Spyderco Forums

The Stretch has a big following. One reason why Delicas, for instance, might sell more (other than lower price) is there are so many color variations other than black.

If they offered the Stretch in like 5 more colors tomorrow, they'd sell a bunch.

The Stretch is my main hunting knife, and I don't like black handled knives in the woods (like bright colors) because of losing them. I'd kill for an orange FRN Stretch.

-R

Sales dictate these things... I think if it is popular it gets more options, not vice versa. That said orange makes sense as this is a knife that would appeal to hunters.

araneae wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 7:49 am

Sales dictate these things... I think if it is popular it gets more options, not vice versa. That said orange makes sense as this is a knife that would appeal to hunters.

but, just like i was saying in my different steels thread, it's difficult to say whether the delica is inherently more popular, or because it has a longer history and more options across a wider range of materials. i'm not sure how much zdp helped the stretch, but the straight spine, other colors, and other steels have certainly helped it gain increased popularity in recent years. i personally don't own one yet, but i would've bought a stretch salt and i'll definitely buy a stretch xl salt if spyderco ever makes them. it's hard to compare models like this because too many variables lead to sales.

An orange and a bright blue Stretch get my votes. For such a knife with its intended use, bright colors make good sense. I prefer earth tones, but in this case, bright is right.

araneae wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 7:49 am

Sales dictate these things... I think if it is popular it gets more options, not vice versa. That said orange makes sense as this is a knife that would appeal to hunters.

I think it is a chicken-egg thing.

At the moment, I think Spyderco is just spread too thin for that.

When something like FRN color is as easy as it is to change, I also wonder why they don’t offer more simple colors in regular production FRN models. Color is genuinely the easiest thing to change before production.

Obviously exclusives and sprints are an enormous part of their business model now, so they could just be saving as many colors as possible for potential limited edition variations. Just speculating though, of course I don’t know the actual reason why they don’t offer more Stretch 2 colors.

Mushroom wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:30 am

At the moment, I think Spyderco is just spread too thin for that.

When something like FRN color is as easy as it is to change, I also wonder why they don’t offer more simple colors in regular production FRN models. Color is genuinely the easiest thing to change before production.

Obviously exclusives and sprints are an enormous part of their business model now, so they could just be saving as many colors as possible for potential limited edition variations. Just speculating though, of course I don’t know the actual reason why they don’t offer more Stretch 2 colors.

all good points.

i'd love to see more muted and earth tones, and they are obviously popular when you look at the sprints and exclusives. i don't like that spyderco locks themselves out of color combinations by allowing them as exclusives, but it's likely that those combinations would never happen without exclusives in the first place. i imagine that's tough to balance, and you're certainly right about spyderco being spread too thin. hopefully the factory expansion will alleviate some of that.

wvguy8258 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 6:41 am

The Stretch has a big following. One reason why Delicas, for instance, might sell more (other than lower price) is there are so many color variations other than black.

If they offered the Stretch in like 5 more colors tomorrow, they'd sell a bunch.

The Stretch is my main hunting knife, and I don't like black handled knives in the woods (like bright colors) because of losing them. I'd kill for an orange FRN Stretch.

-R

Same goes for the Endela.
Its VG 10 version has not a single one of the color variations the big and the little siblings Endura and Delica offer (well, black, but that´s not a "variation").

A Stretch (and also a Rock / Leaf Jumper) in high viz color would be great indeed.
But perhaps this will come with possible linerless / Salt versions?
Though I´d like to see thisin the linered Stretch already too.

Has there ever been a Stretch exclusive? There have been several Endela exclusives, though not a lot. I count 4 (or 5 if you consider both a satin and coated blades with the same handle to be different or not).
This says to me that resellers probably find the Endela to be a bigger seller than the Stretch.
The Stretch has gotten a number of sprints and other interesting models in its history. There have been a number of pretty neat stretches.

I hope the Leafjumper is popular enough to keep the Rockjumper on life support or even help increase the sales of the Rockjumper. I rather like the Rockjumper.

wvguy8258 wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:19 am

araneae wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 7:49 am

Sales dictate these things... I think if it is popular it gets more options, not vice versa. That said orange makes sense as this is a knife that would appeal to hunters.

I think it is a chicken-egg thing.

Based on years of seeing Sal's posts, they tend to do colors on popular models. I agree, maybe more colors would drive sales, but that is not how Spyderco has tended to operate.

I’d love a ZDP straight spine stretch in the classic British Racing Green.

I’d also love a DLT exclusive with DLC Cruwear and OD Green.

The magnacut (linered) bright yellow one should be easy to see in the field and stream!

kennethsime wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:42 am

I’d love a ZDP straight spine stretch in the classic British Racing Green.

