BREAKING NEWS: Shopsmith, Inc. Has A New Owner

[Ed in Tampa]

I question the actual market, is there really enough young woodworkers willing to spend nearly $5000 dollars for their hobby. If my family which has woodworkers/DIY'er in its background is any valid comparison, I do not think so. Today’s kids are fighting to afford their own housing, food, gas and other basic living necessities. Plus none of them even though they were raised around woodworking has any interest in woodworking or even doing their own DIY. I am of the age where I need to downside my shop and there is absolutely no one to pass my tools on to. For the last few years I have been looking for young person among my friends that shows a real interest for my tools to bless him with my shop and I can not find one. My brother in law in Midwest has the same problem his kids, his grandchildren, none of his friends kids show any interest in tools.
And even if they did have a penance for woodworking most do not have their own homes that they could even store a tool. The worst part of all of this is the service community that I am familiar with is getting older, most of my friends can not find a young person willing to be a plumber, electrician, brick layer, carpenter, craftsman.

[RFGuy]

Ed,

I don't know...I have no actual data on the demographics in woodworking and I wish these were more readily available. For the few IG woodworking/DIY related channels that I follow, it seems like DIY is popular among many in this country (perhaps not Gen Z, but the other generations). Of course, DIY is NOT woodworking, though these influencers (and their followers) may do a "little" woodworking. We have had this discussion before in the past on this forum and I do wonder whether woodworking is growing in popularity, shrinking or staying about the same versus the past. I agree with you on the challenges facing many today, not just "today's kids". I hope you are successful in finding a suitable and worthy person to take on any tools you choose to part with and that is a wonderful gift you would be giving them. From my own personal experience, I have access to more tools than I can store. Having spent over $10k of my own money on Shopsmith equipment over 3 decades and thousands on Festool (let's not add it up right now! ), I have a shop full of equipment given I only have a single garage bay for it. My FIL passed away a few years ago with a massive shop of non-Shopsmith tools. At great expense I shipped a few of his tools/jigs cross country to my shop because of the sentimentality of it and because of the quality of those specific tools. When my MIL passed away this year, the rest of his tools I had to unfortunately let go of at firesale prices in a large estate sale because the economics just didn't make sense on tool relocation especially given my limited shop space where I live. My father is still alive and kicking and still using his 510 when he has the energy and hopefully will continue to do so for many more years, but I am heartbroken thinking about what I will likely inevitably have to do with his tools when he does pass away. Not intending to get morbid on this thread, but I think pointing out the realities for some of us and how/where/why shops and tools trickle down through time might be helpful for someone on this thread. Or at least that is my hope. It does perhaps point out the challenges Shopsmith, as a company, faces moving forward. Best of luck on finding a good home for any tools you hope to rehome and thanks for the discussion and insights.

[bainin]

I didn't watch the whole video but given the pieces i did hear, it sounds rather bleak at the moment.

There are a ton of base units with working motors on them out there already though.

If i understand the sensitivity to "shipping" heavy units, and the idea of accessorizing...perhaps the
goal is to upgrade/introduce new SPTs to existing customer base rather than building/shipping whole new systems.

PowerPro 2.0 left me feeling underwhelmed.

I'm not sure what I would need in the way of new SPTs but I'm largely unimaginative.

b

[RFGuy]

We have had this discussion before in the past on this forum and I do wonder whether woodworking is growing in popularity, shrinking or staying about the same versus the past.

In an attempt to answer my own query, I revisited a past post that I did investigating whether woodworking is in decline or not by checking Google analytics on frequency of the search term "woodworking". You can revisit my prior post here:

viewtopic.php?p=266357#p266357

I reran the analytics again, but honestly it hasn't changed much since I ran it last. Google searches for "woodworking" haven't really changed in the past 12 years or so and are significantly lower (5x lower) than they were 20 years ago when Google started tracking this.

Google Search Trends vs. time for term woodworking:

GoogleSearchWoodworking2023.jpg (44.14 KiB) Viewed 13172 times

When I ran the analytics for the search term "Shopsmith" it more or less tracked the significant decline in woodworking. Of course, these are just one set of metrics and I would really like to see real marketing and/or sales numbers to compare/contrast with this. On the surface, it does appear that woodworking as a hobby/interest continues to be in decline in this country which is unfortunate. IF anyone has any other data, I sure would be interested to see it because I am curious if this skill/trade/craft is going to be passed on to future generations or die out as everyone runs to the Walmart/Ikea's of the world to buy plastic "wood" furniture.

