Why do walmart 110's come with nylon sheaths?

I don't believe that Walmart insists on having anything made in China. They do insist on a price point that will allow the item to be sold by them for less than most if not all other retailers, which it seems Buck by using the nylon/cordura sheath has accomplished. Kershaw has also managed in some way to do the same since my local store also carries USA made models of that brand.

I know that the fishing reel company, Abu Garcia, makes a line of reels exclusively for Walmart that are made in China instead of Sweden. They look the same but use cheaper, less durable plastic gears and other internal components in order to hit the price point. I also remember a few years back that they quit carrying a certain brand of string trimmer because the manufacturer wouldn't or couldn't (without lowering quality) get them down to the price point that Walmart wanted. At least that's the explaination I was given when I tried to buy one there.

Perhaps Leatherman has just decided they don't want to go that way.
 
How interesting,, I was in a local Walmart a couple days ago and all the sheaths in the 110 clammies were leather. Drive out was still around $30.

Was then at Gander Mt and theirs were leather sheaths as well. But drive out was double Walmart. Same for the 119.

I will still buy some things at Walmart.
 
Oh, I still buy some things at Wal-Mart, but only when I REALLY need something and can't find it anywhere else.

Seems that happens more often as Wal-Mart drives all the local merchants out of business.

But I still maintain my semi-boycott and even if something costs a few dollars more at a local business--I'll buy LOCAL instead of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is a fact of life and it's too late to make a difference with a boycott. Wal-Mart is now far too big to kill--it's a symbol of these evil and harsh economic times.

As to the leather sheaths in recent clam packs.....it just means that they can now make the leather ones cheaper than the Cordura, or at least close enough that it makes little difference. I'd suspect crappy leather.
 
Ity is a shame ,because now all the knives are coming into our walmart in clam packs,and these old timers want to feel and hold what they are buying ,like myself,i don't buy any clampack knives of any brands.
 
I guess it depends on the store. The only knives I ever see in clam packs at my local store are displayed before the holidays and are usually Remington or some other off brand. The real knives including all the Bucks are pictured on a board and are kept under the counter in boxes. Now, at the local K-Mart, all the knives are in clam packs but they don't have a sporting goods counter with a sales person to help you like Walmart does.
 
I guess I don't worry too much about the clammies. The walmart and Academy I deal with are excellent about taking something back after opening a clampack. But so far have never had to return a Buck. Not even for bad leather.
 
Plumberdv said:
I guess it depends on the store. The only knives I ever see in clam packs at my local store are displayed before the holidays and are usually Remington or some other off brand. The real knives including all the Bucks are pictured on a board and are kept under the counter in boxes. Now, at the local K-Mart, all the knives are in clam packs but they don't have a sporting goods counter with a sales person to help you like Walmart does.
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Same way with mine, and as far as walmart shutting down smallmarts, that happened here. There was a local hardware store, with the stereotypical Case display, and I bought all of my Case knives there, then they closed down a month ago, and that angered me, knowing walmart did it.
 
thatotherguy said:
Same way with mine, and as far as walmart shutting down smallmarts, that happened here. There was a local hardware store, with the stereotypical Case display, and I bought all of my Case knives there, then they closed down a month ago, and that angered me, knowing walmart did it.
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I believe that the largest impact on small business made in my area occured many years ago when K-Mart came to town. By the time Walmart got to this area, most of the damage had already been done. The only business I know of that Walmart really hurt around here was K-Mart which is located less than 1/2 mile away and on the same street. I don't know how they stay in business, their parking lot usually has a ghost town look to it.
 
I'm a fan of leather for the looks -- Buck's black leather sheath just 'fits' the 110, and I keep my standard 420HC 110 (albeit autographed by Chuck Buck) in the leather sheath. When I'm out riding the Harley, that's what I carry -- again, because if just fits. On the other hand, I find myself using the nylon sheath most of the time because it's more comfortable than the leather one, and that's where my BassPro 110 in CPM154 resides.
 
Wal-Mart killed a lot of good, small sporting goods stores in our area.....and also killed K-Mart and one big grocery store.

Now the knives are in plastic and Buck grows and Wal-Mart grows.

Sometimes growth is progress......sometimes it's cancer.

Hard rain's gonna fall.
 
