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

New logo:

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Arathol said:
Well, did they actually let people go, and how many? There isn't much to confirm this other than somebody on this forum who says that somebody at the CS office told him so. Until we hear differently from the actual parties involved thats about the extent of what is known.
Did the warranty change or not? Many here are claiming it did. Here is the link to a warranty page that is current and says otherwise-
https://www.coldsteel.com/warranty-info
Letting staff go is not unusual if there are redundancies after the acquisition. Who goes and who stays is a matter of what is needed to run the business. In this case if its just office staff, they can be easily replaced by employees in Texas. You don't need 3 people in California to answer the phone when one in Texas will do fine. However, if you have operational facilities like a warehouse in California, you can't very well run that without somebody on site.
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Again, seriously?

You realize the former employees have been posting elsewhere on the internet right?

Also, the warranty was changed and then changed back

This has all been covered repeatedly.
 
FWIW, I've personally been through a few small/medium company sales to larger companies.

I can tell you the single biggest sign of whether or not this is a good thing, or a bad thing for them and us is this; Did their dealers know it was happening. If the change is for the better like that BS video is trying to get everyone to believe, they would have been crowing about the new "investment" in Sold Steel that will allow them to "fill-in-the-blanks" with the new resources this sale makes available to the company. If they blind-sided their dealers too, it's gonna be nothing but low-end, alphabet soup-steel, shit from China, and Lynn and Demko will both be the F' outta there as soon as their employment contracts end.

Based on what I've seen so far, look for Lynn and Demko to eject next year or 2022 at this time.
 
SanLuisObispo said:
That's really an excellent question. In the case of truly iconic brands like Buck, Case, Victorinox, etc., a quick buck can be made (particularly if the company is in financial trouble and a good deal can be realized) by widening/cheapening the brand and then making them vastly more available at every Costco, Wal*Mart, Target, etc. Average people KNOW those brands and they equate those names with quality and thus it spurs sales -- even if the new models for Costco/Wal*Mart/Target really aren't of the same product quality their existing models are. Some will argue that has already happened to brands like Gerber, Kershaw and a host of others.

The catch I think in the schema many here are offering is that CS is no Buck, Case, Victorinox, etc. Not even close in terms of name recognition by non-knife people. So to suggest that CS knives can be cost-reduced and then sold by the supertankerload at every Wal*Mart and Target is highly questionable in my opinion.
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You don't properly reckon the following that Cold Steel has DUE to all those wild, weird products and marketing. To consider Buck, Case and Victorinox to have greater followings is inaccurate and under-informed. People may know of "Buck" because the ubiquitous (generic) "buck knife". Case are simply "jack knives" to most people and Victorinox are "swiss army knives" to most people. They couldn't tell a Wenger SAK from a Victorinox SAK. They couldn't tell a Buck from a generic "110". A Case may as well be a Rough Rider...or a GEC.

Buck, Case and Victorinox are archetypes, but not known with a brand identity like Cold Steel. The Cold Steel name would have tremendous value for a manufacturer trying to get credibility and recognition for a new line of knives.

There's really no equal to Cold Steel currently in the knife world. That's why this topic has drawn a boatload of discussion that continues to soar over your head.
 
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