Readers and ToolGuyd followers have been asking if I’ve heard anything about Malco’s Eagle Grip locking pliers factory, and if there are any updates.
As you might recall, Malco discontinued their line of Eagle Grip locking pliers at the end of 2022.
You can still buy the tools at select dealers, and Snap-on recently listed a long nose version of these pliers.
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Going by the tone and nature of the questions I’ve been asked, it seems that the emergence of a new style of USA-made Eagle Grip-made locking pliers gave rise to optimism, with thoughts and hopes about a potential revival.
I apologize if this seems indelicate, but:
There is no more factory.
Eagle Grip has shut down and is no more.
Here are the WARN notices Malco filed in Nebraska (PDF). All 63 workers at the DeWitt, Nebraska manufacturing facility were due to be laid off due to the plant closure, with 3 being offered positions at Malco’s facility in Minnesota. This all happened towards the end of 2022.
In May of 2023, liquidators announced that they were offering “an entire inventory of top-quality vise-grip manufacturing equipment after the closing of the 500,000 Sq. Ft. Malco Products plant in De Witt, Nebraska.”
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The factory was closed, and liquidators auctioned off the equipment.
A new style of the c-clamp pliers appeared at a closeout dealer, and Snap-on listed a previously unseen long-nose version of the locking pliers.
You might say “maybe Snap-on bought the equipment and are manufacturing locking pliers themselves.” I seriously doubt it, given the course of events and the short amount of time that passed.
Also, the building at 100 Eagle Grip Drive is up for sale. Here’s a PDF of the full listing.
One of the property listing photos shows pallets of carboard boxes, which could all hold remnant tool inventory.
Harry Epstein Co reported a few months ago that a couple of pallets of Eagle Grip locking pliers arrived in old wooden Vise Grip crates.
It appears there are very many Eagle Grip locking pliers still available (thousands at the time of this posting), and it is reasonable to assume some of the remnant inventory includes styles that weren’t available prior to the closure.
While the Malco-made Snap-on long nose locking pliers might otherwise suggest the factory is still in operation, all of the evidence squashes such hopes.
The Eagle Grip brand and product line was discontinued, the website was taken down, all of the workers were laid off (except perhaps the 3 Malco says were given transfer offers), the manufacturing equipment was liquidated, and the entire building is up for sale.
This doesn’t leave any room for optimism.
Sadly, Eagle Grip, and their made-in-USA locking pliers, is no more.
Jim
The fate of the original plant is so sad.
Unfortunately in this day and age it’s not enough to make an excellent product.
Big fish eats little fish and the accountants make their case to move production overseas.
Profits over people.
I had high hopes for a SnapOn revival of the original quality.
Stuart
The building wasn’t just vacant between when Vise-Grip left and Malco/Eagle Grip purchased it and moved in. Maybe tools will one day be produced in the same space again.
This is true.
I think that Malco spent an inordinate amount of money on the venture, and as they said, it wasn’t sustainable.
How could they have made it successful? That’s the multi-million dollar question, and one that’s very complex and difficult to answer.
Jerry
I have a few pairs of the Eagle Grips and was thinking to myself when I got them that if the sold a utility finish version (in addition to or instead of) the mirror polish that they had, and priced them at $40 instead of $50 they would have sold better. The people I know use them for welding as much as anything and the old sand blasted type isfinish was better for that purpose than the polished finish. They almost look too pretty to use.
Mike (the other one)
They could have advertised it. Other than tool enthusiasts, NO ONE knew these even existed. People don’t buy things they don’t know about.
Even then, they are locking pliers, and just about every tool brand has some version of locking pliers at much lower prices. Locking plier, by their nature, tend to be abused, and are somewhat disposable.
It was an uphill battle from the start.
MM
I can’t help but think the main reason why the Eagle Grip product failed was lack of information. In other words, failed advertising. I know that I, and many others, didn’t even know they existed until we started hearing about them being discontinued. Where were the big cardboard standups in the isles of the big box stores proudly advertising these MADE IN USA tools, like I remember seeing back when Vise-Grip brand was still made here?
