What We Owe Nutnfancy

Nutnfancy has done a lot to make many of us better consumers.  The things he preaches in his videos on gear have helped me make decisions about how and why I spend my hard earned money, not just when I am buying gear, but when I am buying lots of other things.  Additionally, I have taken a lot of his gear lessons to heart.  You don't need big stuff for EDC.  You just don't.  You don't need the weight or the extra cost 99% of the time.  You don't need complicated stuff.  A simple SAK will do quite often.  You don't need an auto (though my time with the ProTech Sprint has proven that it is NICE to have).  You don't need expensive stuff.  Often times you are paying for things you will never use.

Nutnfancy gets maligned, like most "internet celebrities" do, because the internet is an interactive medium, but for all the criticism about how gabby he is, he really does us all a great service.  He has more videos than just about anyone and he does an excellent job testing gear.  A recent check shows that he has over 100 million video views on his YouTube channel.  That is an awful lot of eyeballs.  And with those eyeballs comes influence.

Under the Nutnfancy Agenda we have seen companies take heed of his ideas.  Jimping is probably a word none of us knew before Nutnfancy and now it is almost ubiquitous on most knives.  He has also done quite of bit of conversation shaping around the deep carry pocket clip.  We again have benefited.  Many makers are including these clips as standard features on their blades.  Look at the Dragonfly II, an update to a venerable little knife.  All of the major upgrades, the jimping and the deep carry pocket clip, are Nutnfancy hot button issues.  I liked the knife before, but with the Nutnfancy-driven improvements it is my favorite knife.  

His emphasis on value is also something I really appreciate.  I am at the point with my gear that I am no longer chasing every penny improvement, but when I was, I really valued his insights.  I still want my money to go as far as it can and having his opinion on a product is very helpful when doing research.

I also like his outdoors adventures.  Not so much because I like hearing him talk to Ali the Mountain Dog, who patiently listens to her master, but mainly because they inspire me to leave screens behind and go outside.  With a two year old son around getting away from the city is a truly rewarding experience.  Finding a frog or chasing a chipmunk with a two year old makes for an amazing morning.  Anything that prompts you to go do something and more specifically for us, go USE your gear, is a good thing.  We buy tools to use, not to serve as trophies.  I love seeing the battle scars on his stuff because it reminds me to go put some on mine.

For all of the complaining people do about the guy, really does put out a ton of useful and free information.  He did something that maybe someone somewhere had done before, but he is the foundation, the touchstone for gear information in new media.  We should all be grateful he does what he does for us.

There are things that he does that ARE problems.  Some of the older videos contained some insensitive homophobic remarks and he spends WAY TOO MUCH time on political issues (like Aneglia Jolie talking about politics--I tune in to both of them for reasons other than their political views).  Some folks might like the political stuff and I am glad I live in a country where people can express their views so freely, even if I disagree.  But in terms of his information on gear, there is no one that is more thoughtful or influential, and there is no one I tend agree with more on features and designs.  His relentless emphasis on small, useful, high value gear is really a boon to us all.   

Thanks Nutnfancy.