2011 SHOT Show – Day 3

Strider: We swung by the Stider booth to say hi. They have a new folding knife coming out later this year. It’s small and appears well designed (the only demo they had on hand was a non-folding prototype). They should be shipping us 15-20 folding knives this coming week and we may get a custom or two as well.
Viper: We stopped by Lion Steel again to check on our upcoming exclusive SR1 series w/ black blades. (You heard it here first, folks!) We were actually able to grab a few of them. They are nice… We will try not to get too much drool on them. We also got an Aluminum prototype SR1, beautiful… these are going to fly off of the shelves. While we were in the Italian section of SHOT we talked with another Italian company called Viper. They have outstanding products with great pricing. We’re hoping to forge a relationship with them this year and bring some of their products to the US.
Tops: The boys at Tops have been hard at work, as usual. Lots of new fixed blades coming in 2011.
Roton: We talked about carrying the Roton line of automatic knives. A few new models have been introduced this year and many of them now come with carbon fiber and Kevlar inserts. Roton may be better known for making butterfly knives, but their runs are available exclusively through another company.
Schrade / Smith & Wesson (Taylor Brands): We swung by the manufacturer who produces these popular models. As always there was a huge amount of new products. Most of the Schrade and Smith & Wesson lines are outsourced, but their quality to cost ratio is excellent. We’re going to work with them direct this year in an effort to expand our product lines and pass savings on to our customers.
Waysun Johnny Tsai was at the Taylor booth promoting his new self defense video line. Waysun is a world renowned martial artist who is also producing his own tactical pen, the Cuma Ram. We think this is a great pen and we plan to carry it shortly (as well as Waysun’s video series).
We’re going to add Stack on Safes product line to our store this year too. They have some great smaller safes that are all sub $100 (a few even dipping as low as $20). These safes are perfect for storing knives or other valuables. Look for this product line to be added sometime in April or May (Stack On Safe is still finalizing production on these models).
We met with a ton of other vendors throughout our trip. Hopefully something will come out of our meetings. Our unwavering commitment is to bring our customers the best products, at great prices, with outstanding customer service. Our trip to the 2011 SHOT is evidence of our commitment to you.