Why isn't Spyderco doing anything to combat the fake copies of their products?

Surfingringo said:
Am I missing something? I don't think the op bought a fake. I think he just noticed how many fakes were available when he was researching his purchase.
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Correct. I did not buy a fake - the one I got is genuine. From being active in the online knife community, I was aware of the fakes, and I knew what to look for.

My point is that a lot of people do not know what to look for and dozens of these fakes are being sold every day.

Case in point: this ebay seller has sold 10 fake PM2's in the last 24hrs. The funny thing is, the description says "copy spyderco" right there in plain sight! This seller is extra slimy because it looks like they photographed a real PM2 for the item pictures.

fake pm2.jpg

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fake2.jpg
 
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I wouldn't doubt for one second that the Chinese government whole heartedly encourages business practices that destabilize economies across the globe. They've previously devalued their own currency to achieve the same results. One reason why I won't buy knives manufactured there, almost everything else is made there. No thanks.
 
Don't buy production knives off eBay.
Problem solved.

I would also add, don't buy any knives off any website with Chinese text.
Also, if the picture of the knife has FAKE GREEN GRASS in it, it's a Chinese counterfeit.

It's really not that hard to spot these fakes. Use the slightest amount of common sense judgement and you'll be fine.
Like many have stated, purchase your Spydercos from a reputable dealer.

If the difference between $60 and $120 is a serious deal-breaker for you, then maybe you need to accept that the Military is not in your price range, and consider something like a Tenacious. Rather than give the $60 to some Chinese bootlegger.
 
And a quick google image search reveals that all of these pictures were copied and pasted from a website in Australia. Notice the REAL price!

Fake3.jpg
 
Is this the future? Meet the new Para2..


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RevDevil said:
I wouldn't doubt for one second that the Chinese government whole heartedly encourages business practices that destabilize economies across the globe. They've previously devalued their own currency to achieve the same results. One reason why I won't buy knives manufactured there, almost everything else is made there. No thanks.
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Quoted for truth.
 
Stays Sharp said:
It's very difficult to combat people who do not play by the rules as the rest of the world.

My wife just bought an iPhone5c on Ebay without checking with me and it turned out to be fake. Even companies like Apple that is 1000 times bigger than Spyderco cant seem to do squat. It is bad, the best you can do is to inform yourself first when making a purchase and buy from reputable dealers. If it's too good of a deal, then it is.
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Just reread my post and wanted to clarify, I meant that no matter what companies large and small do to combat this, these crooks always seem to stay TEN steps ahead (they dont play by the rules). Did no mean that they DONT do squat, actually they spend a lot of time, money and effort to combat this.
 
How about they place an ugly "Golden CO Made" right on the handlescales ala Chris Reeve... That certainly stopped the Chinese :p
 
Thanks to everyone who has joined in on this discussion. I realize that this is a complicated problem, and that it cannot be simply "fixed" overnight. As others have mentioned, I think one of the best "solutions" is to simply buy your knives from reputable dealers.
 
Surfingringo said:
That would mean taking money out of my pocket and giving it to the government. I'm pretty sure I'll come out cheaper just buying my knives at knifeworks! ;) :D
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Actually, it would be repricing items from China to be competitive with capitalist markets. By buying things from a country that sets the value of its currency outside of international market value, you are significantly contributing to the artificial trade deficit and ultimately the national debt which raises your taxes. Our federal government operated for over half of the life of the country on tariffs alone. They actually improve the competitiveness of American manufacture which, last time I checked, was the backbone of our economy.
Cheap chinese products have been destroying the American production economy for years, and it is about 30 years overdue for our government to pay attention to the fact that financial warfare hurts us as much or more than other, more well-recognized, forms of subterfuge.
 
