Following nearly two years of COVID-19 and a cancelled SHOT Show in 2021, this year’s event was projected to be very different than that of two years ago, and this certainly proved to be the case. The biggest knife-release event of the year expanded into an “annex” across the road in an attempt to fulfill the longtime demand for booth space, while some companies decided not to attend at the last minute due to illness within their organizations, mask-wearing requirements at the show venue, or other reasons. Foreign attendees could not come at all without entering the U.S. very early and waiting out a long quarantine period, causing most of them to stay at home (with the notable exception of the Italians, who proved to be a determined bunch.) Still others, after getting along without a SHOT Show last year, apparently got to wondering if the time and expense of exhibiting at the show was really worth it. It will be interesting to see if they’re back next year.
All in all, most of the American-based companies attended and most of them had new releases to show off –some more than others. Overall attendance was noticably down, which was in some ways a positive thing as the show was certainly more pleasant with shorter lines and more time to visit with the companies we came to see. So without further ado, on to what your KNIFE Magazine staff thought were the highlights among this year’s releases.

This article appeared in the April 2022 issue of KNIFE Magazine. You can read the whole thing by clicking the blue button below.