Why Are The Best Discontinued?

T

Takujualuk

Joined
Dec 2, 2002
Messages
73
O.K maybe it's just me but whenever Spyderco comes up with a design I can really get behind it's a sure sign that the knife is doomed. I loved the old Wegner...shoosh...gone. Starting to warm up to the Impala..Shazam..vanished. Liked the look of the Peter Herbst...disappeared. I could go on and on. Is it just me?

Seems like any real useful field shape doesn't sell and knives that look damn near fantasy like to me (Think Persian or Spyderhawk) proliferate.

Be carefuls Sal I am liking the look of the Calypso Junior and Pro-Grip. Might need to be dropping these soon.
 
What the heck are you talking about? We all know the Endura, Delica, Military, Police, Scorpius, and Persian are the best and they're doing just fine. :D

Do you see my point? Spyderco doesn't discontinue their "best" models, they don't really have a "best" model, they just stopped making the ones that you like. Murphy's Law.

Put yourself in Spyderco's shoes (I wonder if there's eight of them...hmmmm :D ). You come up with something like say the Spyderwidget. Everyone everywhere is foaming at the mouth for it and you need to get it out in a hurry.

Do you take out a huge loan and build a new Spyderwidget factory for the same of keeping models like the Spyder-A, Spyder-B, and Spyder-C in production when the sales of the Spyderwidget will be greater than all of those models combined? I doubt it.

Not to mention if your consumer buys said Spyderwidget he's much less likely to buy either Spyder-A,Spyder-B, or Spyder-C.

You'd take the lowest selling models out of production too to make room for the new stuff. I feel for you because I hate it when they take a knife I really like, such as the plain edge Gunting, out of production. The plain edge Gunting is obviously something that I like, but that doesn't mean it's their "best" model or that they're foolish for discontinuing it simply because it wasn't selling.

If anything the knives that are still in production are the "best" models because they stood the test of time.

Now it's true that I don't have much use for say a Merlin nor do I fancy the ComboEdge Gunting, but that's why they continue to make different models.
 
Dead: I do get it. The bottom line has to rule. I guess I am on the wrong end of the popularity scale and I am just wondering if maybe Spyderco buyers are not predominantly hunters or wether so many southern hunters are once a year guys that dressing game isn't a major consideration.

I harvest 10 caribou a year and a Moose or two when I can get it and I want my EDC to be able to hunt.

The Wegner for instance was and is a phenom. An honest to goodness do it all folding hunter. Why these or the Impala never sold I can't fathom. The Persian & Chinook are an intestinal leak waiting to happen and for me if my knife can't cut it with dressing chores it isn't an EDC, in fact it likely won't capture my imagination at all.

I can't point to one current production Spyderco that really turns the lights on for me though the Calypso looks like a good pure slicer.
 
Like I said I feel for you because I understand what it's like to have a knife that you like pulled out from under you, but I wouldn't be so hard on the Persian and Chinook. I am currently awaiting a Persian after finally finding a price I was willing to pay and I really want a Chinook too.

Look at it this way: there's always a chance for a Sprint run... heck we got another chance at the Calypso Jr. Spyderco has a history of giving us a second chance at discontinued models. I promise you Sal will read this thread and think to himself "Well apparently there is some demand for the Wegner and the plain edge Gunting". Sal wants to sell you knives. That's what he's here for. Whether or not he can actually do anything about it is another story.

With Spyderco, if something really is good there's at least a chance it'll come back later. What other knife company does that? I can't go to Cold Steel and request the original Culloden in AUS-8 and realistically think they'll even think about it. I can't go to Victorinox and ask for the Golfer with the pliers to come back into production.

I am curious as to why the Impala doesn't appeal to you... or has it gone out of production and no one told me? :p
 
I thought the Impala had gone out of production. If not I will be looking pretty stupid. It actually looks very good especially the non-gut hook model.
Good size, lots of belly and a nice strong point. Never did understand the need for a gut hook.

I like the Wegner a bit better and as pointed out Blade-Tech is making a slightly modified version in S30v that is getting my attention. Still..I like Spyderco and maybe the cost of innovation is understanding that models will be in some state of flux.
 
I belive the Wegner and Impala would have done much better if they were advetised to hunters.
If Spyderco would pay for someone to use them on Buck Masters TV show and say something about them many hunters would look for them.
I don't think I have seen but maybe 5 ads for Spyderco in the last 2 yrs and all but maybe 2 of them were in places only knife nuts would look.
This my be a good way to start off the new C13.
 
