Nothing against CRKT or any of the other factories. However, at this point their line of knives have become mostly "monkey see, monkey do". Outside the R&D that the custom knife makers do for them, they do little if anything on their own.
The only advantage they offer (and this is a big one), is factories produce millions of knives and put them into the hands of future custom knife buyers.
Another mis-conception is that there is any Maker, Dealer or Factory that makes a knife or an aspect of a knife popular.
Popularity always has and always will belong only to one segment of custom knives....They customer.
As for who originated the flipper, I don't think any one around today knows. I saw a flipper on a antique friction folder Circa 1875. I think that pre-dates most of the members here. I suspect that are some folders even older than that. I'll bet when they came out who ever came up with the original idea was given credit as the person who "popularized" it.
Like all good ideas, they get "re-invented".
Seventy Five years from now when some custom knife maker finds an old rusty folder at a flea market. Then takes it home, opens it and pulls out the Speed Safe and put it into one of his knives. There will be whole generation of custom knife buyers who talk about how cool this mechanism is.
It will be at that point that my Great Grandchild will annouce to those colletors that it was done before. To which someone will reply, "yes but XYZ knife maker made it popular"....and so it goes.
