Located in the small town of Ucon is one of the biggest knife manufacturers in the United States. Its founder, Mike Fuller, was a special forces veteran with a vision of creating a high-quality knife, and that’s exactly what he did.
Tops Knives started as a small business but it wouldn’t be where it is today without the powerful friendship between Mike and current owner, Leo Espinoza.
“Mike didn’t have any kids of his own, so he took me under his wing,” Leo said. “When he introduced me, he introduced me as his kid, and people would look at him, with his bright blue eyes, and take a second glance at me, but they would never question it.”
In 1998, Mike and four others, all with extensive experience in military, law enforcement, outdoor professions and martial arts, founded Tops Knives with a shared mission ‘to create the highest-quality, rugged, unique, overbuilt and functional tools for service members and outdoorsmen of all kinds through our superior manufacturing, finishing processes and genuine field operators' testing.’
Leo recollects Mike saying, “When I retire, I want to be able to build a knife that won't leave our guys stranded overseas.”
“He said he had a lot of issues where knives were breaking on him,” Leo said. “So he wanted to build something that wouldn't let that happen. He would say, ‘You get into a situation where you need a knife, and the knife is the only thing that's going to save you.’”
When Mike came back to the United States from Australia in 1998, he and his wife traveled to Yellowstone from Seattle and when traveling through Idaho, they found a place to call home. They packed up and moved to Idaho, and at that time, Mike was planning on working for Kirby Vacuum as a salesman when he met a teacher at the gym who made knives.
“They got together and they said, ‘If you can make them, I can sell them,” Leo said. “And that's when the knife business started.”
The shop opened their doors in a small town in the Rocky Mountains, and 6 months later, 16-year-old Leo got his first job at Tops.
Like many other small businesses, Tops started out in a small garage. The two-bay garage was so small that the neighbors were kind enough to let them borrow the bathroom in their garage and it was Leo’s job to keep it clean. “When you're grinding knives all day, you're just covered in dust and so his wife said, ‘If you don't keep that bathroom clean, you guys can't use it again,’” Leo said. “And that was my job for a long time.”
After many years of cleaning the bathroom, Leo gradually began to try his hand at designing and creating knives, but at first, he was told to stick to what he knew. He persisted and eventually, Mike took him under his wing, taught Leo what he knows now and helped him get out of his comfort zone.
“There was a time when I started doing more with Tops and he would have me call our graphics lady that would do all our advertising and I would hide, or I would make up an excuse because I couldn't talk to people,” Leo said. “He put me in situations where I had to talk to some of our biggest distributors. He sat me in a room with them and then he would leave.”
In 2010, Mike’s wife suffered a stroke and as her primary caregiver, he had to spend a lot of time away from the business. He approached Leo one day and he said, “Either we sell Tops, or you keep running it.”
“I told him we’ll figure it out, but we're not selling this,” Leo said. “We've had big companies try to buy us out every year, but I'll never sell as long as I'm here.”
From cleaning bathrooms to becoming a successful business owner, Leo says he wouldn’t be where and who he is today without Mike’s mentorship.
“Mike was a big father figure to me and sort of a guide. He guided me through problems with my family, through problems with work and through problems with money.,” Leo said. “Everything I know was taught to me by him.”
Since 1998, Tops Knives has grown into a successful business that manufactures a variety of knives, creating over 50,000 knives a year with a failure rate of less than 1%.
“I learned from the best, and that’s why we still do what we do,” Leo said.
For more information, head to www.topsknives.com.