Google Search Trends vs. time for term Shopsmith:

GoogleSearchShopsmith.jpg (51.47 KiB) Viewed 13172 times

[BigSky]

This is not news

Interest has been in decline, not just in woodworking but in most crafts, ever since they cut high classes in the trades. Cupps, in the video I believe states much the same conclusion. Thus a 5 year plan with a 25X increase in growth.

[RFGuy]

Thus a 5 year plan with a 25X increase in growth.

And how exactly is he going to achieve this then???? Seems like fairly significant headwinds to me. With no one searching for "Shopsmith" online, it is going to take a substantial marketing ad spend to raise brand awareness IMHO, not even factoring in whether there is interest or NOT.

[BigSky]

Thus a 5 year plan with a 25X increase in growth.

And how exactly is he going to achieve this then???? Seems like fairly significant headwinds to me. With no one searching for "Shopsmith" online, it is going to take a substantial marketing ad spend to raise brand awareness IMHO, not even factoring in whether there is interest or NOT.

I have no answers for that question but then I am not a financial advisor. Mr Cupps is and he is working with his own money so I have some confidence that SS is on a comeback. Maybe not in the same form but a comeback nonetheless. I am anxious to take the ride along with the rest of legacy owners.

Have faith man. Faith. Mr Cupps will get it done.

[RFGuy]

I have no answers for that question but then I am not a financial advisor. Mr Cupps is and he is working with his own money so I have some confidence that SS is on a comeback. Maybe not in the same form but a comeback nonetheless. I am anxious to take the ride along with the rest of legacy owners.

Have faith man. Faith. Mr Cupps will get it done.

As a legacy Shopsmith owner, this I agree on...the anxiety. Mine is less so in recent years as I chose to purchase all of the accessories and extras that I wanted for my Mark V in the last bankruptcy scare for them. I truly hope that they recover, but I am also equally aware of the financial and business challenges facing them. I hope they stick around and support us legacy owners, but I didn't hear anything in that interview to suggest he intends to put legacy owners front and center in his business model. Of course this isn't surprising since as a business they need to sell as many of the $5k-$7k machines as they can, so supporting legacy owners with parts is far, far down on their list of priorities. If they can perhaps double their sales on Mark 7's then perhaps they will still be around to keep all of us happy. 25X is a pipe dream IMHO. I was cautiously optimistic before that interview so I await any new communication from them to bring me back to cautiously optimistic. Thanks and sorry for my pessimism.

[BuckeyeDennis]

We have had this discussion before in the past on this forum and I do wonder whether woodworking is growing in popularity, shrinking or staying about the same versus the past.

In an attempt to answer my own query, I revisited a past post that I did investigating whether woodworking is in decline or not by checking Google analytics on frequency of the search term "woodworking". You can revisit my prior post here:

viewtopic.php?p=266357#p266357

I reran the analytics again, but honestly it hasn't changed much since I ran it last. Google searches for "woodworking" haven't really changed in the past 12 years or so and are significantly lower (5x lower) than they were 20 years ago when Google started tracking this.

Google Search Trends vs. time for term woodworking:
GoogleSearchWoodworking2023.jpg

When I ran the analytics for the search term "Shopsmith" it more or less tracked the significant decline in woodworking. Of course, these are just one set of metrics and I would really like to see real marketing and/or sales numbers to compare/contrast with this. On the surface, it does appear that woodworking as a hobby/interest continues to be in decline in this country which is unfortunate. IF anyone has any other data, I sure would be interested to see it because I am curious if this skill/trade/craft is going to be passed on to future generations or die out as everyone runs to the Walmart/Ikea's of the world to buy plastic "wood" furniture.

Google Search Trends vs. time for term Shopsmith:
GoogleSearchShopsmith.jpg

My impression is that woodworking interest may or may not be in decline, but that the terminology and the technology are both undergoing seismic shifts.

Young people today seem much more likely to identify as “makers”. That term encompasses woodworking, 3D printing, metalworking, and a big dose of computer-aided design and manufacturing. How do the search stats look for that term?

Or “DIY”, for that matter?

As for the technology, CNC routers appear to be going through a growth boom comparable to the postwar Shopsmith boom. They’re mostly used for machining wood. But just today, I watched a YouTube video of a guy using a table saw to slice up segments for an end-grain cutting board, expertly glue them up, and then execute an incredibly complex multi-stage inlay process using a variety of woods on his CNC router, resulting in a highly-detailed scene of a sailing ship on rough seas with a whale breaching nearby, while seagulls fly beneath the clouds overhead. Yet the guy insisted that he wasn’t a “woodworker”.

Maybe we just have a PR problem.

[JPG]

+.5 Sample size kinda small.