DustyImp
People love blaming “accountants” and “bean counters” but it’s the people at the helm that give the orders to cut costs and increase the bottom line, not their bookkeepers. Lets put the blame where it belongs if we pass any around, shall we?
Waylon
Isn’t it the consumer though? We decide the fate of these products and companies with our purchasing choices. Lots of people cry “why don’t they make more products in the US” then we go out and buy Harbor freight plier over American made to save a couple bucks.
That’s the reason the bean counters want to move production overseas. The American consumer doesn’t want American made tools, they want cheap tools.
MM
Agreed. The “people at the helm” are responding to customer demand. The market reacts to what people are buying, and most people want cheap.
Let’s do an experiment. You’re the purchasing guy for Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Your boss approaches you with information about a new premium hammer, made in the USA. they ask you if it makes sense to stock this or not. You ask the bean counters for the last few years of hammer sales data and you see that the $5.99 Great Neck and the $9.99 Stanley hammers outsold Martinez and Stiletto combined by 1100:1 and 800:1 respectively. Are you going to devote shelf space to this new expensive hammer? Or are you going to buy more Great Necks and Stanleys?
Johnez
There’s a market for Martinez tho. There’s a market for high end tools that are perfect. The trick is in marketing the thing which involves designing it for the audience your after and getting the word out.
William Adams
I bought as many as I could afford.
Badger12345
Yes, they want cheap tools. There is a reason that there are so many Harbor Freight stores operating in the US. Manufacturers and retailers respond to the consumer.
Felix
True that the consumers want cheaper products. The Eagle grips were very expensive though.
You can buy locking pliers from loads of brands made in Germany, Spain, France etc. for around $20 a pair. Making them in the US shouldn’t increase the cost by 150%.
matthew
This is generally Mike point on this product which I have a few pairs heel grips and they’re very nice. I’m not so sure why I was paying double the price of a European manufactured one.
They probably should have said we’re going to be 60 to 80% more expensive than a Milwaukee pair and if they couldn’t be profitable based on that, they probably shouldn’t have done it.
PW
Makes me so genuinely sad. I have purchased several different variations of the Eagle Grips, and they are excellent quality. Much, much better than my old MiUSA Vice Grips. It’s honestly a tragedy.
W. Penn
I hate this.
These pliers are amazing. I bought 3 pairs (different types) when Malco was making them and another from HJE recently. But I think a lot of folks didn’t even know that they existed until it was too late. I never saw them advertised, never saw them hanging in a store, I just stumbled across a mention of them somewhere and wanted some “Vice Grips” from the original plant. I don’t know how Malco expected to sell $50 pliers if no one knew about them.
At the same time I saw so many people who were of the “RAH-RAH I love America/Gimmie American Made Tools” types complain about the price. Some even went so far as to say they could get something at HF that was good enough for a fraction of the price. You can’t have it both ways, it’s sort of a pick two: Cheap–High Quality– American Made. Now, some may counter with Channelock etc, but these pliers were on an entirely different level. Go watch the Project Farm video about Vice Grips to see just how far beyond they are. Truly these tools, when you hold them in your hands feel like something that could be passed down for generations.
Blocky
Agree. I like my grip ons, but quality permeates the eagle grip production. There’s nothing I would change.
David_Eight
Being more expensive than Harbor Freight is one thing but, they cost $20 more than a made in Germany Knipex pair. That just sounds like total mismanagement. What in the production pipeline added 80% in cost over something made in Germany that had to be shipped across the Atlantic and probably also had to pay an import tax?
P.S. I bought a full set of Eagle Grips
Blocky
My knipex 10” vise grips were made in Spain – they arrived stuck, with a thick curl of swarf in the turn screw channel.
After clearing that out, and chasing the threads with the screw several times, they are solid, but still not entirely smooth. 7.5/10. They’ll hold up, and I do not feel bad beating on them.
Kentucky fan
The problem malco had was that their product was too good. It is a vice grip those are not tools that are cherished and loved they are abused and neglected their price point was insane for the average tradesman that looks at vice grips as consumables
frobo
The only reason I never bought any Eagle Grips is that I have a good collection of old Peterson ones that are still going strong. The point is that Peterson’s product was plenty good enough. I agree that it’s likely that Malco simply made the Eagle Grips too good, especially for a tool that’s likely to get knocked around a lot anyway.
