This is Why EDC SUCKS Now (Do you Agree?!)

[@HartleyKnifeandSteel]

Influencers doing their job at some point. Influencing what is popular or in the now. If you watch the way the community has changed over the years you really do see a correlation between some of these personalities and what's trending. It does suck because some of the best makers and the most authentic people don't have good social media or youtube. 🥺 I was heavily influenced by Gavko and Tuffknives and its lead me to how I make my knives today. Can't escape it just try and educate people.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

That’s a really good point, and maybe I just don’t like todays trends. It’s a tough call for sure

[@markanderson8677]

Yeah, I gave up on Taylor Martin a long time ago. You hit the nail on the head.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Sad to see it happen. But I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees it

[@JC_1095]

I'm new to your channel and I'm glad you made this video. I've been in the EDC youtube rabbit hole for a while now and the algorithm very gradually nudged me (so gradual that I only noticed recently) from genuine EDC enthusiast channels towards what are now basically Home Shopping Network infomercials made by EDC influencers where there's not much honest advice and it's mostly just selling point after selling point. They usually don't make it clear that they're in some way affiliated with these companies or they're regularly showered with free goodies which is an obvious conflict of interest. And the types of brands and products are clearly on the higher end. The obsession with titanium, aesthetics over substance, limited edition topo, and pushing particular expensive brands and ignoring everything else has definitely distorted the original intent of EDC from blue collar utility to blind consumerism by people who rarely even work with their hands.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

This right here is where I found myself when I made this video. Coming to the realization, and partly feeling like I was the crazy one for not going along with the trends

[@ashesofwar9476]

I think that people who appreciate using their tools do not watch influencers on KZbin. People who collect and dream of being in the field watch these guys. As a Marine, my knife is just one of my tools. Be an expert with what you have. Stop chasing the unattainable with new tricks and cash. Spend the time researching what fits your needs and budget. Then, use it until you are an expert. You'll find that you no longer wish you had something better because you are better. Just my take on it. Much love to your channel, and thank you from just outside Yellowstone.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

That’s a really good way to sum it up. This is the mindset I wish was more pervasive in the community!

[@ax85114]

You're absolutely right. These EDC "influencers" make you believe if you edc a less than 150 USD knife, you are some sort of a loser

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Exactly!

[@RandoWisLuL]

What if you use it or like it? I have a collection and use what i EDC, but i also wanted a Benchmade 940. that is the most expensive knife i own, i wanted at least ONE thing made in the USA and had SV30 steel. I love that knife and use it every day and there is a big difference in performance between it and lets say my SOG Salute. the rest of my knives have been gifts or on sale so it was cheap. Problem with cheap is soft steel so it doesn't work so well for heavy use and dull and break. So i mean is it bad to want to collect some knives with a few being expensive? The same goes for cutlery. There is nothing like using a Cutco chopping knife to cook with, the set cost over $150 but they get used a lot. The rest are Walmart knives lol But id NEVER get rid of my Cutcos

[@folksurvival]

Just use whatever tools you have or like or can afford and don't worry about what people on the internet think about it.

[@patrickbledsoe2176]

I agree on taylor i mean what kinda work does he do professionally?

[@MasterYoist]

The thing with "influencers" is they are all about getting clicks and views. Solid content and intelligent information is a very low priority. As far as EDC goes, I think it is very important. Now what is EDC for some might never be carried for others. You sound knowledgeable and seem to not be really condescending of others. So, even though I am old, I would still watch your content and listen to you. Now, we both have different points of view. But, that doesn't mean either of us is wrong in our thinking. For my EDC, I carry a basic Altoids with two micro multi-tools, a leather sewing kit with an awl I made. I carry a large knife, usually a folder with a 4 inch blade and my sidearm and two phones (one of which is only 4cm in size). That's it. Easy to grab and put on and able to take care of most needs I may have. Other than that, my toolbox in my truck should be sufficient. Take care and be at peace.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Thank you for your perspective, I appreciate it, and I’m glad you can see where I’m coming from. I didn’t make this video to try to get everyone to agree with me, but try to convey my point of view.

