why dont Victorinox reintroduce.................

thesuper · **on:** July 23, 2009, 10:49:42 PM

OK, I havent been on these forums long, so forgive me if this has been asked already...................Question, as I am finding out, if certain Vic SAK's, ie, scientist,passenger,yeoman,etc,etc, are still popular, sought after (to use, not just collect) in plenty of countries, why dont Vivtorinox continue to make them or reintroduce them, as they will obviously sell well? Why stop making them in the first place? I am sure there are plenty of views out there, anyone got any definitive answers?

nuphoria · **Reply #1 on:** July 23, 2009, 11:10:54 PM

I think half of their appeal is that you can't find the things easily! If they were ubiquitous this lot wouldn't being chasing after them so much

I wish they would bring certain things back though, especially the 84mm scissors - we won't give up that fight just yet!

max6166 · **Reply #2 on:** July 23, 2009, 11:36:28 PM

Quote from: nuphoria on July 23, 2009, 11:10:54 PM

I wish they would bring certain things back though, especially the 84mm scissors - we won't give up that fight just yet!

I think Vic's idea of what will sell is very different than what most of us seasoned SAKoholics think. I wonder what the Scientist's sales numbers were? How many knives must Vic sell in order for it to be considered a success?

It would be really fascinating to see the annual sales numbers for their current line up. I wonder how many Rangers or Explorers they sell in comparison to Spartans and Climbers? What proportion of their sales do Classics comprise?

WhichDawg · **Reply #3 on:** July 23, 2009, 11:45:17 PM

I think it's because what we want (SAK-O-H0LICS, tool enthusiast, people who go to special forums) are not the general/average public buying lot.

We are a very small percentage of the "PIE" and don't bring in the real money. Regular people think we're nuts! So if a product doesn't make "X" dollars for a company, it's gone, discontinued.

That's just my opinion and I could be wrong, it's a good, fair question

duder · **Reply #4 on:** July 23, 2009, 11:47:11 PM

As soon as an item is rare or hard to find collectors want to have it. That`s true...
But collectors are only a rather small community. It seems to us that everybody wants to have a Yeoman ore a scientist. I don`t know how many collectors are out there, maybe a few hundred. That`s a small number for Victorinox. These models were discontinued because there was no big demand for them.
Another example are the sackingneedle/marlinspike-alox-knives. Today they are much sought after by collectors but when they were available they were not sold in large numbers.
Every three years Victorinox brings out a new big catalog. And when they introduce new items they discontinue some models that are not sold very often.

Craig · **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2009, 12:05:12 AM

Quote from: WhichDawg on July 23, 2009, 11:45:17 PM

Regular people think we're nuts!

They do?

Oh well, never mind

thesuper · **Reply #6 on:** July 24, 2009, 01:07:42 AM

I agree with all the comments here. Sales=£/$ etc, so those that are discontinued are the ones that dont sell in big (enough) numbers, so they go to the wall when a shake up is due. Thats business I guess. Maybe they should have a "review" panel of experts/John Doe's/shoppers and users and of course collectors/SAKaholics (thats US!!) to give opinions on what to continue with and what to discontinue. You should always strive to sell the customer what the customer wants, no?

Chako · **Reply #7 on:** July 24, 2009, 02:05:16 AM

Well it is insane. There was a passenger on eBay that just finished. After reading a bit in here, I figured since it was rare, to try and get it. Well my bid jumped to a max of 150 dollars, and I still lost it lol. Someone out there is swearing my name right now. But I was amazed. I let it go. I could not justify more then 150 for an ordinary looking SAK no matter how rare.

Gareth · **Reply #8 on:** July 24, 2009, 02:10:22 AM

Wow, that's a lot of money! Before eBay.uk shut down selling knives there was a Scientist that went for some crazy amount, although the exact price escapes me ATM.

Chako · **Reply #9 on:** July 24, 2009, 02:48:15 AM

Well someone wanted it a lot more than I did. I figured any higher, and I would probably be better off spending the dollars on the 125th Soldier.

Bill.H · **Reply #10 on:** July 24, 2009, 03:35:43 AM

Quote from: WhichDawg on July 23, 2009, 11:45:17 PM

... if a product doesn't make "X" dollars for a company, it's gone, discontinued.

I bet if we could see Vic's sales info, we'd find that 99.9% of all the knives they've discontinued - no matter how much WE want one - fell into that category.

Neil · **Reply #11 on:** July 24, 2009, 04:11:55 AM

Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 02:10:22 AM

Wow, that's a lot of money! Before eBay.uk shut down selling knives there was a Scientist that went for some crazy amount, although the exact price escapes me ATM.

