Spyderco: Name Recognition

[JD Spydo]

Funny as I have been a Spyderco guy since the 90s but never heard of Gerber until Bear Grylls started flogging them.

So sometimes you get a brand you like and stop looking at others.. only other folder I own besides a Spyderco is a Chris Reeve Mnandi

As mentioned before about Scandinavia Leatherman is the multi tool most recognised in Australia

That's a really interesting observation "Standby99". Because I can remember times I've had "tunnelvision" myself and was totally unaware of my options.

Take my favorite fishing reels for instance. They are German made fishing reels with the brand name D.A.M. Quick. My late favorite uncle turned me on to those reels way back in the late 60s and I've never wanted anything else. I bought two more of them in the 70s and several more since then. And it's rare when I meet up or get to chat with anyone here in the USA that are aware of that brand. However there have been several serious write ups on the world wide web testifying to the impeccable quality of these German made fishing reels. I've got two favorite models ( 1202 & 3001) that I still fish with that are over 30 years old and they still work like new. I've had several of my fishing buddies check them out but only one guy in five years I've met that ever previously heard of them. And just like Spyderco you would think with that level of quality their brand name would be more well known by now.

I think it's a case of the brand being popular in Germany, Australia and other parts of the globe but for whatever reason they never really got much attention or market share here in the USA. My uncle was a total perfectionist and I picked up on some of his traits as I got older. I was actually closer to him than I was with my own dad. Because his uncompromising desire for "quality" left me with a taste for quality items that never left me. Probably why I gravitated to Spyderco in the first place.

Like a Ray-Ban wearer usually doesn’t know much about any other sunglasses company.

Yeah we've got a lot of "OAKLEY" snobs here in this area. I do like OAKLEY but they are getting completely ridiculous with their prices. You don't hear of Gargoyle too much anymore. But Ray-Ban are quite adequate for sufficient eye protection

But it's interesting that you bring up sunglasses. Because there's an example of how "marketing tactics" alone can drive the market for sunglasses completely>> irrespective of whether or not any of these companies have quality products or not.

[standy99]

Yeah we've got a lot of "OAKLEY" snobs here in this area. I do like OAKLEY but they are getting completely ridiculous with their prices. You don't hear of Gargoyle too much anymore. But Ray-Ban are quite adequate for sufficient eye protection

But it's interesting that you bring up sunglasses. Because there's an example of how "marketing tactics" alone can drive the market for sunglasses completely>> irrespective of whether or not any of these companies have quality products or not.

Sunglasses are a very loyal following to a single brand….

Being a fisherman and living tropical sunglasses are a all day everyday item and have been through all the brands. Oakley probably have the worst build quality of all nowadays but are sooo expensive compared to 10 years ago.
Went Maui Jim’s, Spotters, then Tonic and ended with Costa for many years. Though I have just switched to OTIS due to mineral glass lenses on all models.

(I clear international vessels for a living and had about 10 pairs of old glasses worth a pretty penny sitting around and I handed them all out to the Filipino crew on I vessel I regularly clear. Don’t think many would have had a $300+ pair of polarised glasses before

I do claim a few pairs on Tax each year for work so I do buy 2 pairs every January needed or not )

I do find myself pretty loyal to Spyderco for folders

[JD Spydo]

Yeah we've got a lot of "OAKLEY" snobs here in this area. I do like OAKLEY but they are getting completely ridiculous with their prices. You don't hear of Gargoyle too much anymore. But Ray-Ban are quite adequate for sufficient eye protection

But it's interesting that you bring up sunglasses. Because there's an example of how "marketing tactics" alone can drive the market for sunglasses completely>> irrespective of whether or not any of these companies have quality products or not.

Sunglasses are a very loyal following to a single brand….

Being a fisherman and living tropical sunglasses are a all day everyday item and have been through all the brands. Oakley probably have the worst build quality of all nowadays but are sooo expensive compared to 10 years ago.
Went Maui Jim’s, Spotters, then Tonic and ended with Costa for many years. Though I have just switched to OTIS due to mineral glass lenses on all models.

(I clear international vessels for a living and had about 10 pairs of old glasses worth a pretty penny sitting around and I handed them all out to the Filipino crew on I vessel I regularly clear. Don’t think many would have had a $300+ pair of polarised glasses before

I do claim a few pairs on Tax each year for work so I do buy 2 pairs every January needed or not )

I do find myself pretty loyal to Spyderco for folders

Glad to know that Oakley has gone downhill with their quality. Because I was close to pulling the trigger on a new pair. I also noticed that all of Gargoyle's shades are all made overseas in sweatshops. I'm mainly looking for some shades that will kill the glare from water on a sunny day and with snow on the ground on a sunny day as well.

