If you order those on Amazon - they will be sent to you and could be used just like any other knife.
But the question is - who makes the knives and where do those knives come from?
The answer seems to be - they order Chinese knives without the original logo from companies such as Enlan, Sanrenmu, CH Knives, other generic unbranded Chinese knives or even clones, re-brand those (laser etch their logo on the blade) and sell for much higher price than the cost of delivering those knives directly from China.
Few examples:
CH Knives 3001 Parallel vs Kubey Knives D2 Steel Ball Bearing EDC Pocket Knife
Exact same knife, but the CH costs $53 and Kubey $66.
Sanrenmu 7063 vs KUBEY Axis Lock Mini EDC Pocket Knife with Clip
Again - $8.73 for the Sanrenmu vs $12.99 for the Kubey.
F3 clone from AliExpress vs KUBEY Tactical Assisted Opening Edc Pocket Folding Knife
And I could show you more examples and find almost every Kubey knife in stock for a lot cheaper on other platforms that ship directly from China.
But that is only half of the problem.
The other half seems to be their shady business practices.
I got this e-mail a few days ago from Jerry Fu, who seems to be the head of the company:
"Hi friend, this is Jerry from China. Our brands is KUBEY, which is mainly produce various folding knifes for outdoor. I am viewing your Youtube channel, there are many excellent videos on your channel. So I want to collaborate with you. Can you make video for our product and give me a good review on amazon? We can provide the best service for you and refund to you by paypal. If you are interested in our product please contact me as soon as possible. I am waiting your messages. Thank you!"
As you can see, they will refund you on Paypal, but only if you make a good video review about them and give them a good review on Amazon.
I thought that is just their request at first, but then I found out they truly don't refund you the money if you give an honest review about their knife (that is exactly what happened to my good friend Jimislash on Youtube).
So, next time you will be shopping for knives on Amazon and see a Kubey knife - think twice if you want to support those practices.
The first half of this post makes sense and I see that very same practice happen in every industry. from Toasters to TV's there are companies that buy OEM products and brand them for themselves. IT happens in USA and Canada and I guess most countries.
ReplyDeleteNow for the second half. I got that same email. It is NOT from Kuby, that came from a reseller who is trying to call himself Kubey and you can’t blame Kubey for that. That’s like a guy telephoning you and saying he is from Microsoft and that your computer is infected and he is there to help you out. Blame the guy calling, not Microsoft. I got the same email. I shut the guy down.
Hey Jake,
DeleteFor me, the first part is enough not to buy any of the Kubey Knives, as I don't like to overpay.
I was talking about Kubey Knives on Amazon, these knives are sold by the Kubey Knife Global Sales and that is the only shop that sells Kubey Knives on Amazon.
Jimislash got the same e-mail from the same guy, bought the knife from the same store and those exact people didn't want to give him the refund because he did an honest review.
So I think the accusations are well deserved here.
That is actually not exactly what happened to me (Jimislash). I misunderstood how the refund process worked and without verifying through Kubey, I bought a couple more knives. They later made it clear that they would choose the knives they wanted reviewed. It wasn't cool for me, because I chose the first one I reviewed. However, it wasn't through any shady activity on their part.
ReplyDeleteI am not convinced that Kubey, Enlan, and Sanrenmu are not part of the same company. I am fairly certain that Kubey and Enlan are. And a knife I bought from Sanrenmu earlier this year on Amazon was actually charged through the Kubey company. As far as the price deal, I am not sure how charging more for the same product is a scam.
Thank you for letting me set my part of the story straight.
Jimislash
"They would choose the knives they wanted reviewed" sounds like "They would choose the knives they wanted to be promoted".
DeleteNot cool at all.
Kubey, Enlan and Sanrenmu are not a part of the same company (although they could be made in the same factory, because Kubey are rebranded knives). Kubey and CH Knives aren't a part of the same company either.
I got contacted by Kubey again after I wrote this post telling me how much they like my blog and that they want to cooperate (just shows they didn't even read it). Turned them down again (because I review only the knives that I choose to review and those are always honest and uninfluenced). So did Nick Shabazz from what I know. So did Jake from the comment above.
I wonder what will happen if you gave one of their knives a honest bad review (and there are plenty of bad knives there).