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Spyderco Sets the Record Straight: On-line Only Retailers

August 7, 2015

Following our story: ‘Why is KnivesShipFree ‘Phasing Out’ Spyderco?’, Spyderco got in touch with KnifeNews to provide some clarification on the story.

In the story, KnifeNews reported that:
‘as recently as early 2015, Spyderco had an explicit policy of only selling knives directly to new retailers if they operated a physical storefront. Spyderco forced on-line only stores to buy knives through wholesale distributors who would add their markup.’

In response to our story, Spyderco issued this statement:
Spyderco has given qualified online-only retailers direct dealer accounts with us for at least the past 8 years. We do have a special approval process for online-only retailers in an effort to protect our end-line users, but we have numerous online-only retailers that we work with (not just Amazon). The approval process includes a website review and ensuring the retailer is not only a stable entity but that they have the ability to warehouse inventory. In the past, we have restricted dealer accounts to those who only had a brick-and-mortar location, but just as our knives evolve so does our business. The market, as well as our customer’s shopping habits, has changed considerably – even over just the past 10 years.

We appreciate the clarification from Spyderco and hope this eliminates any confusion.

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