production availability

[sethwm]

Before I ask this, I want to underscore that this is not a complaint. Honest question.

I’ve been into knives only for a couple years now, and I noticed that many production spyderco knives go very long periods of being sold out (k390 leaf blade dragonfly, s30v lil native, etc).

Was it always like this? Or is it a pandemic/supply chain thing? I can imagine the sheer variety of knives they offer lead to burst production of any particular type.

[Doc Dan]

Because Spyderco is not Buck. Spyderco is a small company and they are hugely popular. They run out of stock and have other things already in the queue ahead of them, so those items have to wait. Spyderco, still a small company whose demand is larger than their capacity, also takes time to make sure they turn out a great product, instead of just turning something out.

[Evil D]

^^^^^ That, plus as much as it's a broken record at this point I bet they're still struggling to get back out of the Covid hole and that cargo ship debacle. Staffing is also a major issue for a lot of companies, people don't seem to want to work so I wouldn't be surprised if they're shorthanded.

[benben]

I’ve wondered about this several times with Spyderco, them being in a completely different world of business than what I do for a living. I work in the collision center at a large Toyota dealership, we literally skated through the first two years of the meltdown…..the last six to eight months, it’s been terrible!

Ford, Mitsubishi, and especially Mazda have been the worst by far, I still have Mazda parts that have been ordered since last Christmas. If you have a Mazda CX-5 or CX-9 SUV…..don’t wreck it!

It’s a horrible time to be in the collision business, insurance companies have all but ruined the industry, plus the average age of body technicians nationwide is 58, no one is getting into this trade, and I really can’t blame them!

Plus now we have a shortage of everything, parts chain issues, heck we had the find a barrel of clear last week from a vendor we’ve never used before because of a shortage of Sikkens clear, the same clear my painter has used for the last 20 years! And here’s an odd one, a shortage of base white paint??

Customers are screaming, rental companies are screaming, well not really, they’re getting very wealthy, insurance companies screaming (but who cares) and every phone call is a pissed off person on the other end! My business hasn’t been too fun for the last half a year!

So yeah, I’m sure Spyderco are experiencing shortage issues just like the rest of the world!

[standy99]

Have had a few things in knife making supplies go weirdly scarce over time.

18 months ago Steel was scarce

Micarta and G10 earlier on in the year. (Always the colour liners a customer needs)

Sandpaper a few months ago was hard to get everything you needed. (Then local Lowes type store had nothing)

Epoxy this month. Had to find another source as two knifemaking supplies had zero.

Good thing is I have found a lot of new suppliers of other industries that have what I need and use….sometimes cheaper and more variety than where I usually buy from.

[wrdwrght]

Pssst! The secondary market is a solution for these times. Ask me how I know.

[Coastal]

Back to the OP question, though: Was it always like this? In the days when there weren't supply-chain issues, was it easy to purchase regular production Spydies, or were some of them always hard to get?

[sal]

It seems that we have had issues with delivery, mostly due to demand, since we began making knives in 1981. We have sorted it at times and the issues have re-emerged at times. While we are growing and producing a lot more knives than ever before, we are still currently behind. The new expansion should be finished next year and the hope is that we can maintain an even balance.

We are also always creating new designs which also add to the issues. We'll have anywhere from 20 to 50 projects in-the-works at any given time. I've gt 20+ of my own designs projects in-the-works, in addition to Eric's, Mike's and Collaboration designs.

sal

[Coastal]

We are also always creating new designs which also add to the issues. We'll have anywhere from 20 to 50 projects in-the-works at any given time. I've gt 20+ of my own designs projects in-the-works, in addition to Eric's, Mike's and Collaboration designs.

sal

Must be an awesome place to work!

[wrdwrght]

We are also always creating new designs which also add to the issues. We'll have anywhere from 20 to 50 projects in-the-works at any given time. I've gt 20+ of my own designs projects in-the-works, in addition to Eric's, Mike's and Collaboration designs.

Ahh. The sound of goodness.

[WilliamMunny]

We are also always creating new designs which also add to the issues. We'll have anywhere from 20 to 50 projects in-the-works at any given time. I've gt 20+ of my own designs projects in-the-works, in addition to Eric's, Mike's and Collaboration designs.

sal

Must be an awesome place to work!

If Spyderco ever needed workers, this would be the place to find some. A lot of people passionate about knives. Plus you get to live in Colorado.

Sounds like a great retirement job for me.

[sethwm]

It seems that we have had issues with delivery, mostly due to demand, since we began making knives in 1981. We have sorted it at times and the issues have re-emerged at times. While we are growing and producing a lot more knives than ever before, we are still currently behind. The new expansion should be finished next year and the hope is that we can maintain an even balance.

We are also always creating new designs which also add to the issues. We'll have anywhere from 20 to 50 projects in-the-works at any given time. I've gt 20+ of my own designs projects in-the-works, in addition to Eric's, Mike's and Collaboration designs.

sal

Well I bet demand has skyrocketed during the pandemic. I got into knives mainly out of boredom, but really found it to be an interesting hobby and, surprise surprise, it turns out I use my knives all the time.

[ladybug93]

I've gt 20+ of my own designs projects in-the-works, in addition to Eric's, Mike's and Collaboration designs.

sal

as impatiently as we are waiting for knives we've heard about coming out in the future, i imagine it's so much harder being there and knowing what's coming and having to keep a lid on it when it's your own creation that you're excited about.

[apollo]

And here i was thinking Sal and Eric got infected with dragon sickness. I could see it happening father and son probably taking turns lying in a pool full of spydies saying in a creepy voice to there wives we will not part with a single one (sorry i have bin watching the hobbit recently )

[AHarbuck]

To answer the original question, I started buying an earnest maybe 6 to 12 months before the pandemic and I remember only seeing the occasional out of stock notice on the SFO site. The current situation with numerous out of stock for lengths of time is much different than my initial experience. Not that I blame them. There are certainly lingering supply problems all around including in the medical field where I work

[akapennypincher]

Rule of Supply, and Demand in my world is. What ever I want is always a search, long wait, out of production.

Being resourceful is my key to getting things I resent.