I believe it was £105. That's what prompted me to build a few Scientists (but marked so as not to be confused with the originals).

Whilst I can understand them discontinuing things like the First Mate I am still surprised at the ending of the Yeoman. As to why they stopped making 84mm scissors

I can only guess they thought that niche of the market was covered by Wenger.

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #12 on:** July 24, 2009, 06:43:34 AM

What would be nice is if Victorinox had a small bespoke division that could cater for people like us

I know such a thing sort of exists, but I'm not a fan of the guy behind it

Gareth · **Reply #13 on:** July 24, 2009, 11:32:16 AM

Quote from: Neil on July 24, 2009, 04:11:55 AM

Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 02:10:22 AM
Wow, that's a lot of money! Before eBay.uk shut down selling knives there was a Scientist that went for some crazy amount, although the exact price escapes me ATM.

I believe it was £105. That's what prompted me to build a few Scientists (but marked so as not to be confused with the originals).

Whilst I can understand them discontinuing things like the First Mate I am still surprised at the ending of the Yeoman. As to why they stopped making 84mm scissors I can only guess they thought that niche of the market was covered by Wenger.

That has been my thought as well, when it comes the the 3 1/4" size Wenger pretty much has everything covered. My understanding is that Vic don't even have the tooling set-up to do the scissors anymore so the chances of them making them again seem to be effectively zero.

BTW the £105 rings a bell, scary isn't it. $:-\$

Neil · **Reply #14 on:** July 24, 2009, 02:54:37 PM

Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 11:32:16 AM

Quote from: Neil on July 24, 2009, 04:11:55 AM
Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 02:10:22 AM
Wow, that's a lot of money! Before eBay.uk shut down selling knives there was a Scientist that went for some crazy amount, although the exact price escapes me ATM.

I believe it was £105. That's what prompted me to build a few Scientists (but marked so as not to be confused with the originals).

Whilst I can understand them discontinuing things like the First Mate I am still surprised at the ending of the Yeoman. As to why they stopped making 84mm scissors I can only guess they thought that niche of the market was covered by Wenger.

That has been my thought as well, when it comes the the 3 1/4" size Wenger pretty much has everything covered. My understanding is that Vic don't even have the tooling set-up to do the scissors anymore so the chances of them making them again seem to be effectively zero.

BTW the £105 rings a bell, scary isn't it. $:-\$

No, scary was me flogging a good condition used one to a fellow collector for £20 the month before

... ho hum

Gareth · **Reply #15 on:** July 24, 2009, 03:51:15 PM

Quote from: Neil on July 24, 2009, 02:54:37 PM

Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 11:32:16 AM
Quote from: Neil on July 24, 2009, 04:11:55 AM
Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 02:10:22 AM
Wow, that's a lot of money! Before eBay.uk shut down selling knives there was a Scientist that went for some crazy amount, although the exact price escapes me ATM.

I believe it was £105. That's what prompted me to build a few Scientists (but marked so as not to be confused with the originals).

Whilst I can understand them discontinuing things like the First Mate I am still surprised at the ending of the Yeoman. As to why they stopped making 84mm scissors I can only guess they thought that niche of the market was covered by Wenger.

That has been my thought as well, when it comes the the 3 1/4" size Wenger pretty much has everything covered. My understanding is that Vic don't even have the tooling set-up to do the scissors anymore so the chances of them making them again seem to be effectively zero.

BTW the £105 rings a bell, scary isn't it. $:-\$

No, scary was me flogging a good condition used one to a fellow collector for £20 the month before ... ho hum

D'oh!

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #16 on:** July 24, 2009, 03:52:03 PM

Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 03:51:15 PM

Quote from: Neil on July 24, 2009, 02:54:37 PM
Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 11:32:16 AM
Quote from: Neil on July 24, 2009, 04:11:55 AM
Quote from: Gareth on July 24, 2009, 02:10:22 AM
Wow, that's a lot of money! Before eBay.uk shut down selling knives there was a Scientist that went for some crazy amount, although the exact price escapes me ATM.

I believe it was £105. That's what prompted me to build a few Scientists (but marked so as not to be confused with the originals).

Whilst I can understand them discontinuing things like the First Mate I am still surprised at the ending of the Yeoman. As to why they stopped making 84mm scissors I can only guess they thought that niche of the market was covered by Wenger.

That has been my thought as well, when it comes the the 3 1/4" size Wenger pretty much has everything covered. My understanding is that Vic don't even have the tooling set-up to do the scissors anymore so the chances of them making them again seem to be effectively zero.

BTW the £105 rings a bell, scary isn't it. $:-\$

No, scary was me flogging a good condition used one to a fellow collector for £20 the month before ... ho hum

D'oh!