KNIVES OUTLOOK

Sal Glesser is president and founder of Spyderco Knives. He’s a modern success story and a portrait of the American Dream. Coming from humble beginnings, he and his wife, Gail, built their company from the ground up with little more than determination and a love for knives. What started out in a bread truck became a multimillion-dollar manufacturer and a leader in the blade industry.

Spyderco could be said to be the granddaddy of the modern EDC or tactical knife. The features we have come to associate with a tactical folder, the pocket clip, serrations, and thumb openers, were first introduced by Spyderco Knives. Often criticized for their looks, but respected for their simplicity, reliability, and ergonomics, Spyderco has a long-standing reputation of function over beauty.

RECOIL: Can you tell us a little bit about how Spyderco got started?

Sal Glesser: My wife and I were living in Northern California when we decided to go into business together. Technically, we were homeless. We were living in a converted bread delivery truck that was about 12 feet long, and we had all our equipment in a Volkswagen that we towed behind the truck. My wife Gail and I, and our 2-year-old daughter, left California with about $250 to build products and sell them at shows and fairs. Our first show was in Boston, so we had a long way to go. Then, we just plodded along for the next four years.

We had to settle down somewhere when our daughter started school in 1978, so we settled in Golden, Colorado, for a variety of reasons. We opened up a little shop, which later became a bigger shop. Eventually we started a factory, and now we’re a full-blown knife manufacturing company. We make knives in Golden where we have a pretty sophisticated facility, and we also work with a couple of knife-making companies in Japan, a couple in Italy, a couple in Taiwan, and a few in China. We have knives coming in from all over the place. We also ship to 65 countries, so we