The Knife Joker is closing

[vivi]

b&m's may be a dying breed, but I'd rather take actions to slow that death myself than speed it up.

that said, your suggestion may make business sense for spyderco. that's beyond my pay grade though.

[Naperville]

GO FOR IT

[Jimandchris2]

Spyderco enforces Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies to maintain brand value and protect smaller retailers. Amazon’s pricing model often undercuts MAP, which frustrates dealers who follow Spyderco’s guidelines. If Spyderco leaned heavily into Amazon, they’d risk alienating their loyal network of authorized dealers

Just to be clear, my suggestion is that Spyderco forget the small retailers and sell direct on Amazon. This means they pay Amazon a cut and ship directly to customers. This is a different business model than they have today where (my understanding) some 3rd party retails Spyderco knives on Amazon under Spyderco's name.

provide expert customer service that Amazon’s automated systems can’t match.

Amazon's customer service system absolutely blows away anything else in the market. But yes in this hypothetical future, Spyderco would need to increase their CS staff.

The knife market is plagued by fakes, especially for premium brands like Spyderco. Authorized dealers, both online and physical, are vetted to ensure authenticity. Amazon’s open marketplace makes it harder to police counterfeits, and Spyderco’s reputation could take a hit if customers receive knockoffs.

I think you missed my point. I'm saying Spyderco themselves should sell on Amazon. When you buy from Spyderco on Amazon you by definition receive authentic products.

Obviously I don't have much knowledge of the realities of moving product. But I do know if business don't adapt fast enough they get left behind. It's pretty clear that in the end there will be zero brick and mortar stores. ****, I haven't even seen one in 20 years but I'm on the west coast where everyone adopted online retail pretty quickly.

Thank you for the detailed reply. I did miss your point, but your knowledge helped me understand the adapt model. Thank you for the privilege of your time.

[Bill1170]

Spyderco enforces Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies to maintain brand value and protect smaller retailers. Amazon’s pricing model often undercuts MAP, which frustrates dealers who follow Spyderco’s guidelines. If Spyderco leaned heavily into Amazon, they’d risk alienating their loyal network of authorized dealers

Just to be clear, my suggestion is that Spyderco forget the small retailers and sell direct on Amazon. This means they pay Amazon a cut and ship directly to customers. This is a different business model than they have today where (my understanding) some 3rd party retails Spyderco knives on Amazon under Spyderco's name.

provide expert customer service that Amazon’s automated systems can’t match.

Amazon's customer service system absolutely blows away anything else in the market. But yes in this hypothetical future, Spyderco would need to increase their CS staff.

The knife market is plagued by fakes, especially for premium brands like Spyderco. Authorized dealers, both online and physical, are vetted to ensure authenticity. Amazon’s open marketplace makes it harder to police counterfeits, and Spyderco’s reputation could take a hit if customers receive knockoffs.

I think you missed my point. I'm saying Spyderco themselves should sell on Amazon. When you buy from Spyderco on Amazon you by definition receive authentic products.

Obviously I don't have much knowledge of the realities of moving product. But I do know if business don't adapt fast enough they get left behind. It's pretty clear that in the end there will be zero brick and mortar stores. ****, I haven't even seen one in 20 years but I'm on the west coast where everyone adopted online retail pretty quickly.

“Forgetting the small retailers” is not in tune with the loyalty principle Spyderco adheres to.

[Naperville]

Why just Amazon? How about Walmart, Target, Costco, Ace Hardware, Do It Best, Harbor Freight, Bass Pro Shops, REI, and Cabela's....

Spyderco may want to change their packaging to prevent theft and make it easier for robots to handle the knives. Think sealed clam packaging. Robotics and automation are happening at major retailers now. Humans may not be handling packages within 3 years. Spyderco might put a hexadecimal sticker unique to every knife on each package for people to validate their knife.

[vivi]

they used to sell s30v native 1's at walmart for $40. if you search you can read some info from sal about why they stopped.

[jwbnyc]

They also used to sell knives in clamshell packaging. My Delica 3 was off a wall in an EMS.

[vivi]

They also used to sell knives in clamshell packaging. My Delica 3 was off a wall in an EMS.

yep. I saw the tenacious and resilience in clamshells at walmart, and IIRC I saw FRN molded clip dragonfly's and I think Delica 4's in clamshell packs at a sporting goods store in the 2000's.

[steelcity16]

I bought my very first Spyderco on Amazon. I was at the beach and wanted a knife to carry in my boardshorts. I ordered a Dragonfly Salt to the beach house we were renting and it was there the next day! Started my whole addiction!