Wayne R.
This is gonna sound silly, maybe, but to me the release lever on Vise Grips has always been plainly backwards.
I have a bunch of them, and use them, but that still bugs me. Maybe Malco should’ve changed that.
Blocky
Grip-ons implement that change, and imo it is more ergonomic. The same for Knipex vise-grips, which I think are contract made in Spain, not by grip-on. Maybe someone here knows for sure.
frobo
I grew up using my dad’s old Peterson vise grips that had no release lever at all. When they introduced the backwards lever I thought it was a nice feature and I sort of got used to it being that way. But, I agree that pulling the lever rather than pushing it makes a lot more ergonomic sense.
Jon
Sad news. I kind of fanboy’d over them once I found out about these malcos when I purchased the 10and 7 in straight jaw snap on variant. Did some research of who made them and proceeded to buy every version malcos made including the c clamps. Then luckily enough the other week snap on came around and had both the 6 1/2 long nose and 5 inch curved versions on the truck so went ahead and bought those too. Along with a couple pairs of OG Petersons I should be set for life I think. Happy to have been able to buy them. Thanks for the update
AlexK
The Eagle Grip at $50 is when you need the absolute strongest vice grip made. While I would love having the absolute best of everything, the reality of what I can afford for personal use means buying the second or third best. If Malco offered a well made vice grip for under thirty, I would have bought it.
Wayne R.
Well, that’s the price now at Harry Epstein.
Alexk
Thanks
frobo
All this makes me wonder if they met with any focus groups during the concept phase. They could have asked, “Which would you prefer?”
A really good set of pliers, for $30
A really, really, really good set for $50
Instead, they seem to have answered the question themselves, and rather erroneously it turns out.
All this is just hindsight though. My real thoughts are with all the people who lost their jobs as a result of this debacle.
Ritchie
I bought the Snap on version of the pliers, great pliers, my dealer says it won’t be a problem for warranty. He didn’t even know Malco made the for Snap on.
Philip Herzegovitch
I was a mechanic for 17 yrs. I am now a building contractor for 24 yrs. My roll-a-way has a huge drawer dedicated to Vise-Grips. I use them all the time. I go into supply houses all the time for materials that indicate the MALCO products are sold there. Never ever have I seen the line of Eagle-Grips, never. Sure, the price point is high, and a polished tool is not a necessity for what they are, but if you don’t market them, display them or anything of that nature, you’re not going to sell them, period. Malco has a lot of good and useable tools and I have a few of their siding tools but, I shouldn’t have to thumb through a 1/2″ thick catalog to find them, they should be on display.
Speculating here, but maybe their sale through Snap-On Tools was “too” exclusive. The “star power” of Snap-On isn’t what it was 3 decades ago. Erwin (read BDK ) bought out Peterson Vise Grips years ago and that is usually the death-knell for a tool. I guess I’m going to have to scour tag sales and flea markets now for quality old Vise-Grips. Seems a shame because the ones from HF are almost 1/2 the thickness of steel in the body, and that means the strength is about 1/4 that of the OG.
Just another sad example of an American Icon tool not keeping up with the times and trying to relay too heavily on pedigree.
Stuart
No, this has nothing to do with “American tool icon not keeping up with the times and trying to rely too heavily in pedigree.”
It’s possible that Malco’s supply contract with Snap-on helped make Eagle Grip a reality in the first place.
ITCD
Vise-Grip was offshored in 2008 while Newell Rubbermaid of all companies owned them. SBD didn’t buy Irwin (and thus Vise Grip) until 2016.
It started with American Tool Companies buying out Petersen in 1985, then Irwin in the early 90s, and combining them, then selling them to Newell in the early 00s who then opted to close it down.
Michael F
I think this is a question of product market fit. Malco’s thesis was that there is a market for amazing locking pliers above $50. Maybe that thesis made sense given how ubiquitous Knipex has become, however, Malco doesn’t have the brand recognition of Knipex and even many tool enthusiasts didn’t even know they existed. From what I understand they made an amazing product that didn’t have much of a market.
frobo
Right, I think they simply overestimated the market. It may have been a result of their perspective as a niche player in the tool industry, thinking that their own niche customers would pony up extra for something as non-niche as a set of locking pliers.
