Spyderco Discontinued Knife Process: How is it decided?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I am not asking Spyderco to reveal trade secrets or anything. I am just wondering as to how Spyderco decides when a particular knife has had a full run of manufacturing and sales, and when it is time to discontinue it.

The main reason I ask is this: I see some very excellent Spyderco knives in the various discontinued lists over the years, knives that, at least to myself, and to others, are superb designs and have general-purpose practical utility and function, and yet, they were still discontinued, and dropped from production.

And so, how do you determine if a particular Spyderco knife is going to be discontinued or not? The thought of my favorite Spyderco knife or knives being discontinued is a scary, unsettling thought, but I also like to see the new ones that replace them.

And the basic decisions as to how a knife model is discontinued or not, must be similar across the board with other knife companies, but perhaps not.

Is the bottom line number of sales? If Spyderco Knife X is a great general purpose everyday carry utilitarian design, but not enough people buy it, and Spyderco Knife Y is not as practical as a general-purpose design, but, for some reason appeals to more people, and as a result, has higher numbers of sales, then knife Y is going to be retained and produced, whereas knife X is going to be dropped, even though, perhaps to myself and others here, knife X was the better of the two?

[Bugs]

Having run several businesses my guess would be is when a certain line is not profitable and/or poor sales. Why produce something with poor profitability when you can put the time, machinery and manpower into an item that brings in more moola.

[awa54]

I am not asking Spyderco to reveal trade secrets or anything. I am just wondering as to how Spyderco decides when a particular knife has had a full run of manufacturing and sales, and when it is time to discontinue it.

The main reason I ask is this: I see some very excellent Spyderco knives in the various discontinued lists over the years, knives that, at least to myself, and to others, are superb designs and have general-purpose practical utility and function, and yet, they were still discontinued, and dropped from production.

And so, how do you determine if a particular Spyderco knife is going to be discontinued or not? The thought of my favorite Spyderco knife or knives being discontinued is a scary, unsettling thought, but I also like to see the new ones that replace them.

And the basic decisions as to how a knife model is discontinued or not, must be similar across the board with other knife companies, but perhaps not.

Is the bottom line number of sales? If Spyderco Knife X is a great general purpose everyday carry utilitarian design, but not enough people buy it, and Spyderco Knife Y is not as practical as a general-purpose design, but, for some reason appeals to more people, and as a result, has higher numbers of sales, then knife Y is going to be retained and produced, whereas knife X is going to be dropped, even though, perhaps to myself and others here, knife X was the better of the two?

Remember, even though many of us enthusiasts love Spyderco, I would bet that the true volume sales are mostly to non-enthusiast knife buyers, predominantly in the USA. That means expensive, esoteric and quirky models probably sell just a few units compared to thousands for the models with more mass-appeal (not sure which those are, but I'm thinking Delica, Endura, PM2 must be in the running). For every one of "us" there must be hundreds of buyers who consider carbon fiber or exotic steels a needless expense and a non-locking knife a useless curiosity.

I know what you're talking about though, I wish I had re-entered the Spydersphere a few years earlier, so I could have gotten more original design UKPK variants and a few more Super Blue knives (Delica & Caly 3!!), it doesn't keep me up at night worrying though, because I have total confidence that there will be new, even better designs and Sprint revivals coming... we just have to be patient.

[demoncase]

Short answer is going to be a combination of poor sales and capacity needs.....There is a finite amount of space and resource in any company's supply chain- and profitable companies have precious little slack in this chain in this day and age.

Look at it mathematically:
There are 160 lines in the 2016 catalogue. That's without edge and colour variations- Let's be round and call it 200 SKUs on the shelf.
We saw 75 new products at Amsterdam- Some at the concept stage, others all the way over at the ready-to-make stage.
Typically there's a maximum of a double handful that make it out new each year.
So- you have to make hard decisions- there ain't no fat left to trim....We want new toys each year.

And often I hear (not just on here but in many other places) the glib statement about "Well- just get another factory in Taichung/China/Japan to pick up the extra models/slack- or if the new models are tough, make the old easy models at the new plant"....

Man-oh-man. If you've ever tried transferring production of anything to another country, or transferring a product from one supplier to another even in your OWN country- you wouldn't be so glib. It's like trying to knock in a 6" nail with a wet noodle.

