Zero Tolerance Current/Upcoming/Discontinued Models

Lapedog said:
Gaylean was either low key dissing ZT when he sent them this design,

or was drunk in a bar when his friend dared him to design a knife on the back of a napkin and get it produced.
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Yeah, I'm not sure what Galyean and ZT were thinking when they designed/produced this knife.

Did they ever try to run this by a "focus" group of ZT and other knife buyers/owners? If they did, I think they'd have quickly gotten a clue that we (as a very specific focus group) wouldn't be too happy w/the knife as designed. Apart from its general appearance, which I do not like, I would have also mentioned that I thought that the knife was "too small" w/only a 3.5" blade.

No way that this knife would ever replace a 4" bladed ZT 0200/0452 or a Spyderco Police/Military/Native Chief (or even the Resilience) in my pocket. I'd expect a pseudo-KaBar clip point Bowie to be really BIG - at least the size of the 0200 - and this knife also fails miserably in this respect.

It actually reminds me of the $20 Ka-Bar Mark 98 folder that I bought on a whim -- which is NOT a favorable comparison -- that I still own because it's too cheap to bother trying to resell. If there was a really desirable camp knife that I wanted to sell (like my BM Crooked River), I'd probably throw in the Mark 98 for "free" just to get rid of it.

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sgt1372 said:
Yeah, I'm not sure what Galyean and ZT were thinking when they designed/produced this knife. Did they ever try to run this by a "focus" group of ZT and other knife buyers/owners? If they did, I think they'd have quickly gotten a clue that we (as a very specific focus group) wouldn't be too happy w/the knife as designed.....
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Your question about whether any customer focus group was ever asked for their input about this thing is a good one. It’s obvious that never happened but IMO, it should have. Those ricasso holes are senseless. They should have put some small laser-etched text on the blade by those holes that said “Snap off at dotted line.” This is truly one “Upcoming/Discontinued” ZT model because--like others above--I think it’s going to bomb and go from upcoming to discontinued with record speed.
 
No doubt this will be marketed as a “hard use” military inspired badass knife.

Even though I typically wouln’t pry with a folder I feel like there is no way those “break here” holes won’t weaken the blade; especially side to side.

I have never been one of the people to bash ZT with accusations of them not making “hard use” knives anymore and instead catering to the pocket jewlery, my knife is a fidget spinner crowd.

However this one is really rubbing me the wrong way.

ZT you have outstanding ability to make high end Ti framelocks stateside for a good price to consumer. Why not make a 3.3ish inch framelock in a practical design with good slicing ability that anyone can carry? Enough with this machismo pocket jewelry crap.
 
Just one person’s opinion, but... the best thing ZT could do right now is to go back to basics and reinforce their commitment to proven winners -- which is to say, put out a “new” 0450-0452 series with all-Ti scales and M390 blades----unless, of course they’re suicidal. Do you hear us? If you don’t or can’t, please do look forward to CRK devouring you and pushing you into a deep, dark corner of the market. Their new Sebenza 31 is a major step toward the achievement of that objective--cost notwithstanding. Time will tell what it may and your course of action in the immediate future will be critical. Best of luck and happy trails.
 
I still believe there's something drastic occurring at the corporate level (Kai). Perhaps a division realignment, management shake up and power shift, acquisition, rebranding, licensing disputes with their collaborations, bankruptcy, etc.. Pure speculation of course. However, they're behaving as if they're desperate to recover costs, maybe even trying to jettison inventory and overstock. E.g. Recent sprints are merely rehash of old stuff painted in different colors; sprints with downgraded steel (S35VN-not that it's bad stuff, just not CPM20V/CTS204P/M390 like the original); and the new policy of selling replacement parts. Not very long ago they used to refuse to sell replacement parts explicitly stating they do not stock extra parts for sale. Now it's easy to buy a whole new pivot assembly or scales screws, no questions asked.

For a company with the tag line of "Go Bold", they've been going very "quietly" lately.
 
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I’d go broke if I tried to design knives for a living, so I respect just about any bold attempt at originality. In this creatively diverse knife environment, that’s gotta be tough. IMO though, I don’t see this as a win. Often I try to gauge new designs by my teen boys reactions rather than my own first impressions. Maybe I’m missing something??? Maybe there is some next-generation appeal that I don’t see???

I’m sorry KAI, but we’re together in this one.o_O:thumbsdown:
 
Mako109 said:
I still believe there's something drastic occurring at the corporate level (Kai). Perhaps a division realignment, management shake up and power shift, acquisition, rebranding, licensing disputes with their collaborations, bankruptcy, etc.. Pure speculation of course. However, they're behaving as if they're desperate to recover costs, maybe even trying to jettison inventory and overstock. E.g. Recent sprints are merely rehash of old stuff painted in different colors; sprints with downgraded steel (S35VN-not that it's bad stuff, just not CPM20V/CTS204P/M390 like the original); and the new policy of selling replacement parts. Not very long ago they used to refuse to sell replacement parts explicitly stating they do not stock extra parts for sale. Now it's easy to buy a whole new pivot assembly or scales screws, no questions asked.

For a company with the tag line of "Go Bold", they've been going very "quietly" lately.
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I have quite a similar analysis.

What makes me sad is that IMO ZT has top notch manufacturing capabilities and know-how but they are struggling to get good designs... and when they have they don't promote them much and favors "stranger designs" like the 0223.

They have released the 0640, the 0654cf etc... outside of any fairs while they kept the 0223 as their only release of blade show. IMO that is surprising...
 
When I first saw this knife I was actually excited. It was a small image, and I thought it was a fixed blade (I didn't see the blade holes). I was thinking 6-7 inch blade, 3V, I'm in. Nope.
 
While many of the latest ZT folders of the past several years are not to everyone's liking, me included, they still sell a lot of the older models (see below) including 0350 series which came out about 10 years ago:

  • 0350
  • 0770
  • 0566
  • 0450
  • 0452
  • 0562
 
I just noticed that Springfield Armory sells a special engraved 0095BW.

Love the knife (have an s90v tan copy already) and SA. Anybody tried ? Thanks,

Roland.
 
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