That said, Amazon makes it so easy to return items you would have a million people just returning knives that need a simple tiny turn of the pivot screw to dial in the action. Or returning a knife for a tiny scratch. Or one where the box isnt perfect. Or one were the centering is 49.5/50.5 instead of 50/50. It would be a nightmare. Not to mention people buying authentic ones and returning fakes banking on the fact that the minimum wage worker processing the return wont notice or wont care.

[Rezimus]

Shame. One of my favorite exclusives and definitely my most-carried Manix:

Is the jimping as aggressive on the lightweight version as the regular g10 or micarta ones?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Seriously guys. Brick and mortar is done. Online retailers will consolidate into a few large sites. Online retailers mostly differentiate on price and selection. Might as well cut to the chase and either sell direct on Spyderco.com or on Amazon (or both).

One of my childhood dreams after getting into knives was the desire to see giant Knives R Us. Like Toys R Us but giant WalMart Super Center spaces full of knives and swords.

The further future is downloading a knife 3d file to your home Replicator and making it direct through Atomic Deposition.

[Skywalker]

Shame. One of my favorite exclusives and definitely my most-carried Manix:

Is the jimping as aggressive on the lightweight version as the regular g10 or micarta ones?

It's less aggressive, since it's molded into the plastic vs part of the metal liners.

[Naperville]

I like metal liners. Transparent handles could reveal a design in the liner.

[bandaidman]

Seriously guys. Brick and mortar is done. Online retailers will consolidate into a few large sites. Online retailers mostly differentiate on price and selection. Might as well cut to the chase and either sell direct on Spyderco.com or on Amazon (or both).

One of my childhood dreams after getting into knives was the desire to see giant Knives R Us. Like Toys R Us but giant WalMart Super Center spaces full of knives and swords.

The further future is downloading a knife 3d file to your home Replicator and making it direct through Atomic Deposition.

That place kind of already exists

Have you gone to Smokey Mountain knife works? biggest knife store I have ever been to

[vivi]

SMKW is crazy big. I may swing by for my second time in august and if I do I'll try to take photos. From what I remember it was three stories of just knives. Awesome store. Plan to check out a bunch of condors and other machete brands, and hoping the manix xl salt is in stock by then.

[vanka]

Why would Spyderco want to deal with Amazon? And all the problems that come with it? Have it in mind Amazon's T&C are very steep and usually favouring the end customer. Even if it's not right. Automatic refunds, steep discounts forced upon the seller etc. Not to mention their cut. Worst case scenario if Spyderco decides the main sale point is their website, they only need to expand their online sales team a bit and drop a discount like the other retailers 25% off MSRP. But this is going to end whatever is left from the online retailers relationships.

[Mrj]

Homage to KnifeJoker

I’m really sad just thinking about all the exclusives we aren’t gonna get. Thank you Travis for these amazing knives.

[Skidoosh]

The dark green PM3 LW cruwear DLC is one of my favorite

[Red Leader]

The further future is downloading a knife 3d file to your home Replicator and making it direct through Atomic Deposition.

I was just thinking about this the other day. I don't know where we'll get the spools of Rex-484 knife steel from, but who knows what the future might hold!

[Red Leader]

I bought my very first Spyderco on Amazon. I was at the beach and wanted a knife to carry in my boardshorts. I ordered a Dragonfly Salt to the beach house we were renting and it was there the next day! Started my whole addiction!

That said, Amazon makes it so easy to return items you would have a million people just returning knives that need a simple tiny turn of the pivot screw to dial in the action. Or returning a knife for a tiny scratch. Or one where the box isnt perfect. Or one were the centering is 49.5/50.5 instead of 50/50. It would be a nightmare. Not to mention people buying authentic ones and returning fakes banking on the fact that the minimum wage worker processing the return wont notice or wont care.

I know I won't change any minds, but I think this is what it would become. The counterfeit issue in particular would likely be a massive headache, where folks would buy endless fakes, then get their official Spyderco, stick the fake in the box, and return it for some made up claim. Since Amazon, Ebay, and everyone else leans heavily on the buyer's side, (since every transaction, even if for a counterfeit, earns them $$ and incentivizes those transactions as well), there is no way to know what type of support Spyderco could get from Amazon when they are flooded w/ returned fakes. Probably zero.

Due to the way Amazon incentivizes counterfeit products and intellectual property theft which often destroy the small folks, I do everything I can to avoid supporting them. I also well aware that I am in the extreme minority. Most people just don't care, they want their stuff and they want it cheap and now! We've also experienced very shady business practices where Amazon will automatically add stuff to your cart without notifying you or change the shipping preferences to something that charges a fee, after selecting something different. The algorithms are design to maximize profit at any cost and I don't think that is a good match for the moral practices of Spyderco.