SolidState said:
Actually, it would be repricing items from China to be competitive with capitalist markets. By buying things from a country that sets the value of its currency outside of international market value, you are significantly contributing to the artificial trade deficit and ultimately the national debt which raises your taxes. Our federal government operated for over half of the life of the country on tariffs alone. They actually improve the competitiveness of American manufacture which, last time I checked, was the backbone of our economy.
Cheap chinese products have been destroying the American production economy for years, and it is about 30 years overdue for our government to pay attention to the fact that financial warfare hurts us as much or more than other, more well-recognized, forms of subterfuge.
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This^^^^
 
SolidState said:
Actually, it would be repricing items from China to be competitive with capitalist markets. By buying things from a country that sets the value of its currency outside of international market value, you are significantly contributing to the artificial trade deficit and ultimately the national debt which raises your taxes. Our federal government operated for over half of the life of the country on tariffs alone. They actually improve the competitiveness of American manufacture which, last time I checked, was the backbone of our economy.
Cheap chinese products have been destroying the American production economy for years, and it is about 30 years overdue for our government to pay attention to the fact that financial warfare hurts us as much or more than other, more well-recognized, forms of subterfuge.
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I agree with the majority of what you are saying here, but I believe you are well aware that the issue is more complicated than that...much. Are you certain that this would increase the competitiveness of American manufacturing?? The world is getting smaller day by day and american manufacturing is increasingly dependent on international sales. Do you think other governments won't respond?? So now our already expensive goods will have higher tariffs further decreasing international sales. How will this help American manufacturing? How will we combat this? By devaluing our own currency?

Sorry, this got way outside the realm of what I normally discuss on the knife forum. I will stop now but I just wanted to point out that there are no "easy answers" when it comes to global economics. I do however appreciate your points and agree with the ideal behind your statements. Finding functional ways of implementing those ideals is a more difficult task. Until then I am going to buy my knives from knifeworks and think on it while I'm whittling. ;)
 
Interesting thread. Others have already summed it up, but i will repeat. Only buy from registered dealers. The bigger problem comes with buying used knives. Check out rating of dealer, get as many pics as possible. If the price is too good to be true then it probably is.

As for serial numbers, these dudes would use a single number on all the clones, so this would only work if the buyer took the trouble to verify the number.

The US is not the only country where the Chinese have invested heavily. Even if u voted differently and changed the government, it is doubtful that you could expect any meaningful change from government. It is what it is. Sad.
 
All good points, however, I think the biggest part of the problem is, while some buy copies and are duped, many consumers buy copies, knowing they're copies and choose to do so.

The comments I hear;

"I can't afford a real one and a copy is better than nothing".
"I'll by the copy and if I like it, then I'll save up for a real one".
"Spyderco is my favorite knife brand and one day I'll own a real one".

The copies almost bankrupted us in '99.

It's not only the Chinese government. A lot of the problem is "we, the people" buy copies.

sal
 
Point well taken, Sal. The problem is, there's very little anyone can do about folks who buy copies on purpose. If you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd be interested in knowing how you managed to survive the situation you encountered with copies in '99. I notice a lot of Spyderco knives are made offshore, but I don't know when that began in earnest. Was it a case of, "if you can't lick 'em, join 'em"? (PS: My question isn't meant to point a finger and I'm not xenophobic. Some of my favorite Spydercos are made in Taichung! :) )
 
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Thanks Sal, for helping build understanding on this issue. It's important, probably more so than what most folks would imagine.
 
I just wanted to add, if you ever buy a fake Spyderco knife, either keep it for yourself or destroy it. Don't try to sell it to someone else because you got burned. If you see a fake Spyderco for sale report it to Sal and I'm sure he can get his lawyers onto the case. I guess this is always going to be a problem so long as there is demand for these knock off's and the law courts are the only solution.

Maybe an idea would be that if you purchase a fake Spyderco knife you can send it in to Spyderco and get a 10% discount code to spend on their site for a real Spyderco. Give people an incentive not to re-sell fake knives as genuine. Hahaha, once Spyderco have enough fakes they can sell them back to the Chineese.

Just a quick question for Sal, have you ever thought about opening an office in Europe (i.e. Spyderco Europe ltd)? I'm not so knowledgeable about copyright protection but I believe the European Union has some very tough trading standards and patent protection laws that even the Chineese have to listen to.
 
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