10th June 2009 - Spyderco Plans Low Cost Urban and UK Penknife
The owner of Spyderco Knives has revealed that lower cost versions of spyderco's Urban and UK penknife are in the pipeline. The Company has commented that sales volume for the recently launched Urban models remains low. Many would-be buyers have been put off by the hefty UK price tag of £105
However, as the Spyderco Urban Knife retails for $149.95 in the USA, the UK price is not so unreasonable after all. The UK buying public is still coming to terms with the recent devaluation of the Pound Sterling agains the US dollar. The days of snapping up bargains imported from the USA are over. A situation was reached in 2008 when one Pound would buy two US dollars. This was an historic aberration compared to the usual exchange rate of one pound to approx 1.8 US dollars. Currently the pound has undershot this value, although the situation is slowly improving.
The Spyderco Urban Knife has a 3 mm thick, flat-ground VG-10 steel blade, lightweight G-10 handle with wire pocket clip. These are obviously premium grade components, with the notch-joint spring and torx-screw assembly also adding to the cost. The lower cost models will have thinner blades and injection molded FRN handles instead of costly, machined G-10.
Spyderco is ahead of the curve by monitoring customer demand and tailoring the end products accordingly. The Urban knife is designed to appear less threatening for carrying in public and is slightly smaller than the UK Penknife. This was partly in response to feedback from UK penknife owners. The black handle colour was also dropped in favour of foliage green or safety orange . The global trend towards smaller, non-locking knives is due to increasing legislation and negative media publicity about knives in general.