Stuart
I don’t think so – I think they started out with lower price targets but costs ballooned and they sold the pliers for what it would take to recoup costs and make continuation worthwhile.
From what I was told, I think the redesign and production was more complicated (and costly) than Malco had expected, and it also took far longer due to the pandemic.
I thought the higher pricing could result in slower sales, but definitely not to the extent where the entire venture was unprofitable and unsustainable.
There were other factors as well. I don’t know what happened, but the nearly 22-year Malco exec I spoke to – who was highly enthusiastic about the brand and product line – left the company after its launch. Malco didn’t hired 3rd party marketing firms before and after the launch, and I can’t say good things about my communications or experiences with them.
My sentiment is that Malco is more of a B2B brand – they negotiate with retailers and distributors, and their renown tools – mainly specialty tools – sell themselves.
With Eagle Grip, there was little distribution outside of Amazon and Snap-on, and thus near-zero visibility, and they did nothing to change this.
MM
The limited distribution puzzled me. Walking down the isle of Lowes the other day I saw several Malco tools–snips, flashing tools, sheet metal pliers, crimpers for metal ductwork, etc. Home Depot carries them too–that’s where I bought my Malco seaming pliers many years ago. So why weren’t there prominent displays of Eagle Grips in those stores? They were already stocking other Malco tools, and vise grips are something that nearly every trade or DIYer can find a use for.
Stuart
Because Home Depot and Lowe’s are the customers in the supplier-retailer relationship, and I’m guessing they didn’t think they could sell many locking pliers at ~$50 each.
Bart
I think the only time I ever heard them mentioned was here and on Garage Journal.
I was originally enthusiastic about them coming to market, that was quickly soured when I saw the price tag. I use locking pliers a couple of times a year and already have the most common sizes of Vise Grips that I picked up at yard sales and on clearance sales when Sears was closing stores 8-10 years ago. They were always going to be a hard sell at $50 a pair in a world full of $20-30 options.
Jared
I doubt I can add much that wasn’t said already, but I too thought Malco under-advertised and over-priced these pliers.
I remember when these launched in Canada – at about $75-80 each. Regular-style Irwin Vise Grips sell for ~$15-$25 for comparison.
I thought “I’ll try a couple pairs eventually, maybe there will be a sale or something”. Instead, the price rose to $90, then $110 and kept going up.
Call me “part of the problem” as a price-conscious consumer, but even with jewelery-grade finishing, I don’t need a >$100 pair of locking pliers.
The other issue is that Irwin Vise Grips are actually pretty good. Far better I think than their reputation would suggest (there may be some quality variance during different production periods, but I’m talking about the current iteration).
Along with Irwin, I’ve got many locking pliers from Proto, CH Hanson and Williams. They’re all good and WAY cheaper than Malco. I don’t delude myself into thinking they’re just as good – but they’re a fraction of the cost.
Badger12345
When Stuart posted about the shutdown a few months ago I purchased two from Harry Epstein (great service from them!) The tools are fantastic and better made than anything else generally available today. Thanks for the heads up.
As nice as they are however, I don’t think they are worth it for many applications where the cheaper ones are “good enough” for most situations. I agree with other comments above that some of these are tools are in the disposable category because they get damaged during regular use like welding, torching, working with hazardous materials, etc.
Ryan
30+ years of buying tools, I had never heard of them until people on garage journal started crying about them going out of business.
I don’t use locking pliers very often and never really explored the different brands. I would think the company did a poor job of making themselves known unless they were primarily a manufacturer for other companies.
ChrisP
It would have taken Milwaukee level marketing to make this venture viable but I think it could have worked.
Pity TTI/Milwaukee didn’t purchase this as a going concern. I know they already have vice grips but they are not close to these in quality. TTI have a strong presence in markets outside the US as well, so likely could have generated sufficient global sales to succeed with a made in USA premium product
Brett
I have a bunch of Malco snips and they are just fantastic. I had high hopes for Eagle Grips as I feel that a lot of vise grip type tools these days are not built very well… Irwin certainly are not. A bummer, hopefully someone can fill the void.