[@fredeschen3783]

I’m happy when a knife comes in a simple package. I don’t give a 💩 about special limited edition wipes, bags, coins or cans with anime characters. I like that the price of the knife goes to making the knife. Just got a ZT 0452CF and I love it.🇺🇸 Also unboxing videos are irritating. Just my 2 cents.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Very good points! Thanks for the feedback!

[@normcote270]

I couldn't agree more. Best Damn EDC Dude is simply a salesman,...Martin and Peterson I unscubscribed long ago🗡🗡🗡

[@jsmith6599]

Even worse, a kind of salesman who trying to sell you a completely useless gimmicks.

[@ricas1143]

I like your content and being straightforward is not always easy..but.. in this case specifically I must say that it comes down simply to "if you don't like it..just don't watch their content" meaning that the knife world is so saturated that you can choose what to see/ follow and skip the criticism of how some youtubers make their income. If you carry a knife for the sole purpose of the object then it's up to you to decide. Keep up the good content and never mind about the others. Ps. The word community gets thrown around too much mate. Cheers 🍻

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Normally I would agree with you, but their are titans in the EDC industry, and what they do trickles down to many aspects of the EDC community making it hard to avoid. But thank you, I do try to avoid the aspects I don’t like as much as possible which does make my content different

[@P1015532oni]

That’s why I buy base-model for every knife I get. I stay away from everything that says “limited edition”, “sprint run”, or “updated colorway”. These key words are a red flag to me. It preys on knife enthusiasts’ inner fear of missing out. Makes a person unhappy or even ungrateful about what they have because the influencers’ marketing convince them that unless they have the latest and greatest, they are frowned upon by the community for simply championing an inferior product. That’s the reason why I never jumped into the M390 and Magnacut craze. Yes, they are good steels, but I’m NOT gonna buy a second copy of the same model knife from the same brand for a 30% mark up just because some influencer tells me S30v is just not great anymore.

[@juanjuarez9360]

I completely agree with you I was one of those persons that had to get the next spyderco exclusive and the next hyped up new thing ended up selling every thing besides my two CRK sebenzas it just wasn’t fun any more and these reviewers pushing these knifes because they get payed our get free stuff from them and they don’t even use them so who are they to say something is good great video and on point

[@joeyates8339]

It's about time somebody said it. I hope you ruffled some feathers. And knocked the EDC snobs down off of their mega steel platform. I hope you don't catch a lot of hate for speaking the truth that we already know. You got balls brother.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Thank you very much. More than anything I’m just happy to see the community members like us agree that enough is enough

[@ericasedc]

Oh my goodness. YES. You absolutely READ MY MIND!!!! I make videos talking about this same exact thing. These people have really… made the whole thing a joke. Great video brother!

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

I’m glad to hear the feedback, I like watching your videos and seeing other people in the EDC community that are genuinely concerned about where we are headed. Thank you so much!

[@ericasedc]

@@AlaskanFrontier1 cheers! Ps awesome Emerson! Just made a video on those! 🤣

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

@@ericasedc I noticed your Emerson video. I was like, that’s what’s up!! Thank ya

[@montyv3909]

Two of my favourite channels 😊

[@12345678927164]

You are 100% correct

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Thank you for chiming in!

[@japheth6176]

That guy’s idea is to buy a $200knife to open boxes.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

🤣🤣🤣 isn’t that relatable???? Yeah it’s crazy.

[@japheth6176]

@@AlaskanFrontier1 bought the buck 112 slim yesterday as everyday carry, love it!

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

@@japheth6176 that is a solid EDC blade. Might not be sexy but it’ll work

[@mikeydudek2885]

I agree. KZbinrs have laughably easy lives, yet still complain the most. And it’s always about something so menial, it wouldn’t even register as a mild annoyance to me, just something you have to deal with. It’s frustrating to listen to them talk about it.

