Great question, hopefully it turns into a great discussion.
Enthusiasts have been clamoring for ZT to "return to its roots" and build "hard-use/tactical" knives. While that is great to appease a few guys who have the opportunity to carry and use knives of that type, the majority of the market has moved past that genre of knives. Not just ZT, but the market as a whole has moved away from those types of knives. Why?
IMO:
1. Expensive hobbies are short term for a lot of people
- Constantly buying knives gets to be quite expensive, we all know this, and equally important, our spouses know this. After a time, and a lot of money spent, people move to new hobbies, or throttle back on current hobbies. The demographic of "heavy use tactical" may have already faded in terms of market percentage.
2. Lost term hobbyist get bored and need new.
- This is actually the more important point. Hobbyist constantly need new and different in order to keep them coming back to the table. Everyone I know has done the overbuilt/slighty impractical knives, they want different. The market is moving back towards traditional style knives to keep that "new" flowing. There is no better comparison than fashion. Constantly in flux, otherwise no one would give a shit. When are bell-bottoms coming back in style?
Kudos to ZT for trying to answer the loud voice of a few, but from a sales standpoint, it didn't work out and they moved on. Hopefully those that really wanted the 0909 had the opportunity to buy one, hopefully they will cherish it forever..... but in reality they will sell it at some point for something different. #TheCycleContinues