ITCD
My pure speculation, and in case it didn’t click the first time I’ll say it again that this is just speculation, is that Snap-on bought some of the tooling or even some of the equipment.
My basis for this is the release of the long noses long after the Malco shutdown, and the fact that the other pliers are still listed on their site and just backordered for months. I don’t think it would make sense to give a backorder date for a product they know they would no longer offer. And the fact it’s only the 10″ ones on backorder, all other styles (clamps, 7″ varieties, and a regular 5″ in addition to the long nose) are all in stock though it is indeed possible they just still had them in stock from before.
But, if true, it does mean paying Snap-on prices for them. If $50 was a bit much to bear before, $100 is gonna be extra hard.
Stuart
The factory has been shut down for nearly a year and Harry Epstein Co has a little over 1,000 of the 10″ straight jaw pliers in stock.
Let’s say Snap-on acquired some of the tooling a few months ago. Where did they put it? Did they relocate workers to run the equipment, or did they have new workers try to figure things out?
If Snap-on was making pliers themselves, there’d be no need for the substantial markup.
Here’s a partial list of equipment included in the auction:
Seyi Sutherland 550 Ton Straight Side Mechanical Press
Stamtec 260 Ton Straight Side Mechanical Press
20+ Federal OBI Presses, Many Remanufactured with Wintriss Controls
(2) Late Model Brazing & Annealing Furnaces
Forging Presses & Hammers
Induction Heaters and Forging Systems for Billet Heating
Water Treatment System/Nitrogen Generator System
(9) Vertical & Horizontal Broaches by Detroit, BMS and Foot-Burte
Vibratory Finishing Systems
Complete Machine Shop with Haas CNC Machines, Okamoto Grinders
Complete Air Compressor Room
Quality Assurance/Inspection including 2022 Zeiss Coordinate Measuring Machine
Incredible quantity of Plant Support, Rolling Stock, Toolroom
Here are some videos:
550T press: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGZK2_d93VA
260T press: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qDQ6TN3sD6M
Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvbgMFvu9ks
Longer tour of a largely empty facility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eurvi0szKxU
You can see the large presses just after the 4:50 mark.
The equipment needed for the primary manufacturing operations are not plug-and-play; you can’t just buy it, move it, and put it to use just anywhere.
A backorder notice on Snap-on’s website shouldn’t be taken as a guarantee that a product will be replenished.
I don’t have extensive insights into tool manufacturing, but I would say that even with huge investment, production would have taken a very long time to restart.
I am all for speculation, but given the little we know, it’s just not possible.
I’m 99.999% convinced that if any Snap-on SKUs will be replenished, it’s coming from NOC (new old stock).
Bob
Snapon bought the tooling and moved production to their own plier production facility in Milwaukee, I have on very good authority
Stuart
Even if that’s the case (source?), how long until they’re up and running?
It doesn’t look like deals were made early on, otherwise there wouldn’t have been primary and secondary operation machines being auctioned off in May 2023.
Let’s assume that Snap-on purchased the equipment when it went to auction in May. It would have taken enormous and wasteful expenditure, not to mention talent and know-how, for them to develop a brand new style of locking pliers (long-nose) by November/December. It’s far more likely that the long nose locking pliers were “new old stock.”
People have been spreading rumors about Snap-on purchasing Malco’s Eagle Grip equipment, but I have yet to see any evidence.
If all they bought was the tooling, rather than the machinery, that’s not a big deal and doesn’t give rise to much optimism.
David_Eight
IDK what Snap-On is doing specifically but, I used to work as a maintenance mechanic in a manufacturing plant(textiles). And we did exactly what your describing, we bought machinery from Germany/China shipped it over to New Jersey, reassembled it, and used it.
We did this multiple times. Normally we’d have documentation for how to reassembled things, if not we’d basically just wing it. Not completely, as we had similar machines and basically new how everything went together more it less. After that we’d have one of the production supervisors figure out how to properly use the machine to run production on.