[@modofatak]

Dude said “degritory” lol. That said, I agree 100% about Taylor martin and Ben Peterson.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Both derogatory and degrading 🤣

[@JAMESGREGORYKULP1985]

I like to buy and collect cleaver blade pocket knives. I bought a Gerber flatiron and a Kershaw static and A CRKT Ripsnort 1. And a Buck Knives 263 HILINE. And the Browning ovix camouflage cleaver blade pocket knife. Because I think that cleaver blades are very unique pocket knives.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

That’s good. You know what you want to collect and you don’t give into hype

[@JAMESGREGORYKULP1985]

@@AlaskanFrontier1 yeap I to collect what I like and I don't follow the lasted trends In the knife community. I make my own path in the knife community. I do my own thing in my life.

[@jsmith6599]

EDC/prepping/survivalist channels is basically a male beauty bloggers at this point.

[@freddyg6940]

It be nice to rate peoples EDC based on functionality and how used the items look Vs expensive clean shiny pocket jewelry

[@DarthDragos]

Love the video, new to your channel and will definitely watch more. I feel like every community nowadays is going towards exploitative consumerism. I fell for it, I have a bunch of knifes. My dad…. Had one knife. It was his knife. It’s an heirloom. What will I give my kids that they can really think of me. 40 knifes? It dilutes the experience.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

These are definitely true statements, thanks for watching and hope you enjoy the content. I definitely love collecting knives but I do not love every aspect of this community especially the high consumption

[@travisjayce5710]

Biggest value piece in my knife collection is spyderco pm2 and i never sell it to anyone ... for me its not about money for knife but if i like the knife ...thx for this video brotha !

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Thanks for the feed back I value it!

[@jmount411]

You are beyond correct on these problems.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Thank you very much. Just trying to get the word out

[@modofatak]

What is it like to be “beyond correct”?

[@mattrc77]

I don't mind Ben Peterson cuz I do think he enjoys the knife making experience and his stuff is relatively inexpensive even though he's just a designer not an actual crafter, however Taylor Martin I know originally from phone dog just seems like he wanted a community that he could flourish in that wasn't saturated like the tech community is on KZbin that he was previously worked in.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Of the two Ben is definitely better. For sure, but Taylor just seems off. Thanks for the input. I appreciate it

[@LanningKann]

The industry has been saturated by hipsters looking to make a buck off of unsuspecting consumers. I paid retail for my 15V Manix and people offered me twice what I paid for it. I wanted an awesome steel for a user to enjoy. I don’t care what someone wants to give me for it. When I started collecting in 2000’ it was a much different landscape.

[@mikelalonde6874]

Leatherman garage #5 I wanted one so bad but it sold out in a few hrs. Now I see them for 1500-2500 by shady re sellers

[@Low-effort-individual]

I just can’t stand how blade hq gets to do exclusive blade shapes on knives like the tanto pm2 i have one my partner got it for me from the secondary market but it shouldn’t be a hard thing to get should just be something you can get

[@nwjavahead]

❤100% agree.😊

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Thank you very much!

[@modofatak]

Oh man…derogatory. The word is derogatory.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Degrading and derogatory 🤣🤣

[@joe_a_photo]

I think the biggest problem with the EDC community are the grown men who throw temper tantrums when they don’t get a spyderco sprint run lol. I do think sprint runs are dumb and I hate that forced scarcity. There are also definitely a lot of pocket jewelry and weird edc items out there

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

That is definitely a part of it

[@T37912]

Hi, I sometimes watch these cha els but none of them have had influence on my real edc. I still cary my Victorinox WorkChamp, my Parker pen, my Maglite flashlie, my leather wallet, etc... I think watching these chanels (every now and then) is interesting but none could convince me to change. People should make up their own mind in my opinion. kind regards Alain

[@T37912]

I need to correct myself. I did buy 1 knife that I had not handled yet under the "influence" of youtube. I was looking for a new beltknife to use when camping and I watched a lot of videos on youtube to select a knife. I finaly went for the Mora Garberg, stainless and leather sheeth (second choice was Cold Steel SRK and 3rd was Gerber Strongarm). I have since had the ocasion to try out the other 2 (that belong to friends) and I have not regretted my choice. Without KZbin I would probably never have heard of the Garberg untill much later and would have probably had a Puma or Herbertz. So these videos do make sense but you must watch a lot of them and never base your ranking on tbe coments of a person that does an unboxing or is showing you a knife that is still shiny (so probably never really used). It is impossible for a person to do an in depth review of another knife every week and claim he's been using it for months... He's prboably just unpacked it, filmed while batoning 2 or 3 sticks and then gives you an opinion.

