Cutting edge profits: from hi-tech to retro, there is money to be made in the knife market!

Shooting Industry, Sept, 2004 by Roy Huntington

The annual Blade Show in Atlanta is the focal point of the cutlery industry. It's the place where manufacturers meet the end-user on a one-on-one basis--and both come away enlightened. The show also provides invaluable information for today's stocking dealers on what sells and what doesn't in this highly competitive segment of the marketplace.

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What's the key to successful knife sales?

"It's easy," said Gary Fadden, president of Al Mar Knives. "In today's market, quality continues to sell. People recognize it, want it and more importantly, are willing to spend to get it."

In this day of big-box discounters, that seems to go against common perception. Yet, the consistent message at the show was: "Quality sells."

"People will continue to pay for quality," said Chris Reeve, one of the elder statesmen of the knife industry.

There is, however, a "discount mania" pervading the marketplace today, which compromises customer service and the all-important by-product: quality. That quality and service combo is two parts of the equation dealers and customers often regret compromising.

"People are frustrated with the rip-off artists and are only fooled once," Reeve said. "Then, they go to recognizable names, which offer the kind of reliable quality those customers were looking for to begin with."

Knife Customers Boost Sales

"Store traffic is back, according to our dealer base," said Greg Mooney, who handles national sales for Benchmade Knife Co. "Volumes are up and collaborations continue to sell well."

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Collaborations happen when a custom knife maker, who has engineered a unique design, licenses it to a major manufacturer. Such successful partnerships include Warren Osborne and Benchmade, Ken Onion and Kershaw, Spyderco and Wayne Goddard, Phil Boguszewski and Cold Steel, and a host of others. Collaborations allow the cutting-edge designs of custom makers to become affordable to your regular customers.

To increase your knife sales, Mooney recommends stocking three levels of knifes: good, better and best.

"If you push your customer with a high-end design, they'll often settle on a mid-range model, especially if they walk into your store looking for a $50 knife," Mooney said.

Such advice also works well for the dealer when shopping for a product line from various manufacturers: Just how complete is their line-up? A full-range inventory is a sound marketing strategy, according to David Block of Outdoor Edge.

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"There are those times when a customer simply doesn't have the $100 or $200 for a high-end folder," Block said. "That's when a line offering what we call 'affordable quality with innovation' comes into play."

Michael Janich, noted knife trainer who represents Masters Of Defense (MOD) added, "Today's customers are educated. With the almost overwhelming array of models available today, many customers are doing their homework before they go to the store." All the more reason to offer choices across the board.

A customer who is well-versed in styles, features and quality can be further educated in trends, specific new design features, and is often easily sold on an up-grade to a higher-end design. This is especially evident in the crop of high-tech designs flooding the market. Once seen, many of these new models can deliver a "gotta'-have-it" response from your customer.

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Retro-Modern Designs Hit Major Growth

Classic hunting knife styles are still popular and have been augmented with combo packs, offering a variety of butchering knives and tools in a handy kit. The Outdoor Edge Outpak is one such kit and with an affordable price-point, it can be hard to resist on an end-cap display during hunting season. These kinds of "tools for hunters" are taking over where the pocket tool left off a few years ago.

In line with this retro flavor, Ka-Bar, the icon of military knives, is still selling their classic WW II Marine Ka-Bar knife and it remains one of their top sellers.

The retro trend is a major growth area, according to Mark Schindel of Gerber Legendary Blades.

"There's a strong hunting focus today and more classic designs seem to be growing in popularity," Schindel said.

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While hi-tech is "cool" and sells, baby-boomers, who are often big spenders, fondly remember grandpa's Stockman folder or Russell's fixed-blade hunter--and they want them again for their own kids.

Pocket Tools

"Actually," said Spencer Fraizer of SOG, "the pocket tool market is still alive and strong, but with fewer players."

The explosion in the pocket tool market over the past few years has slowed and only the top players remain. The by-word seems to be innovation in design, quality of manufacture and, in a smaller way, color.

Leatherman, Gerber, Buck Knives and other makers are offering models in a wide range of colors to attract a wider range of customers. Younger buyers seem attracted to bold colors and "cool designs," as one youngster said at the Blade Show.

And like the firearm side of the business, small and light seems to be attractive to buyers. Pocket tools have always suffered from the "not very good at any one thing" syndrome, and a "real" tool is almost always better. However, pocket tools still sell, because often even a "make-do" tool can bail a customer out of a crunch on a hunting trip.