Very good point. For a company that takes such great care in the design and quality of their products, Spyderco does an extremely poor job of marketing them.
 
i think i shall give my 2 cents... :rolleyes:

I think that Spyderco is getting great advertisement from knife knuts and even if you do spend money on Buckmasters advertising, many guys who see may and probably won't buy one because of the price.. even though we all know the knives ARE well worth it.

before i say anything bad about Spyderco's advertising, i would like to hear from Sal, if it's not a prob, how he does his advertising. he make have a wicked cool method. anyway, i agree.. It really sucks when a good model (in my eyes) is discontinued. but bigger and better things are in the future :D:cool:
 
Harry Callahan said:
Very good point. For a company that takes such great care in the design and quality of their products, Spyderco does an extremely poor job of marketing them.
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Maybe he just doesn't need it. A good product can sell itself, especially when you get heaps of people on a major forum talking about them.

Sal probably has all the mansions, exotic sports cars and young naked girls he needs. :)
 
Sal probably has all the mansions, exotic sports cars and young naked girls he needs
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Well he may have as many as he needs but I don't think its as many as he wants.
Kind of like me and Spydercos.
 
There are many models that are disco'd that I would prefer to keep as well.

Sales govern inventory. We might keep a model around for longer because we feel it is slow growing, but ultimately, sales will determine what stays and what goes.

Advertising is very expensive. We are a small company. We do the best we can with the budget we have available. Using steels like S30V and VG-10 is also expensive. I imagine we could advertise more if we used the less expensive steels but we feel that our customers prefer the better steels.

We've also found that advertising has its limitations. I don't think we've advertisid the Endura, Delica, dragonfly or Police more than 5 times in 14 years.

The Spyderco Wegner was advertisied heavily by Tim as well as some ads by us. Sales were still limited.

We still haved the Impala, we've reduced the variations.

Also, disco'd product is available for a while through the outlet store.

We'll consider your suggestions.

sal
 
Sal: No disrespect to your company meant..I was more wondering about why models I love seem shunned by most. I realize you need to let the market do it's mysterious stuff!

That said I would love to see the tracker model brought on line. Great Wegner blade shape in a lighter less expensive version..what's not to love?
 
Hi Takujualuk. No disrespect taken. Some of my favorite models have also been disco'd. It just means that in some models, our preferences are not in alignment with the majority of knife buyers.

Maintaining a very large inventory of many models and many variations (plain, serrated, combination, FRN, stainless, etc) is not possible for us.

If we want to introduce ten new models in the next year, then ten models will have to go. Next years line-up is currently being decided and there are quite a few that will go.

Tis year, we've introduced the Spyderfly, Salt I, Pacific Salt, ParaMilitary, Yojimbo, Vagabond, Goddard & Spur "Sprints" and two runs of gray Calypso jrs. (9)

Before Christmas, we're still scheduled for Stainless ATR's, Stretch, UK Penknife, Szabofly, Manix and a first run of cocobolo Kopa's (600 pcs). (6)

That's 15 models in a year. Quite a bit for a small company

your kind understanding is appreciated.

sal
 
Sal: If the Manix is a drop point version of the Chinook you can count me in.
Hope it is well distributed in Canada as some models are hard to get!
 
Sal Glesser said:
If we want to introduce ten new models in the next year, then ten models will have to go. Next years line-up is currently being decided and there are quite a few that will go.

Tis year, we've introduced the Spyderfly, Salt I, Pacific Salt, ParaMilitary, Yojimbo, Vagabond, Goddard & Spur "Sprints" and two runs of gray Calypso jrs. (9)

Before Christmas, we're still scheduled for Stainless ATR's, Stretch, UK Penknife, Szabofly, Manix and a first run of cocobolo Kopa's (600 pcs). (6)

That's 15 models in a year. Quite a bit for a small company

your kind understanding is appreciated.

sal
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I think that says it all. I suspect that many people reading this thread are like me, and have just seen our budget dwindle. Seriously, I am sure that I will want to buy more than one of the above-mentioned models. I believe that one of the main reasons that I can afford to do so is that Spyderco keeps their prices within reason (and that forces other companies to do the same). It seems to me that nothing is going to drive up the cost of these things like advertising expenses. My take on this is that current methods are working well for Spyderco (I hope)---let's keep things reasonable.

As far as discontinued models-- I have found a number of them by patient searching on the web. I have also found some at the Spyderco outlet (if that is what it is) in Denver. I don't know if they take phone orders, but in general, they are quite helpful there.
 
Sal, Any chance you might bring back the Rookie for a limited run? It's ergonomics were, IMHO, equal to or better than any Spydie I ever held.
 
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