Which goes to show you how much value there is in "Name Recognition". I'm sure Oakley will still sell truckloads of them because of the name they've had in the past. They always had really nice looking shades too. I still have one pair Oakley "Straight Jackets" that I bought 18 years ago.

Heck Spyderco's quality has really increased in the past 15 years and they were good even back in the late 90s when I first hooked up with their folders. But it still behooves me as to why so few people in the general population are not aware of Spyderco's great name?????

[James Y]

Most people don’t know about the Spyderco name in the same way I don’t know about brands of sunglasses. My sunglasses are prescription, and I need progressive lenses (to see both far and medium distances). So the regular specialty companies that make sunglasses are unknown to me.

Spyderco is a specialty company within the knife field. And Spyderco is really a small company compared to others. They won’t have the name brand familiarity to many people in the way that Swiss Army, Buck, Case, Leatherman, etc., have. Those companies are like the knife world’s equivalents of what Xerox, Kleenex, Lysol, Listerine, Oreo, Coca-Cola, etc., are to their products.

Jim

[skeeg11]

But it still behooves me as to why so few people in the general population are not aware of Spyderco's great name?????

Because they are Fugly in the eyes of those who value aesthetics over function. For them, Fugly doesn't even warrant a second glance.....much less reading the fine print.

[JD Spydo]

Most people don’t know about the Spyderco name in the same way I don’t know about brands of sunglasses. My sunglasses are prescription, and I need progressive lenses (to see both far and medium distances). So the regular specialty companies that make sunglasses are unknown to me.

Spyderco is a specialty company within the knife field. And Spyderco is really a small company compared to others. They won’t have the name brand familiarity to many people in the way that Swiss Army, Buck, Case, Leatherman, etc., have. Those companies are like the knife world’s equivalents of what Xerox, Kleenex, Lysol, Listerine, Oreo, Coca-Cola, etc., are to their products.

Jim

That's probably a fair analogy but considering the market that Spyderco competes in there are many relatively small companies that have become household names. I've gone to my local library this week and read through several of the periodicals (magazines, newspapers) and they have a huge selection. In almost all of the outdoor magazines that deal with hunting or fishing I find Spyderco's ads in most all of them.

About a year ago OFF GRID magazine did a big article on the Spyderco Salt ASSIST model. And it was well done. You would think with that massive of exposure that things would be improving at some point. I think it's fair to say that most of us were aware of other knife companies when we personally discovered Spyderco.

[JRinFL]

Not that it matters to main point of the conversation, but Rayban, Costa, and Oakley are all owned by the same parent company, along with many many other eyewear brands. There very little competition in that arena.

[Chuck James]

Growing up for me...it was Old Timer, Schrade, Uncle Henry and Buck.

I heard about Spyderco probably 15 years ago but only started trying them about a year ago.

Forgot to add Westen to the list. Imagine that, from Colorado as well.

This was my fixed blade knife used for skinning, butchering and I still have it.

[Evil D]

I just stopped by the knife case at my local Walmart last night and they don't sell any Spydercos at all now, not even the Chinese offerings. With the Tenacious family and Emphasis family and Polestar and even the Bugs and Clipitools you'd think they would have more presence at least with the budget line. I suspect it has more to do with Walmart's business practices, they probably want to name their own price for those knives and sell them for less than Spyderco are willing to go. I worked for that company for a couple years and I have heard some wild stories, one for example of them forcing Coke to drop prices to the point of almost breaking even on all of their Walmart sales because Walmart threatened to pull them out of stores if they didn't meet their prices and it would have been such a giant loss in sales for Coke (and cornering the market for Pepsi) so they had no choice. With Walmart having a whole case full of Buck/Kershaw/CRKT/Camillus knives there has to be some underlying reason that Spyderco isn't right there with them and it's probably a reason we'll never get to know.

[skeeg11]

I don't think Sal is gonna get all political here, so this is all hypothetical speculation on my part, but I suspect it has something to due with integrity on his part and not playing their game to the detriment of reputable small businessmen who are legitimate Spyderco Dealers.

[AH80s]

Spyderco simply does not advertise like a lot of companies do. I've pointed this out several times in the past. If you pick up an outdoor, hunting, or gun magazine you will find all sorts of knife advertisements, but nothing from Spyderco. Spyderco is almost a boutique knife. I know a lot of gun people, many who have nice knives from BM, Buck, etc., and they had never heard of Spyderco until I introduced the brand to them (one just last week!).

I am sorry "Doc Dan" but I vehemently disagree with you about Spyderco's overall exposure to the marketplace. When I first started making "Knives" into a serious hobby back around 1992 it was at that time I started reading 3 of the major Knife magazines. I used to have subscriptions to BLADE, Knives Illustrated and Tactical Knives and I had all 3 of those subscriptions until about 2015 when Tactical Knives went out of business. Spyderco's ads have been in virtually everyone of those publications that I can remember in at least since the early 90s that I know of for a fact.