Mitch W. said:
That's where alot of the people that customize them get 'em. It's a no-brainer, pay 60-70 for a knife you're gonna take apart or 35.00?;)
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yeah my father is sending me some brown micarta for the grip panels. i think i may also put a pocket clip and, a thumb stud.
 
I have to agree,I don't buy much at walmart either,i wish buck knives weren't even sold at walmart,there are plenty of other sporting goods stores and small country stores that sell buck products,leave walmart in the dust and keep the price high.Lets not forget that buck knives were 5 times the cost of other knives back in the day when people still bought them because they knew quality when they saw it.Now the quality is slowly disappearing ,instead the "cheap"side of the company is showing more and more.

If the sheaths(includingn leather)are made in mexico,doesn't that make them all cheap?I don't know too many people that like a nylon sheath over a leather sheath,maybe you folks are the exception,and with these clamshell packaging rigs,its like saying just buy it,you don't need to touch or handle it,just buy it first,i hate that.We are under a monster storm here in Nova Scotia,so i'm trapped inside and doing too much thinking,or maybe not enough

p.s..hard rain is falling at 75 mph now bg.lol.
 
Either Joe Houser or CJ stated on this forum at one time that Buck didn't like the clam packs themselves. IIRC they even said that they were more costly than the boxes but that some retailers insisted on them. With the clam packs they don't have to have a salesperson there to let you open the box (to look) and them put it away again if you don't buy.

Lets not forget that people bought them years ago if they could afford them (at five times the price of others). If there had been a place (like Walmart) that sold Bucks at a discount price, I would have been able to afford one back when I was a young man (and Buck probably would have sold alot more also). As it was, I had to settle for the cheap imitations coming out of Japan at that time. The hardware stores and sporting goods stores all charged retail list which put them out of the running for a young guy living pretty much pay check to pay check.
 
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I can agree somewhat Plumb,but I know lots of guys living paycheck to paycheck that can buy a $40 knife once.Not all folks are collectors either,they buy one and its done,they use that one knife.I had to settle for those knock offas myself,I never had my own 110 until the 90's,and now I apprechiate them all the more.I guess todays world is cheap cheap cheap,thats the way things are made today.I have a few new guns that are absolute junk compared to their predacessors.I can't believe remington is making the crap they are.I can even say that the materials used to make things aren't even the same as yesteryear,just look at the brass on a 2 dot 110,polish it up,then polish a new 110 and see which knife still looks shiny weeks later..I hope someday things go back to a quality made product,like years gone by,but i'm afraid its never going to happen.Tell me how we survived when things were made places besides china and pakistan,things are made in those places now more than ever,as cheap as can be,yet we are at rock bottom ,the economy is screwed.
 
When I was taking home about $100 a week, had a wife, child, house rent to pay and a 110 was $20 or so, there's no way I could justify spending 20% of my pay check on a work knife. That would be like taking home $1000 a week and spending $200 for one. If I'd done that, my marrage wouldn't have lasted 47 years like it did.;)
 
I grew up in a small town and back then there was a mom and pop grocery store,a five and dime, and a hardware store in town. There were cheap knives for sale..on cards behind the counter, of all of them. But the hardware store also sold Case and Buck knives which were in display cases. We were poor. I saved my paper route and odd job money for a whole summer to buy my first Buck knife. A 112 that served me from age 14 to my early 20's when it was lost at sea. I remember feeling a little guilty for spending that much money on a knife. When my dad saw it he said:you buy quality and you spend your money once. That 112 cleaned more fish than I could ever count. It was an unfailing servant through my youth.
Those values seem lost today. I think it started with Mcdonalds.
We as a nation seem to want it now and want it cheap.
Yes BG...A hard rain, is gonna fall...
 
At least there were plenty of jobs in those days gone by, Plumberdv......if you have a good job, you can afford a good knife.

When I went into the Navy in the mid-sixties, all my buddies who stayed out of the war had great jobs and were making great money and driving new cars.

Today, though...... people can't afford a knife because they're either unemployed or working minimum wage at Burger King or or......maybe even Wal-Mart.

What changed? The good jobs went overseas because of corporations like Wal-Mart and the people who cooperated with them.
 
In keeping with knives and hunting,its not just knives gone overseas,All of my old cabelas camo hunting gear has a nice made in USA label sewn into it.All the new gear says made in china,bangladesh,vietnam,but no USA.I won't buy a thing from them that isn't made in USA or Canada.I don't buy much now.LOL
 
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