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

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I mostly read the folding knife for sale by individuals section of this forum and noticed a Husky sell today. Last I saw the price had dropped to about 390. Assuming the buyer knows about the controversy or doesn't care about country of origin, this would be a new data point on what the knives should sell for. The major retailers seem to still have them listed at the old price, (575?) but that would make sense from a legal perspective. That way they can establish a drop in sales as evidence in any civil action.
 
ajvail18 said:
So my kershaw “usa made” folder is not USA made because of the M390 steal?
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We've covered this.

So as not to detract from the discussion, it is USA made...it just happens to feature a blade made of Austrian steel. If the blade was ground and heat treated in the USA there is absolutely no issue, and nobody is taking issue with products that are labeled properly.

Let's not get off into the weeds.
 
Midas13 said:
I mostly read the folding knife for sale by individuals section of this forum and noticed a Husky sell today. Last I saw the price had dropped to about 390. Assuming the buyer knows about the controversy or doesn't care about country of origin, this would be a new data point on what the knives should sell for. The major retailers seem to still have them listed at the old price, (575?) but that would make sense from a legal perspective. That way they can establish a drop in sales as evidence in any civil action.
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This is a complicated situation it seems legally. There isn’t really someone standing over a body with a smoking gun in hand… a lot of “he said/she said”.. unless a dealer has something in writing it’s going to be difficult to prove:

1.) Hoback intentionally deceived said distributors as to the country of origin

2.) The dealers have evidence as to why they picked a particular COO for their listing (did they ask Hoback and he provided a fraudulent response? Again.. proof.)

Now his social media panic posts probably didn’t help his case.. and more likely hurt it. Hence the deletion.

The bigger issue is going to be the erosion of trust between Hoback and dealers.. and I don’t think he’s going to do well taking the distributor role on himself.
 
Honesty and transparency is always the best policy.

Had he been truthful regarding the origin of his products, a large portion of potential buyers wouldn't have even cared. The rest would have just focused on collecting the USA made models. Now, no one is interested in any of them.

This is a really stupid way to ruin your business.
 
I had a midtech Kwaiback and it was flawless. I would buy another. As long as I know what I’m getting……

The adjustable detent was nice
 
I'd be in for a kwaiback, just not one in any way related to Mr. Hoback, no matter the price or where it was made. So ya, a different knife completely then. I did really like the look. Too bad he tanked his rep forever. Might as well pack up shop and see if survive is hiring. I hear they need help getting knives out.
 
Paratrooper06 said:
This stands out as an example of a great way to inform your customers that you’re sourcing a product from China.. if a maker were to be honest and upfront about it.

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Yep. This is how you do it. He makes it perfectly clearly that he’s making some knives in China, and explains exactly why he’s doing so. The knives are explicitly marked and the boxes even have a Chinese motif so you can’t possibly mix it up. He still caught some hell for it, but at the end of they day, they’re selling well.

Hoback could have done this. “Demand is so high that I’m producing a lower cost line so more people can experience my designs at a lower price point”. Hell, it’s pretty much the same as licensing out to Boker+ which tons of people do.
 
Never liked Hoback knives, never owned one, dont like them in hand. Always felt like cheap chinese junk in hand to me. And then his reaction and reply to such a thing basically stating "oh shit im caught, quick, make up something theyll believe to cover my ass."

Ill never own nor support Hoback Knives. Again, not only because of this ordeal, because they are not of quality to meet the price in my opinion. To each their own.

As we all know, every knife maker has their own cult following that humps their leg over their work, so some will still stand with him, others, not so much. His reputation got drained faster than the inflation of fuel prices.
 
Unfortunately hoback didn't create a lower cost line and have them made in China. He had his expensive main knives made in China and never came clean.

Imagine if crk couldn't keep up with demand and quietly started having them made in China and kept charging USA made prices and didn't correct the dealers USA made label.

Yikes.
 
shinyedges said:
Unfortunately hoback didn't create a lower cost line and have them made in China. He had his expensive main knives made in China and never came clean.

Imagine if crk couldn't keep up with demand and quietly started having them made in China and kept charging USA made prices and didn't correct the dealers USA made label.

Yikes.
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BLADE is just three short months away, I wonder if we'll see anybody attempting to call Blowback out to his face over this. Hell, I wonder if he'll even have a table there. I mean, might as well, considering how like, 65% of the tables there have Chinese made knives on them. What's one more? He could even do a special edition where the Psalm callout is in Mandarin. 🤷‍♂️
 
Quiet said:
BLADE is just three short months away, I wonder if we'll see anybody attempting to call Blowback out to his face over this. Hell, I wonder if he'll even have a table there. I mean, might as well, considering how like, 65% of the tables there have Chinese made knives on them. What's one more? He could even do a special edition where the Psalm callout is in Mandarin. 🤷‍♂️
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Even better, blade show texas is next weekend. Ill be there. Should be interesting to see if someone calls him out
 
Quiet said:
BLADE is just three short months away, I wonder if we'll see anybody attempting to call Blowback out to his face over this. Hell, I wonder if he'll even have a table there. I mean, might as well, considering how like, 65% of the tables there have Chinese made knives on them. What's one more? He could even do a special edition where the Psalm callout is in Mandarin. 🤷‍♂️
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I'll bet right now, based off of his reaction of deleting everything, he doesn't have a table there this year. He can't handle the heat and is ducking off right now, no way he'll handle direct to his face criticism or questions about this. If he does, I'll be surprised. He had an opportunity to take this on the chin and atone for this. Own it. Don't delete anything, be clear and honest about everything. Apologize and make it right, don't blame anyone else. If it were an honest mistake, that would be the line of action I would take. This cover up mode is a tell tale sign of this not being an honest mistake. Which we already know because he told us he was afraid of the "blowback" so he stayed silent and kept selling China made as American.
 
shinyedges said:
I'll bet right now, based off of his reaction of deleting everything, he doesn't have a table there this year. He can't handle the heat and is ducking off right now, no way he'll handle direct to his face criticism or questions about this. If he does, I'll be surprised. He had an opportunity to take this on the chin and atone for this. Own it. Don't delete anything, be clear and honest about everything. Apologize and make it right, don't blame anyone else. If it were an honest mistake, that would be the line of action I would take. This cover up mode is a tell tale sign of this not being an honest mistake. Which we already know because he told us he was afraid of the "blowback" so he stayed silent and kept selling China made as American.
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Maybe that new writer they hired from BladeForums can cover the action.
 
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