From what i have seen In documentaries Sal seems to be very sensible with how he allocates manufacturing resources and manages his shop.
Since you may be reading Sal, ill address you directly. I loved the photos from "back in the day" and the stories about the time when it was yourself and the Mrs and your machine shop was in the car, driving around the country, manufacturing anywhere yall could.
on the other hand With Chris i got a real mad scientist vibe, lol ok so he basically admits that hes constantly buying new expensive machines and researching new ways to make his knives HIS way with the sort of machinery that (for a relativly small industrial outfit) was large and very custom. CR goes onto to say he wishes he has more money to put into research and his manufacturing methods.
I realize the following was the definition of myopic, but the contrast is pretty neat.
it seems many folks do not understand that if you have to pay people to engineer machinery in order to work with the materials you want in the way you want (tolerances, etc) then a huge chunk of that MSRP is going to recoup that investment, and of your constantly doing that , well you cant afford for prices to go down due to your retailers duking it out against each other at the cost of your brand integrity.
now like i said this has been a very myopic picture of these two companies, but it APPEARS to me personally that Spyderco is run such that At the end of the day Sal knows how to use economies of scale in order to get the knives spydie fans want into their pockets.
. any manufacturer of widgets i worked at only set priced based on some combination of materials, cost of manufacture, logistics and even recouping R&D. most here get this i know.
so Spyderco can design a 400$ knife and based on how and where its made they can provide those discounts to retailers he mentioned above (when i worked making transformers we gave a unit multiplier so the more they order up of that design the better the price is for the retailer and ultimately the end user) i cant say if thats how spyderco does bitness, but that could explain the price difference between the new native and the one walmart carried in yesteryear.
i really like how they have taken advantages of economies of scale when choosing how each model will be crafted, the end user seems to be taken into consideration greatly as well as manufacturing outfit and retailer.
- American made knives from the best shop in the solar system made in Golden Colorado
- Tight specced knives with varying designs at the high tech taiwan facility (my knives from here have great fit and finnish especially love the blade finnish on the southard, and the flip action on the domino.
- timless designs lie endura and delica made in seki city where fine steel has been made for centuries.
- affordable and veey well balanced between materials weight and price in the value line like the tenacious and resiliance.
- they even have the byrd line which i have not tried but its neat they offer spydie designs in a package for the everyman
compare that to CRKs operation which im not sure if CRK is what yall call "semi-custom" production knives but it looked that way on the shop tour i saw(reminded me of les baer in the gun world). a eclectic blend of american ingenuity and good ole boys and gals hand fitting the product together.
anyway like i keep saying this is just a rant about two makers i admire and is just my limited view of things.So any criticisms (except grammar im terriblè) comments, disagreements, or corrections to this rant are welcome and read with interest as im still trying to learn about this great thing thats going on in the world with one mankinds forst tools.
so it does make sense to me why spyderco can go to the drawing boa... i mean CAD workstation and design a 400$ knife but then They are able to sell enough so that you can buy it for 180-225$ while another company may need to stick to their msrp stringently in order to travel down the oath they have chosen.