I also used to see several Spyderco ads in some of the older survival magazines like "American Survival Guide" ( In the Peter Alan Kasler days). And I see Spyderco's ads in many of the newer survival/prepper magazines. There have been a wide range of different advertisements in all kinds of different magazines for Spyderco over the years and in a few specialty publications as well. Heck I remember seeing them in "Shotgun News" back in their heyday ( early to late 90s). But only my most avid hunting & fishing buddies who used knives a lot were the only ones in the early going ( the 1990s) that were aware of the name at that time>> and knew that Spyderco was a fledgling commercial knife company gaining momentum in the marketplace. But both of those hunting/fishing buddies told me that they had learned of Spyderco in Sporting good stores ( posters and advertisements) and other specialty stores that sold Spyderco items. Heck we've got a high end tobacco shop on the Plaza here in Kansas City that also sells Spyderco and William Henry knives ( For Full Flaming Retail I might add).

But for the exposure Spyderco has had over the years I feel that many more people should at the very least know who they are and what they do by this juncture in time. Doc I'm sorry but I have to kindly and respectfully disagree with you>> and I fully disagree that Spyderco has had meager exposure in the advertising arena over the years as well. Maybe it's different where you live I suspect. But I'm sure the company themselves will back me up on that one.

Me too. I used to buy Blade and other magazines religiously when I could get them.
These are some from the mid -late 80’s Blade mags.

[AH80s]

And by the late 90’s full page 3 colour.

[yablanowitz]

The Wal Mart Native was a special deal. They wanted a "Made in U.S.A." knife and they specified the number of pieces and the selling price. Sal made the deal, Spyderco made the knives and made very little profit on them, but it was good exposure. I don't know what ended the deal, but Wal Mart being who they are, I suspect they tried to get the knives for less than what they cost to make.

Nowdays, Wal Mart does a lot of their business online. They may not have them in the stores, but they do list them on their website. I didn't go through all seven pages of listings, but I think they have most of Spyderco's catalog on there.

[Doc Dan]

Growing up for me...it was Old Timer, Schrade, Uncle Henry and Buck.

I heard about Spyderco probably 15 years ago but only started trying them about a year ago.

Now you've not only started buying them, you've joined a forum about them. Hold on to your wallet! Spydercos are addicting.

[Cheddarnut]

Great thread, loving the old ads! Didnt know the native was un-swedged early in life…

[Evil D]

Great thread, loving the old ads! Didnt know the native was un-swedged early in life…

I've never even seen one

[James Y]

And by the late 90’s full page 3 colour.
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I remember seeing those ads in either Tactical Knives or Blade magazine (or possibly both). The top one came out around the time I got my first Spyderco.

Jim

[JD Spydo]

I had two local knife dealers in the 90s that had a poster of that "All God's Critters Have Knives". The exposure of the Spyderco name is not the problem. But for whatever reason Spyderco hasn't gained the fanbase they should have gained by now. Oh I'm not at all saying that the company is not doing well overall on their sales charts>> I know they are doing well>> but I'm just saying that I'm surprised that they aren't doing better that what they've done up till now.

However most people in this region tend to be what I affectionately like to call "Wal-mart Refugees". In other words many people prefer a cheap price over quality in many cases. And there is just no hope for people who settle for cheap trash and low quality. You wouldn't believe the looks I get when people ask me how much I paid for certain Spyderco knives that I show them often. The reactions are beyond belief.

When it comes to knives most people have no idea of what a quality piece of cutlery entails. We also have so many flea markets and thrift stores in this area as well. There are some quality minded people in this area but they don't make up a high percentage of the market unfortunately. And it's only people that are seeking out quality items that would be drawn to Spyderco in the first place IMO.

[S-3 ranch]

In the 1990’s spyderco was kinda a specialty knife and basically had very few distributors.
I walked in to a backpacking store and saw some police officers looking @ knives, and was instantly hooked with the spydie edge, so I bought a G2 delica clipit and used it in my hunting, fishing, ranch buisness, only cop’s , Emt’s , firemen , coast guard had them . Now the internet has spread the word about spyderco and finding a dealer is easier!! buck , case , benchmade ,spyderco stayed quality knives the others were sold and became “ garbage “ gerber, SCHRADE,Puma, ect, even SOG knives, people buying them are only buying because they recognize the name that grandpa or a family member used and don’t know any better!
IMO if you see a LEO , fireman, EMT ,coast guard carrying a junky knife on the job and you have a extra spyderco you should “ donate “ it to them ! IMO everyone should have a fully serrated Cara Cara rescue in a vehicle !

[Sharp Guy]

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