I’d also love a DLT exclusive with DLC Cruwear and OD Green.

If DLT came out with this variant I wouldn’t care what blade shape would be used . Sadly ZDP189 will only be available in laminated until stock is depleted. Dan

If DLT did a SSS in OD green and DLC cruwear, I’d be in heaven
The Stretch is such a great knife. Basically a backlock LW PM2

I’ll say it again here. If every model had their base color be white, we could all dye to our own preference. I think white is the best option for base models. Disagree? Then dye your knife that color you want.

Mushroom wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:30 am

When something like FRN color is as easy as it is to change, I also wonder why they don’t offer more simple colors in regular production FRN models. Color is genuinely the easiest thing to change before production.

It's probably easy to manufacture a different color, but it's a bit of a logistical nightmare to have a bunch of color variations of every FRN model. You have to balance out the supply of each color for each model of knife.
I'm surprised spyderco is able to manage as many SKUs as it is.

Manixguy@1994 wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 11:58 am

kennethsime wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:42 am

I’d love a ZDP straight spine stretch in the classic British Racing Green.

I’d also love a DLT exclusive with DLC Cruwear and OD Green.

If DLT came out with this variant I wouldn’t care what blade shape would be used . Sadly ZDP189 will only be available in laminated until stock is depleted. Dan

I know this is getting a bit off topic but I saw a post from sal in a previous thread saying that ZDP-189 would continue to be available in san man laminate. Has that changed?

vandelay wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:09 pm

Mushroom wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:30 am

When something like FRN color is as easy as it is to change, I also wonder why they don’t offer more simple colors in regular production FRN models. Color is genuinely the easiest thing to change before production.

It's probably easy to manufacture a different color, but it's a bit of a logistical nightmare to have a bunch of color variations of every FRN model. You have to balance out the supply of each color for each model of knife.
I'm surprised spyderco is able to manage as many SKUs as it is.

Bingo.

bobnikon wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 10:21 am

The magnacut (linered) bright yellow one should be easy to see in the field and stream!

Yes! Being a Seki model I don’t know if it’d be possible, but a yellow Salt Stretch 2 LW MagnaCut would be maybe the ultimate hunting knife.

sethwm wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 7:47 pm

I’ll say it again here. If every model had their base color be white, we could all dye to our own preference. I think white is the best option for base models. Disagree? Then dye your knife that color you want.

Couldn’t agree more. Black FRN is fine and all, but I do think it’s very plain. White would allow almost endless tweaking.

vandelay wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:09 pm

Mushroom wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:30 am

When something like FRN color is as easy as it is to change, I also wonder why they don’t offer more simple colors in regular production FRN models. Color is genuinely the easiest thing to change before production.

It's probably easy to manufacture a different color, but it's a bit of a logistical nightmare to have a bunch of color variations of every FRN model. You have to balance out the supply of each color for each model of knife.
I'm surprised spyderco is able to manage as many SKUs as it is.

Changing the color before production is the easiest possible thing to change about the knife. For example, it’s as easy as saying “make it blue not green.” Sourcing certain shades of FRN colors is a different story though.

The logistics of dealing with different color handle variations doesn’t seem too complicated to me either. I do agree that they manage a great number of SKUs and I’ve literally said that I think Spyderco is spread too thin at the moment. I would fully understand if they don’t want to add more colors to the Stretch 2 because they’d rather devote resources elsewhere but they already maintain a well established, efficient, cataloging system. A handful of new Stretch 2 color SKUs is well within their capabilities.

Balancing supply and demand for all their products is an ever present challenge they face, it’s not exclusive to specific colors of FRN models. They produce the base model FFG VG10 Delica and Endura in seven different colors. (Brown, black, blue, purple, green, grey, orange) The only physical change is FRN color, because of how easy it is to change. The SKU barely changes between each color variation and hardly, if at all, makes it any more difficult to manage them. (Delica 4 FFG = C11BN, C11BK, C11BL, etc.)

It could be a copy & paste procedure with the base model Stretch 2 - C90BK2, C90BN2, C90BL2, C90GR2, etc… It doesn’t have to be all seven colors either. They could use sales data from their base model Delica and Endura colors and use the most popular three colors for the Stretch 2. Current sales numbers wouldn’t justify doing that with every FRN model available but I was never suggesting that.

sethwm wrote: I’ll say it again here. If every model had their base color be white, we could all dye to our own preference. I think white is the best option for base models. Disagree? Then dye your knife that color you want.

What if I don’t want to dye my knife? RIT dye has longevity issues; the color fades and looks gross after a while. Also, I don’t want synthetic dye to be a required secondary purchase anytime I buy a knife that I don’t want to be white. Lastly, I’d much rather have the company that is making the knife, finish making it for me, not vice versa.