In the beginning....

I love knives, what can I say? I can't think of a more useful tool or anything I'd rather fiddle with when I'm bored. And of course there's nothing like a good knife collection. Blade Play started out as a hobby. My idea was just to buy a few knives in bulk and sell them online. If I made enough money I figured I could keep one knife and, in effect, collect for free. To my delight my plan worked. I even made a little more than I was expecting. So, I bought more knives and continued to sell them on popular auction venues such as eBay.

After a few months of making some extra cash I decided it might be fun to have a website to sell from. I wasn't much of a programmer so I enlisted the help of longtime friend Jim. Jim wanted a shot at designing, as well as programming the website. You can see his first attempt HERE . After that fiasco I took over the design end of the site and Jim programmed with me. Picking a name took a bit of thought. Initially we fooled around with ideas like "Knife Line" and "Knife Life." Knife Line would have been my first choice by the domain name was already registered. In the end I went with "Blade Play," because it described the attitude we have (knives are fun to play with- but play safe, okay?!). The domain name was registered in November of 2002.

The website was up in its most basic form by the end of December. We began with five knives for sale as well as links to knives carried by other knife companies (no idea why we did this- it caused a lot of confusion). At this point everything was done by hand (we kept track of orders with a spread sheet program) and we accepted Paypal.

With a carefully controlled business plan we added a new knife each month and started doing reviews. We implemented a computerized sales system and beefed up the back end of our online store. I struggled in vain to take better pictures and added colored backgrounds to the knives. We began to advertise on search engines as well. Sales picked up and we decided to accept credit cards on the website and offer free shipping on all knives. Out first credit card sale was March 8, 2003 at 4:07pm for $44. We spent the money on a dinner celebration. We had arrived. We carried about twenty knives on the website.

We set up a forum (which you can visit HERE) connected to our website (the original version has been replaced sine then by a full featured version). We continued to expand our inventory (at a faster rate) and had about forty knives by the end of May. In mid-July of 2003 I purchased Jim's half of the company and he continued to work as my programmer. The Website continued to grow and things looked good.

In early 2004 we decided it would be nice to start carrying brand name knives. We called around to the big-name companies but no one wanted to deal with us because we didn't have a physical store (the business was still operated out of my office. And my garage. And it spilled into he living room and the bedroom). Getting our fist physical location solved two problems- my home and our inability to purchase directly from knife companies. Out first location was a 1,100 square foot warehouse in Provo. (click HERE and then HERE ).

Once we settled into our warehouse, buying options increased and we started putting some Benchmade, Protech and other name brand knives on to Blade Play. Soon thereafter we decided to create a new website specifically dedicated name brand cutlery. BLADE HQ was born in mid 2004 ("HQ" as in "head quarters"). Funneling revenue from Blade Play we've been able to acquire a sizeable inventory on Blade HQ with selections from most major knife companies (there are currently over 500 products). Blade HQ, LLC became the mother company with Blade Play operating under it.

By early 2005 things in our first store had gotten quite cramped and it was time for a new location. We found the perfect spot in a city called Lehi and moved into there in mid 2005. That facility had 2,000 square feet of warehouse space, and sizable office section and a "real" store front. By 2007 we were bursting at the seams again and we were also able to acquire an additional 1000 square feet of space next door.

We continued to put most of our profit back into our business. By this time Jim had formed his own ecommerce company, Blaze Commerce. Blade HQ absorbed Blaze and Jim came back to work for Blade HQ as a partner. This allowed Blade HQ to take full advantage of the custom Blaze ecommerce software. We focused our efforts on SEO, marketing, inventory and service. Growth was explosive for the next two years.

And so in 2009 it was time to move again. We are currently in a 10,000 square foot location in Lehi, UT, and plan to remain here for several more years. We remain focused on the biggest selection and best service in the industry. Our passion for cutting edge technology elevates us above our competitors and we remain committed to the best possible customer experience.

Cam Hughes