The machines can be disabled to fit into shipping containers. The machine your talking about at 4:50 in the video will come apart in halves (top/bottom). This is not a quick process, it can take weeks to disassemble and even longer to properly reassemble but completely possible. Seeing as the factory is shutting down the machinery will be discounted hence the motivation to buy it.
ITCD
I want to say the 7″ pliers were also marked as backorder and then just recently started saying in stock again but I can’t recall clearly enough to say that with concrete certainty. It would also be strange to hang onto the long nose pliers for a year before releasing them especially as people had been wanting them, at least in my view. And they do have the patented “power ring” screw base and everything, too. Any semi-finished product wouldn’t be branded yet as the chroming happens after stamping, so these are clearly a new product and made in USA. It would be odd to just happen to have a bunch of Snap-on stamped handles laying around that Snap-on hadn’t yet made order for.
As for tooling, I’m quite familiar with manufacturing since I’m in manufacturing myself and in my utter fascination with making stuff I’ve done a ton of research on it, and while sometimes a company will commission a specialty machine that is purpose-built for a single task (Knipex boasts having 400 machines, some built in-house, in their catalog) the popular option is for equipment that has interchangeable tooling because it allows one machine to make many things.
For example, it’s how Warwood Tool can offer a good selection of things when they have only 3 drop hammers. Or Wright, they offer well over 100 unique sizes/patterns of wrenches (ignoring different finishes) as well as a good variety of drop forged ratchets, but they certainly don’t have the room for 100 drop hammers. That’s where interchangeable tools come in, there will be die rooms with shelves and shelves of tooling. They want to do a run of 10mm combo wrenches, set up this hammer to run them, then the next day load on the 11mm die set and repeat, etc. They’ll also have different broach sizes to load on their wrench broaches, as well as to load on their presses to make the many different sizes of socket they offer, etc.
If the tooling didn’t already have the right size dovetail or whatever to fit on the hammers and presses Snap-on has, they can sometimes be modified to fit. Which a lot of that equipment appears to be stuff where you load on your own tooling, rather than them being purpose built to make precisely one widget in one size and shape and that’s it. And if they bought the tooling they don’t have to figure out where to put the Big Iron and run more electrical connections and air drops, they simply dust off some shelving in the die storage area.
Now this all spells some glimmer of hope for those who want to see Snap-on carry the torch. Buuut, this is all speculation. And to be safe, you’re already taking the best approach which is “I’ll believe it when I see it.” It’s the approach we all should have. I personally have no skin in the game as I’m not paying Snap-on prices ever.
Stuart
Remnant inventory was still shipping to closeout dealers and online suppliers over the past few months.
Harry Epstein Co has 1 or 2 styles of Eagle Grip locking pliers that weren’t on the market before the product line was discontinued.
3 months ago, they said “More Eaglegrips have arrived.” https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx_S1-Gp7np/
That was ~10 months after the factory closed.
So yes, there are boxes and crates of locking pliers just sitting around in warehouses.
I can understand your desire for optimism, but I very much doubt that Malco gave tooling and half-finished tools to Snap-on and said “here, you can finish them yourself.”
And while product lines can be designed around modular tooling, the whole process must generally be changed over. Maybe tools like 6pt and 12pt wrenches of the same sizes can share production steps.
The “maybe Snap-on bought the tooling and finished half-produced pliers themselves” speculation relies on numerous assumptions, many of them far-fetched. Malco had a working factory. Do really think that Snap-on would have interrupted their normal production schedules to shoehorn in the finishing of a product line they didn’t develop and had no experience with?
No – Malco would have finished out their production contract, and Snap-on wouldn’t have accepted incomplete tools.
ITCD
No no I didn’t mean that they finished half-done pliers. My point in bringing up WIP was that WIP in tools don’t have any sort of branding on them and aren’t branded after chroming, so these new arrivals to their dealers had to have already been made and been fully done if the Eagle Grip facility itself had made them.