[@BumbleBeeedcYT]

Thank you for making this video. I’m still new to the influencer side of the community, been into knives all my life, and into the higher end ones for about 4 years now. It’s good to hear how it has changed before I got here. I definitely agree there is a high marketing and special edition collecting atmosphere in this place. And your points about BDEDC and BP sound pretty accurate from what I have observed. I think all the top influencers wield the wand of ascetics and editing to create a draw that cannot be matched by the tools themselves. Same with cold steel. (Sure, you can chop a pig in half, but when are you ever going to do that?) I mean that I think the advertising goes beyond self expression, and into a fantasy. Anyway, you’re definitely not alone in your opinion that the community is ill and being poisoned right now.

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Thank you very much for chiming in on this. You bring up some great points especially about Coke Steel and I agree there is a lot of fantasy when it comes to quite a few brands and it’s sad. I can definitely say my point of view is very practical and utilitarian, so all these limited editions and donut sprinkles don’t appeal to me in the slightest

[@VaqueroCervantez]

I have said this about Taylor for years he is just a schill

[@duartduplessis1046]

Never heard a guy moan so much about his own channel like Tylor. Almost every episode he moans about he is just bord about it and that hes looking for the new thing……… stoped watching him long time ago

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Agreed. I could make that a whole rant, but yeah I’ve never heard a person be so unrelatable living the life many would love, but constantly complaining about it

[@montyv3909]

😂😂😂 so true. He’s quick to tell you how hard he’s working

[@jmmartin7766]

I watch EDC vids (on occasion) to see the "new stuff" that comes out. But I'd be stupid to buy new stuff all the time, just because some guy in a video tried to sell it to me... Stupid, AND poor 😆

[@JustineWiniker]

It went from caring to exploiting

[@FactFinderGeneral]

The community has been taken over by people that are glorified advertisers or are using the hobby to spout their unrelated ideologies. It's a shadow of what it once was.

[@sublyme2157]

0:20 I swear I thought you were going to say fidget spinners or challenge coins...

[@GasolineBoots]

I knew you were gonna call out Taylor Martin as soon as you starting talking about what the video was about. And i don’t disagree about him. But i do disagree about Ben. I think he genuinely cares about the knife community and his customers. I haven’t seen Ben push a bunch of expensive tiny pocket trinkets on folks. You cant be mad at Ben for doing a good job when he was at BHQ. Theres a lot of other content creators out there trying to get us all to buy a lot more expensive less useful stuff than Ben advertises. But hey, thats just my opinion. We are entitled to our own opinions right? I might disagree with you about Ben, but i like your videos and look forward to seeing what else you put out. Keep up the good work. And I totally agree with you about “limited” editions being overused

[@hitemiller3743]

🙏

[@dskennels210]

Took me about 3 videos from best damn edc to realize he was a used car salesmans , will say whatever to make a buck . Have no problem with Ben tho .

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Hahaha that’s a really good point. For sure Ben isn’t as bad I’m just not on fire with his Landers knife as the pitch is to get you to buy an affordable knife then turn around and buy scales and other mods that end up hiking the price.

[@dskennels210]

@@AlaskanFrontier1 that's true I'm good with my rat 1 n 2 in aus 8 . Don't see the purpose of buying a knife you're too afraid to use

[@williamlippolis]

1. I totally disagree with the idea that Taylor and Ben are exploiting their communities for profit. Sure they sell products, but there’s a difference between that and community exploitation. Like, a huge difference. 2. From where I'm sitting, the beauty of a community is that we all like a general idea but have different ways of expressing it. Like, not everyone is into karambits, and that's great! Think about how boring it would be if everyone liked the same stuff. If you aren’t into the “hype” stuff, then that’s great, right on, but let other people have "their thing" too.

[@freddyg6940]

How am I Just finding this Video Thanks @AlaskanFrontier1 You said it the way it is

[@AlaskanFrontier1]

Thanks for finding the video!