I've also been wondering if this could be the reason that Spyderco decimated its high end at the end of last year. With the MAP hike, these already-pricy pieces would have gone from so-so value into hilarious.
My brain is the philosophical equivalent of a bitcoin node in that I retain a fraction of personal insight from processing others' philosophical dilemmas. In other words, I have no actual knowledge of the industry but I have earned two cents from thinking about it.
We know that Spyderco relies heavily on overseas manufacturing for their high-end models. We also know that there is growing incentive for American owned companies to repatriate production from overseas. In the short term, maintaining current levels of overseas production could result in increased import taxes and in the long term, repatriating production could result in greater manufacturing costs. So while increasing prices to ultimately benefit the American worker is a good thing, it's not a painless thing. Unfortunately, the quality of a product is not directly related to the salary of the individual worker, so a worker who earns 2 dollars an hour can produce a product of comparable quality to a worker who earns 20 dollars an hour. Patriotism, and national loyalty are not cheap.
In contrast, take notice of the advancements made by overseas manufactures as a result of decades of practice and refinement. Companies like WE Knives, and Kizer are cleverly poised to take advantage of the transition, offering compelling and affordable alternatives to expensive domestic products.
That said and in a completely separate discussion, I know
NickShabazz
is preparing a review of the WE 719 Eschaton. It would be great if Nick could directly compare the Eschaton's High form/Low function design against the Slysz Bowie's Low form/High function design. The Eschaton is anything but boring but has questionable utility while the Slysz Bowie is lacking in style while being eminently useful and both knives being close enough in price and quality to be directly comparable.
I make this suggestion in response to the polarized feedback I've seen about both knives, contrasting form/function and cost/value dichotomies.