Ultimately what I’m getting at though is that means these pliers were fully done and complete before the shutdown yet just were announced at a trade show in May, and are just now hitting trucks. What strikes me as odd about that is it is extremely unusual to make and stockpile finished private label product; after all its a sunk cost to make them, and as they’re branded for a certain company that’s who they’re intended for but what if that company doesn’t want to order more? And if Snap-on did order them, why are they just now showing up a year after the shutdown? I would have expected that they would have fulfilled any remaining orders and refused to take any more, and as for their own Eagle Grip brand since it made sense to stockpile those it’s as simple as going “everybody stop.”
It’s possible that’s the way it all happened though. But it’s also possible that Snap-on licensed the patent for the Power Ring and decided to take on production themselves. It would land them as the only American supplier of locking pliers and thus the only ones that comply with the Buy American Act, though I’m not sure how much Fed buys locking pliers. It’s possible that’s also why they quietly introduced an American-made adjustable wrench, too. If Fed wants a crescent, now Snap-on has one that’ll pass BAA muster so that guarantees sales since they already have a working relationship with Fed.
ITCD
Hey Stuart, I know this is an old topic now but as we already agreed it was all speculation what was going on. But 4 days ago on Facebook Snap-on posted a video of locking pliers calling them “the only locking pliers currently made in the USA.” I still don’t think they’ve outright come out with a press announcement on it but calling them currently made in USA does seem to lend credit to people’s speculation that they bought the tooling or something, or are in some capacity producing them themselves now.
Stuart
@ITCD,
I’ve asked Snap-on multiple questions and received zero replies and zero answers so far.
What Snap-on says on social media doesn’t necessarily give us clues as to what’s going on in the manufacturing side of things.
Bob
I’d make sense if the pliers finished development and were ready for production or in a stage of production by Malco and Snap-on finished the project. They were obviously working together on these already and snapon has a plier factory and equipment/engineers that design/manufacture pliers so I don’t think it’s much of stretch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9eRsd1hse8&t=1s
Stuart
So your “on good authority” is a Snap-on marketing video from YEARS before Eagle Grip launched and seemingly before it was even conceptualized?
“They were obviously working together on these already”… No.
I seriously doubt Malco half-built a production run of pliers, gave them to Snap-on and said “here, you can finish and assemble them yourself.” If Snap-on paid Malco for a production run, Malco would have completed the production run. There are thousands of other pliers still on the market, and so there’s no reason to speculate that Malco shipped out half-completed locking pliers to Snap-on.
Please stop spreading baseless internet rumors unless you can point to a release, announcement, official post, or similar where Snap-on said they’re producing locking pliers themselves.
Snap-on has long contracted with OEMs to produce locking pliers for their brands. There’s no indication that they’re interested in manufacturing their own, especially if demand was so weak Malco couldn’t justify sustained production or any attempt at growth.
David K
Just to add more speculation:
I was just browsing the Snap On website for the LP10WC pliers, and noticed a new description was added, ” Textured body and lever increase grip on the tool when working with dirty, oily hands”. Now my Malco 10″ pliers don’t have a textured body and grip, so why was this added? My guess is: a) either it’s a mistake on their website; or b) Snap On or another company has modified the design and will add this textured body in the next production run. Might also explain the back order date of 6/25.
Ct451
Yes, I noticed the same:
https://shop.snapon.com/product/LP-Series/10%22-Locking-Pliers-with-Cutter/LP10WC
Back “in stock 6/27/24”.
They don’t have a picture of their new offering because it’s not made yet.
Ray
“Harry Epstein Co has 1 or 2 styles of Eagle Grip locking pliers that weren’t on the market before the product line was discontinued.” Hey, wait a minute, people are saying they would have bought Malco but they never heard of them. You say they were making pliers and not offering them for sale? Sounds like the old saying of “chickens running around with their heads cut off.”
Bill Clay
Just purchased two from HJE before they are gone for good.
Neighbor Joe
If Malco thought Amazon was all they needed to advertise and sell they were wrong. I was hoping to see Eagle Grip at Home Depot in a section set aside for Malco products near gutters and fencing. Never happened. Great product.
Scott D
My Snap On dealer says Snap On did buy the tooling for the pliers and will continue making them. He heard a rumor that they were being made in Illinois.
Stuart
He heard a rumor from…?
Unless it comes from Snap-on corporate, it’s just another internet rumor.