is a personal favorite that inspires us in our work: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.
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I’m new here so maybe I’m missing the joke, but are you seriously suggesting that there is some kind of relationship between knife making/marketing and your superstitious believes?
 
My company is USA Made Blade. Our entire mantra is that we sell knives that are stricty Made in the USA! This is pretty obvious from the name of our business, and very obvious from one quick look at our website and our social media. We are very aware that all parts on knives are not always made in the USA. I think Koenig and McNees are the only 2 companies we can say are 100% all American Made. Everyone gets at least their bearings/washers from other countries. Some might get some screws or a small part or two. If Hoback had come out and said, we get some small parts from other countries, I would have been OK with that. They instead came out and would not say what is made where. Only that it is assembled in the United States. This tells me that they are potentially outsourcing blades, handles, and every major component to somewhere else.

Jake's statement says "Jake Hoback Knives has never claimed 100% made in the USA". Well they also never said they weren't. All but one of their dealers, that we could find, have them listed as made in the USA. Youtube reviewers stated they are made in the USA, blogs stated it, podcast stated it, Instagram post stated it, facebook stated it, and every where else you look stated it. Are you going to tell me that they have never looked at any of this over the past 5-10 years? Are you telling me they never checked up on their dealer listings in the past 5 plus years? Never watched a youtube review or checked up on social media? They knew damn well what our company mantra was when they approached us to sell their knives. We felt no reason to have to investigate it. We thought they were a solid built knife made in America, why else approach us to sell your knives. All the best folks in the industry were saying so, why did we need to double check? Well when you make assumptions, you make an ass out of yourself. For that we will take blame, but we are not going to take that blame alone. Hoback may not have lied directly to us, but they were certainly fine with letting the public deception continue without making any attempt to correct it for many many years.

My big question is why are they now making this big public statement?
 
whitty said:
My big question is why are they now making this big public statement?
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Well, when basically 90% of custom makers these days end up sending designs overseas to make a quick profit, it’s become more normal industry wide to outsource. We even have names like Anthony Marfione having knives and pens manufactured in China now, they were all made here in the USA for 28 years up until now.

It’s not something I like seeing myself, but it is what it is. This is what makers do now, so I don’t see a reason why Hoback would need to hide it anymore. For every person who will refuse to buy a Hoback knife now, 10 more will say “no problem, I already own knives made overseas”.
 
When I bought my Husky last year, I saw that dealers had them listed as USA-made and read Hoback's FAQ, which noted that they use parts from different places. I figured that meant some outsourced parts with assembly and finishing steps in-house in Hoback's shop.

That seems like a pretty easy assumption to make; I bet I'm not alone in making it. I don't mind being wrong about my assumption, but hearing that they approached USA Made Blade without qualifying or explaining things -- which, I assume would have led to a polite "no" from whitty whitty -- isn't cool.

It certainly looks like Hoback benefits from the fuzzy impression that their knives are made in the USA.
 
The Aflac Duck said:
Well, when basically 90% of custom makers these days end up sending designs overseas to make a quick profit, it’s become more normal industry wide to outsource. We even have names like Anthony Marfione having knives and pens manufactured in China now, they were all made here in the USA for 28 years up until now.

It’s not something I like seeing myself, but it is what it is. This is what makers do now, so I don’t see a reason why Hoback would need to hide it anymore. For every person who will refuse to buy a Hoback knife now, 10 more will say “no problem, I already own knives made overseas”.
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Marifone openly admitted it and never hid it or deceptively tried to make it what it was not. I just watched 2 hours of different youtube interviews/videos on Hoback where he was clearly avoiding the topic, and in some cases seemed to be dow right hiding it. To me this is something I would expect from a politician, not from a high end knife maker! His statement is basically I did not lie, I just never told the truth!
 
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Once again with Hoback, it is how he responds to these sort things that is the big turn off to me. This just reaffirms my choice to not give him any of my money, despite liking his designs.

Indignantly saying you won't tell a customer where a product is made is a very bad look.
 
It's interesting when I saw his videos years back he had 1 tormach cnc machine. They are neither very accurate nor ridged machines. This is an indicator that he is having his handles for his folders made elsewhere, blades probably ground elsewhere too. There's no way he could produce the quantity he was pumping out nor the quality. In the end, his setup looks to be amateur as hell and he assembles them. Some chinese company is making his knives. This is why the cloak and daggers when it comes to what's made where. Who knows how long his website said that spiel about origin, for as long as people have believed otherwise I can't imagine it was always worded that way and as apparent as it is now.

Shame on Jake for this. To put scripture on his knives is even worse. Dude literally is like qtrmstr.
 
It pretty much seems that the Hoback company knew it was benefitting from folks believing that they were a true USA made knife. As another member here said, it's very politician like. Shady, at best.
My reading the posts here on this thread, it seems a lot of people feel duped, and it is hard to believe that it wasn't intentionally done.
Well, the word will get spread, then watch their company sales drop.
 
Rather than the question of whether Hoback knives qualify as "Made in USA" or not, I find his position that where parts may be sourced from is none of the buyers' business rather disturbing. Especially if he wants the Buyers' money.

About 20 years ago AG Russel issued an explanation to his buyers that because of the rising costs of knife manufacture in the U.S. he was now introducing several models made in China. He explained that a contact in Taiwan he had was able to hook him up with a Yangjian factory. He explained that it was necessary for him to remain viable as a business. It was an honest and sincere answer to the many angry comments that he had received. I don't see that kind of sincerity in Hoback's position.
 
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KenHash said:
Rather than the question of where Hoback knives qualify as "Made in USA" or not, I find his position that where parts may be sourced from is none of the buyers' business rather disturbing. Especially if he wants the Buyers' money.

About 20 years ago AG Russel issued an explanation to his buyers that because of the rising costs of knife manufacture in the U.S. he was now introducing several models made in China. He explained that a contact in Taiwan he had was able to hook him up with a Yangjian factory. He explained that it was necessary for him to remain viable as a business. It was an honest and sincere answer to the many angry comments that he had received. I don't see that kind of sincerity in Hoback's position.
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Interesting reply by none other than Ben

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Yo Mama said:
Interesting reply by none other than Ben

wkWaTvw.jpg
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Jake is embarrassed and knows he's been a skeezer. Bet he listed all those countries of origin as fluff for the main one that does all his work; China.

Seems he's a tad shy on honesty and suffers from one of the 7 deadly sins; greed.

Why wouldn't a reasonable person just come out and be honest and clear about what is made where? Unless he makes very little of the knives and assembles them. A dude with 1 tormach isn't machining all that titanium, isn't doing the heat treating, isn't making the hardware, so what exactly is he making?
 
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