Beautiful packaging

[Gears_QQQ]

I was chatting with friends about how knives are packaged. Unfortunately, spy's packaging is just a cardboard box. I'm probably a "magpie," but I want a beautiful box. I have a buck, and it has a whole case. Cold steel also has a friend in a case. Chinese manufacturers put it in a purse. I really wish spyderco would at least put foam in the box

[Gears_QQQ]

For example

[Bearcat1]

I would rather have better blade steel than better packaging. Where was the microtech made?

[Deadboxhero]

I was chatting with friends about how knives are packaged. Unfortunately, spy's packaging is just a cardboard box. I'm probably a "magpie," but I want a beautiful box. I have a buck, and it has a whole case. Cold steel also has a friend in a case. Chinese manufacturers put it in a purse. I really wish spyderco would at least put foam in the box

The running joke in the custom knifemaker world is that the customers are more obsessed with the padded case than they are with the actual knife.

You bring up some good critiques, however, I think it's losing sight about what the most important part of the knife is.

Spyderco is all about high performance


I would rather have more performance than more focus on packaging.

IMHO.

[Danke]

I totally buy my knives for the packing and then I dive into the room like I was Scrooge McDuck hitting his vault.

Some of the more expensive knives come with the soft taco instead of a cardboard box. Flash Batches and others.

[phaust]

I like simple. It compresses in the trash best

[RustyIron]

spy's packaging is just a cardboard box. I'm probably a "magpie," but I want a beautiful box.

I'm not sure that I have a position on this issue. How much will a nice box add to the cost of my knife? Spyderco's boxes are ok, but not so nice that I don't throw them in the trash as soon as I start using the knife.

It's pretty coincidental that you shared that picture of the Microtech box. THOSE boxes worthy of reuse. Just a couple hours ago I needed a small box to hold some Alemite fittings. I opened the closet and found a Microtech box. I filled it with fittings, and will bring it up to the historical machine shop this weekend. It's safe to assume that fifty or one hundred years from now, someone will be looking for an Alemite fitting, and open the box with the Chickenfoot logo.

[yablanowitz]

We're about a month from the annual whine fest about the annual price hike. Nice to see someone who thinks Spyderco knives aren't expensive enough.

[Synov]

Yup, just a cardboard box

[WilliamMunny]

I am mixed on this myself. A “nicer” box/container would be nice but if it added more than $5 to the cost it’s not worth it. The knife itself is the most important thing.

Now if they added more stickers inside the box charge what you want.

[ladybug93]

i'm not paying a single penny more for a fancier box that will just be kept in a drawer. these knives are already getting more and more cost-prohibitive without adding cost that doesn't add value.

[JARHEAD]

The box is just in the way!

[James Y]

Once my knives are taken out of their boxes, they never go back inside, unless I was going to return one. And that only happened one time, when Knife Works accidentally sent me two separate shipments of two different knives I ordered together. Otherwise, once they're out of the box, I never look at or play around with the box anymore.

Not that wanting nice packaging is a bad thing. Everybody wants what they want.

Jim

[Zbec27]

I'd be happy if they came wrapped in a shop towel. Especially if it knocked off a few bucks.

[riclaw]

I don't want to spend more money on packaging. That's one more cost that doesn't make the tool any more useful.

[jdw]

Wrapping the box in a Spyderco logo microfiber cloth would be beautiful.

[RustyIron]

A “nicer” box/container would be nice but if it added more than $5 to the cost it’s not worth it.

I asked three AI's what it costs to make an iPhone box, and this is what they said:
ChatGPT: $0.65 to $2.00 plus $4000 in tooling.
Grok: $1.00 to $2.00
Gemini: Nobody knows. It's a secret

Now if they added more stickers inside the box charge what you want.

Right? Free stickers are cool. It's funny how many companies want to sell me stickers. Bwahahahaha! Never in a hundred years...

[tzirconia]

I don't want to spend more money on packaging. That's one more cost that doesn't make the tool any more useful.

This^

[ZenL]

I agree that other brands have some nice packaging, but one thing I really appreciate about Spyderco's boxes as someone who has shipped many hundreds of them, is the size is very convenient for shipping. It's compact and lightweight, about half the size of many of those "fancier" boxes with foam. I've found that 8x4x2 sized boxes are the optimal for shipping folding blades and with these Spyderco boxes, I can fit two in there or one with plenty of padding.

Also, technically there is a bed of foam inside every Spyderco box, even when the knife is so thick that it causes the top to bulge a bit. This is especially common for the teeny models with the letters inside, like the Dragonfly PD#1 sprint run for example. I wouldn't mind if they made the small boxes the same height as the full size boxes.

It would be nice if these boxes were more rigid/thicker to be more durable, but it may not be worth the extra expense for them all to be Microtech sized. If the boxes were redesigned to be significantly bigger/heavier, there would be additional marginal logistics costs along the supply chain, plus increased use of storage space for distributors, dealers, and hardcore collectors.

That said, I wouldn't mind a new box design for midrange models (the fancy ones get the pouch instead of box) that would be about the same size with more rigidity if the costs were reasonable. I think a brand new $200 knife buyer would feel like a more premium box would be worth 50c, but maybe not a $60 tenacious buyer. Spyderco is now a solidly premium brand. For newcomers, the presentation of the box can leave a really positive impression, especially for a knife that they feel is very expensive. I know Spyderco is ultimately about high performance, but I feel like a significant portion of the customer base buys them as toys/collectibles rather than tools and unboxing presentation may matter more to those folks.

If a new box concept is infeasible at this time, I think it would at least be really neat to have special sprint run box sleeves. If not for every individual run, at least for sprint runs in general. Alternate sleeves are not unheard of - the Ray Mears WolfSpyder had a unique forest sleeved box and the 2021 USA SFO exclusive USA/CO Flag PM2 sprint run also had a really special all-black variant of the standard design. I'm curious if those prior experiments with different sleeves created problems that preclude any other sleeve variants from being made.

[mikey177]

The current red and black cardboard box works for me. I actually wish Spyderco would get rid of the foam padding as it's just one more thing that gets sent to the landfill.

I would rather have Spyderco improve their quality control some more before they consider upgrading their packaging. Imagine getting a $200+ knife in an upscale foam-lined box, only to find that it had uneven bevels or a gritty action

I do however hope they include new sticker variations in the box.