Expect 6-12 months of supplier development MINIMUM on something basic- even if they have the chops to do it. With fine tolerancing and careful build needed (like Spyderco's products) expect 3-5 years of careful help from you to get the supplier to give you what you wanted in the first place when you signed the contract. Seriously.

Example: In my real life, we're currently helping the Chinese Government develop their first all-local narrow bodied airliner- the C919.
Part of our build work for the development of the flight controls means we have to use Chinese Government approved sources- that means in country suppliers who have never made our precision of product- even if they have made the basic type of product.

If I said that some of these suppliers should be better off sticking with making sump pumps for building sites then I'm being charitable.

Man, last month: we rejected 100% of 20 batches for basic tolerancing issues on dock- I mean "Should have had 6 holes in it but somehow they only managed to drill 5 yet still passed them as inspected" basic.
We get a response to the corrective action of "Operator severely reprimanded. However: Tolerances are too tight- open tolerances"....Funniest thing I've read in a while.

[The Deacon]

Almost all have been due to poor sales. A couple collaboration models may have been dropped due to "irreconcilable differences" between the collaborator and Spyderco. A couple were dropped when their makers proved unreliable. One, the Titanium ATR, was discontinued due to supply side issues.

And yes, as with TV shows, sometimes the "better" knife loses.

[sal]

Lower sales do necessarily mean poor design or poor quality. Often it just means small market.

sal

[LC Kid]

Hi Folks!


Usually the Go-To reason to discontinue a model are poor sales.

The thing here is we forumites not always get it why: Why such a fantastic model was discontinued??? :confused:

We always have to remember we're light years away from the average knife consumer, who thinks that any $10 cheapo folder is waaay more than enough to cut whatever they need. :D

[tvenuto]

Man, last month: we rejected 100% of 20 batches for basic tolerancing issues on dock- I mean "Should have had 6 holes in it but somehow they only managed to drill 5 yet still passed them as inspected" basic.
We get a response to the corrective action of "Operator severely reprimanded. However: Tolerances are too tight- open tolerances"....Funniest thing I've read in a while.

I've never seen a plus or minus number of holes tolerance, but hey, there's a first time for everything!

[tvenuto]

Hi Folks!


Usually the Go-To reason to discontinue a model are poor sales.

The thing here is we forumites not always get it why: Why such a fantastic model was discontinued??? :confused:

We always have to remember we're light years away from the average knife consumer, who thinks that any $10 cheapo folder is waaay more than enough to cut whatever they need. :D

And, well, it may be. People buy $250 shirts. Are they better than a $25 shirt? I mean better at being a shirt, like covering your body. "Worth it" is definitely in the eyes of the beholder, and many people (including us) get enjoyment out of objects far beyond what would be warranted strictly by the functional attributes of an item.

[demoncase]

Man, last month: we rejected 100% of 20 batches for basic tolerancing issues on dock- I mean "Should have had 6 holes in it but somehow they only managed to drill 5 yet still passed them as inspected" basic.
We get a response to the corrective action of "Operator severely reprimanded. However: Tolerances are too tight- open tolerances"....Funniest thing I've read in a while.

I've never seen a plus or minus number of holes tolerance, but hey, there's a first time for everything!

It's in my top 5 'whiskey tango foxtrot' moments on inspection mega-fails.

It's closely followed by the other classics "Making something out of aluminium because we ran out of titanium and we can't work out why it won't pass the tensile test" and "It can't be my machine that's out of tolerance when I cut the thread- it must all 1 million of those M4 screws used all over the world in 10,000 different applications" :D

Though my personal favourite so far is receiving a flight control actuator back for test with a warranty claim for 'Leakage on wing' to find it in 15 pieces in a plastic bin....when the line side guys are expressly not authorised by the FAA to do that for very good reason.

When calling the airline to tell 'em "Yeah- No, we can't just test it as you've disassembled it, broken the lock wire and now that means it's no longer air worthy" and they ask "Can you put it back together then and find the leak?....But only charge us for the test because it was definately leaking before we pulled it to pieces"

And folks wonder why I can still make a living as an auditor