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

He’s not paying any sort of price.
IMO, he’s probably doing just fine.

His employees certainly are paying a price. His suppliers probably will. And, we probably will.

 

Nah. The only thing resembling IP in the Cold Steel lineup are Andrew Demko's designs. Everything Lynn Thompson has put out are just carbon copies of long established blade designs and shapes put out in small/medium/large sizes. Not saying they don't make good beater knives, they certainly do. But the idea that Lynn has done anything seriously innovative in terms of knife design and engineering is absurd. He's just a salesman and hey, he's made it work for himself in a big way, so good for him.

 

You don't know, what you don't know.

This is obviously not true, they had enough intellectual property to find a buyer for what is apparently a significant asking price. The rest of your post is lacking substance as well. Such is life.

 

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man

 

I looked at the companies employee numbers and revenue, it wasn't that different than a successful privately owed McDonalds restaurant franchise.

 

You would think that it would be a lot more than that.

 

It seems that what Cold Steel has and what the buyers bought was the brand name and it's reputation. I don't really follow Cold Steel products but from what I have seen @halden.doerge is correct.
If there is some innovation that LT or CS have come up with and own, what are they?

 

Probably spends too much money on bikes and knives, so can only afford one pair of gloves. Being ready for whatever's around the next corner, he went with a pair of gloves he can wear on his cruiser or the dirt bike.

It's very possible that the deal was already in the works, but that doesn't really explain why LT would go out of his way to put a lie on the record regarding why there was a change. If he was selling the company, just keep your mouth shut and let them deal with the fallout. Coming to BF to say that they tested steel from two vendors and neither one passed is completely gratuitous, so it makes much more sense that it was the actual reason rather than an unnecessary cover story.

It doesn't really make business sense to take on the overhead to create an office in another state just for handling those items. More likely they contracted with a vendor in Arizona to receive and distribute the sword-canes (which are illegal to possess in California), which was likely a relatively sporadic thing.

The average McDonalds franchise store makes around $1.8M in revenue per year. DNB says Cold Steel was pulling in close to $10M.

 

https://patents.justia.com/assignee/cold-steel

https://patents.google.com/?assignee="cold+steel"

https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Lynn+c.+Thompson&oq=inventor:(Lynn+c.+Thompson)

 

Wow, I had no idea Demko invented my beloved blowgun stunner darts.

 

You get to be the head of R&D at Cold Steel for nothing...

 

Depending on the location some of those franchises make a boat load of money. Cold steel is sorta like the former Quartermaster knife company only bigger with a smarter owner that doesn't have a secret Texas knife factory.

 

The original comment was "The only thing resembling IP in the Cold Steel lineup are Andrew Demko's designs" which is what it seems like many of the patents you link to are.
There are some for things like "Disposable broad head arrowhead" and "Plastic broadhead arrowhead' that are from Lynn Thompson. I doubt anybody bought CS to get control of those, though I might be wrong.

 

I got it from knifecenter.

 

No other company even begins to match the huge range of beguiling products that Cold Steel offers. As a result I have over 100 CS products including spears ,swords, pole arms, hawks, sword canes, fixed blades and at least one version of every XL folder they have ever offered. If CS stops being the old Cold Steel as a result of being sold it will be very sparse pickings for me in the future. A future in which an "XL" folder will likely be anything over a hair longer than 4 inches.

 

Think I finally understand the purpose of that whole thread .

It was designed to be insulting and inflammatory , for the very purpose of provoking an extremely negative response .

LT never wanted to see a cheap stainless on his special babies , (Trail Master , etc ) but was being pressured to do just that .

So he crafted a negative sales pitch , knowing exactly how it would be received by fans on BF .

He wanted to show that this was not a good decision for the new owners to push forward , while appearing to cooperate .

One clue is that the mod introduced the thread by saying " I've got on my flame suit " ( something like that ) .

Some people seem to think LT is stupid or incompetent at marketing . Just the opposite . Hell of a salesman .

 

It was definitely for the pistol-grip cane patent.

 

I own, carry and use Cold Steel knives - have for a long time; I like them.
I own and ride Harley Davidson motorcycles - have for a long time; I like them.
I watched this CS video and feel less fulfilled than I did mere moments before watching it.

 

That would be an upgrade for the forums. We should have a shrink available online to conduct group therapy. Now where can we get a really big virtual couch?

n2s

 

That’s quite a interesting premise. Who knows? Business cultures and tactics are fascinating and unpredictable sometimes.

At the end of the day, the new owners will do what they think will yield the highest rate of return. The question being if it will be a sustainable rate.

I think in many cases, investment companies like this capitalize on the existing brand baselines by offering up products that are less expensive to produce. Eventually people realize they are not high quality and the brand denigrates to cheap junk that is sold at big box stores.