Ever heard of GSM Outdoors? They just bought Cold steel.

I don't know what's going to happen, but the ad10 and 4 max scout are two of my favorite knives. I just ordered another 4 max. If something happens I want to make sure I have another if my user breaks or goes missing.

Hoping for the best.
 
Quiet said:
Well, this is unfortunate. Thankfully, I have all the CS knives I could ever need, and who knows, maybe they'll be worth some money one day after production on Sold Steel is moved to China.
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They already make some stuff in China, but they'd need significantly better pricing in China to justify the cost of moving production of essentially their entire lineup from Taiwan.
 
I own, and have owned, a number of Cold Steel products and have enjoyed them all. Notwithstanding all the love/hate for the man and/or his company, Cold Steel was Lynn Thompson. From everything I see regarding this sale and the various ownership turnovers of GMOutdoors itself, it appears Cold Steel will no longer be Thompson's baby. That definitely can not be a good thing. His presence will be missed.
 
Cold Steel without LT at the helm is a strange idea. I can't help but wonder what changed.. Lynn has to be approaching retirement age, but that can't be the whole story. Current events mixed with a changing knife market might be more to blame, but that's all speculation.

I admit, up until this point, Cold Steel has made a really strong product at a good price. I'm not too keen on the boisterous, over the top marketing and the overzealous lawsuit-happy nature. Lynn has burned a lot of bridges over the years, but I guess one could argue that it's just business. Still I think it's better to make friends than enemies.

It's hard to be optimistic when almost every time this happens the new owners get greedy and cut costs to maximize profits, they sink because they've made their product terrible, and that's the end of the company.
 
MarkN86 said:
Cold Steel without LT at the helm is a strange idea. I can't help but wonder what changed.. Lynn has to be approaching retirement age, but that can't be the whole story. Current events mixed with a changing knife market might be more to blame, but that's all speculation.

I admit, up until this point, Cold Steel has made a really strong product at a good price. I'm not too keen on the boisterous, over the top marketing and the overzealous lawsuit-happy nature. Lynn has burned a lot of bridges over the years, but I guess one could argue that it's just business. Still I think it's better to make friends than enemies.

It's hard to be optimistic when almost every time this happens the new owners get greedy and cut costs to maximize profits, they sink because they've made their product terrible, and that's the end of the company.
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What changed was someone slid a paper across his desk with the appropriate number of zero's on it.

As I said in another thread, after researching GSM, Gridiron, and all their brands, I will be very surprised if Cold Steel doesn't become heavily involved in the budget knife world.
 
powernoodle said:
Cold Steel has always been an importer who outsources production in the Far East. If it didn't bug you yesterday, it shouldn't bug you tomorrow.
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I won't speak for him, but I didn't take his post that way. I took it to imply that they'll become much deeper involved in the cheap, budget, knife market and move further and further away from their quality offerings. If that is what he meant, at this point, I think that is a fair concern.
 
These venture capital companies exist only to make money -- as much as possible. They don't buy a knife company because they want to advance the industry.

They are not like innovative knife people such as Les De Asis founding Benchmade or Sal Glesser founding Spyderco.

In the flashlight industry, some of the Chinese companies entered the market and churned out truly innovative and high-performance products, although most didn't. There are a few excellent Chinese knife companies, but most produce low-quality, low-price knives.

It's difficult to guess what will happen to Cold Steel because we don't know the terms of the sale and how much freedom the knife-people at Cold Steel will retain. Nonetheless, I'd guess this sale won't improve the Cold Steel product line. The hedge fund guys have done terrible damage to the newspaper industry, while making big profits.
 
Twindog said:
These venture capital companies exist only to make money -- as much as possible. They don't buy a knife company because they want to advance the industry.

They are not like innovative knife people such as Les De Asis founding Benchmade or Sal Glesser founding Spyderco.

In the flashlight industry, some of the Chinese companies entered the market and churned out truly innovative and high-performance products, although most didn't. There are a few excellent Chinese knife companies, but most produce low-quality, low-price knives.

It's difficult to guess what will happen to Cold Steel because we don't know the terms of the sale and how much freedom the knife-people at Cold Steel will retain. Nonetheless, I'd guess this sale won't improve the Cold Steel product line. The hedge fund guys have done terrible damage to the newspaper industry, while making big profits.
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My guess is, if there was any stipulation about creative control it is limited in time. I also guess the entire operation will become extremely cost-sensitive. That is all too often the pattern of these buy-outs.

As you rightfully state, they are not in it to advance the industry, only their bank accounts. They often milk the brand for all their worth while churning out increasingly sub-standard products and then bail when things start taking a turn.

Along with Gerber, ask Marlin/Remington/Bushmaster how the FGI/Cerberus buy out went...

I can see them trying to retain the same designs they have today, well the high sellers, but shift production to China. That in itself doesn't automatically equal bad so long as they stick with quality makers and allow for sufficient per-piece manufacturing costs. I suspect new models will become increasingly targeted at low-level offerings with strong attempts to penetrate retail shelf space. I can also see a big push in the tactical weapons segment, but again, with a huge shift to Chinese-made budget quality.

What is Cold Steel's USA manufacturing foot print? I only ask as it might be a point of interest to watch for it staying open as I would guess it has the highest operating costs.
 
Well Cold Steel has always been a polarizing company. That's their thing. I would definitely rate them as one of the ground breaking companies in that production knife boom of years ago.

I can't speak from any experience but I'd have to guess that the owner couldn't see his kids taking on his role. That is a pretty typical turnover in any business like this . A couple companies like Chris Reeve and Spyderco are lucky in that those original driving forces have kids who're carrying on their vision. There are no guarantees that will happen.
 
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