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

If you watch some of Lynn’s Utube videos lately you can see he is enjoying his ranch, his family, and his well earned lifestyle.

Sometimes people just want to retire and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Nothing wrong with that.

As many of us know, competitive options with highly competitive pricing and materials have flooded the market over the years. Margins and market shares shrink. Sal had mentioned how devastating IP theft has been for his business; Cold Steel had not been exempt from this either.

Lynn probably saw an opportunity and decided to hang his hat. As mentioned earlier, that’s what a lot of businesses do. Heck, he got lucky as was able to sell his brand. Not every business owner can say that.
 
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While I havent been a huge fan of their knife line up for some years short of an XL Voyager I bought a month or two ago on a whim, I have long held their specialty items in high regard. I probably own close to 12 of their tomahawks and axes.

My first "good" knife was a Carbon V Trailmaster i bought back in 2002. It was a gateway into what this hobby has to offer when you step up to the next tier. I will say that I eventually outgrew most of their products short of the axes and hawks that are durable bangs for your buck.

I don't see this ending well for the brand as we know it. Without Mr. Thompson at the wheel, I don't see how they keep pushing the high strength/high value/moderate price point angle. The profitable low hanging fruit for a larger company is going to be inexpensive and mass produced. I work in a business where manufacturers a purchased by big groups from time to time. It seems that those that have been bought and sold a time or two usually handle about the same. When one group buys it from another, they are just trying to figure out how to make it .05% more efficient/profitable above market projections and sell it in 5 years or something. Old workers get screwed, product gets sourced elsewhere, a bit more Styrofoam get added to the sausage to keep the price low and profits up. It works a bit.

However, I have seen a couple of first time bought companies struggle. One of the manufacturers I purchase a lot from is run by the son of the founder and has been for decades. The "Old man" retired a few years back and is a spry 86. His son is about 60 and the group offering to buy them overpaid them by what the owners figured was double (They figured $500,000,000-$600,000,000. The group thought $1.1B) Who wouldn't take that deal? Now the buying group has a company that they are basically upside down with and don't know how to run. My sales rep who has been at the game for 20 years says it's like a 9 year old getting behind the wheel of an F-1 racecar.
However, I see where Mr. Thompson is coming from. I run my family's business and I can tell you that I would fold like a house of cards and get out of here tomorrow for a fraction of a fraction of what some would as long as my dad, uncle, brother, and myself were all comfortable. No one runs a business because they owe it to someone else. You start it or buy it, build it, grow it, and then either sell it or pass it on. My family has been doing my line of work nearly SEVENTY years. 3 generations and my little brother is 20 years younger than me, so basically 4 generations. As I highly doubt my daughter wants a turn at this, it'll be up to my brother as to what happens and if we close up. I adore what we do, but I don't owe my LIFE to making sure I keep it going for my customers. At the end of the day, I want as many days in warm places enjoying the time I have left because I worked hard and not compelled to feel I have a debt to do it until I die. I don't fault Mr. Thompson for that if he chose the money path.
 
I am no Cold Steel fanboy but they certainly made many quality products. Sad to see that go away in the current world climate.

That being said if the rumors of them cleaning house right before the holidays are true, well... thats a travesty that sits squarely on Lynn Thompsons shoulders and will, at least in my eyes, forever stain his reputation.
 
As sad and unfortunate as something like that is, I don't think we have enough accurate information about the situation to set ourselves up in judgement of him. If he knowingly set the wheels in motion for that to occur, that's one thing - but we are nowhere near knowing that, and speculation on a subject this is unfair, at best. If he did it, shame on him!! But we have no evidence and no good reason to believe that at this point, do we?

That being said if the rumors of them cleaning house right before the holidays are true, well... thats a travesty that sits squarely on Lynn Thompsons shoulders and will, at least in my eyes, forever stain his reputation.
 
If you watch some of Lynn’s Utube videos lately you can see he is enjoying his ranch, his family, and his well earned lifestyle.

Good on him. Whatever one thinks of him or hi product, at the very least the man deserves credit for being able to sell the hell out of a knife.

Here's to 'ya! wont be same around here without 'ya!

mojxfhm.gif
 
Good on him. Whatever one thinks of him or hi product, at the very least the man deserves credit for being able to sell the hell out of a knife.

Here's to 'ya! wont be same around here without 'ya!

mojxfhm.gif

I challenge someone to come up with the clip where he's using a whip or something to fend off wiffle balls being lobbed at him.

Scagel love him, he kept us entertained. Gotta give him that.
 
I think we over estimate our importance at nearly all levels of knife buying.

Yeah. We have all heard it so many times

"Why doesn't <huge, inexpensive knife manufacturer ala Vic, Gerber, etc> make a knife using<expensive sexy new supersteel>? The folks on BF would love it. They'd spend $200."

Yeah. 10 people from BF would buy it. $2000. Vic probably makes that every day selling Super Tinkers at big box stores.

We just dont account for a ton of business percentage-wise for the "big boys."
 
Well, this sucks! I am curious to see if the 3v trailmaster and recon scout still become available, and if Demko i still going to design for them.
 
My first nice knife was a Cold Steel. Cold Steel is currently my daughters favorite brand. She thought I was joking when I told her. Sad day.
 
Been wanting a 4max scout just went ahead and bought one fuck it. It’s cool won’t carry it but for the $83 i found it at I’ll take it. Sold my hollow ground ad10 last year :(
 
Yeah. We have all heard it so many times

"Why doesn't <huge, inexpensive knife manufacturer ala Vic, Gerber, etc> make a knife using<expensive sexy new supersteel>? The folks on BF would love it. They'd spend $200."

Yeah. 10 people from BF would buy it. $2000. Vic probably makes that every day selling Super Tinkers at big box stores.

We just dont account for a ton of business percentage-wise for the "big boys."

Not sure if it was this thread or the one in the CS sub-forum but people were saying it was too bad Sal didn't buy him out. I really think people have a massively skewed view of these businesses. Spyderco and Cold Steel both ran around $10M in annual revenue. Kershaw alone runs about $30M with the parent company of KAI at $100M. Buck is somewhere around $60M. Victorinox pushes $500M in annual revenue.

Spyderco and Cold Steel have less than 100 employees. As successful as they are, they are not major players in terms of capital weight in the cutlery world. They target a specific market, although they try to diversify it, they are still targeting certain segments.

The members here and this forum wouldn't make a ripple in pocket/sporting knife revenue generation when taken as a whole.

Those big numbers come from budget stuff in clam shell packages in budget slinging stores. Where do folks think GSM/Gridiron is gonna go?
 
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