Chris Dangerfield is known throughout the world for his prolific adventures and storytelling. Over the years he has amassed a life of thrills, dangers, catastrophes, and personal enlightenment. He is as diverse and intellectually capable as his go-to Lock picking set. As a writer, comedian, adrenaline junkie, and expert lock slayer, Chris has created an empire in the Locksport community. In this interview, Mr. Dangerfield will be telling us how he got to this point and reveal some techniques he is using to maintain his kingdom for now and many years to come. Q: Let’s start this interview off by telling us about yourself. What do you do for a living, and how are you involved with the Locksport community? “I am a performer, writer, and I own and run UKBumpKeys.com and LockPickWorld.com in the US.” Q: What got you into lock picking and selling lock picks? “As a child I needed access to my family telephone as I wanted to continue making prank calls to whoever I could. My parents were not happy with the phone bill and installed a little lock on the dial. Soon enough I managed to jiggle it with the gunk-scraper from a set of toe-nail clippers. The lock didn’t require a key to re-lock, so I was able to put it back in place after using the telephone. My parents were dumbfounded when the bills continued to be confusingly high, and I think I contributed to a lack of trust in their relationship, which was a bonus. This and a fascination with escape artist Harry Houdini led to my interest in lock picking. For a child, the idea of having power over locks – something the adult world depended on for the security of their property and families seemed almost like a superpower.” Q: Who were some of the major competitors in the industry that you had to compete against when you first started out? Who do you consider to be your biggest competitor? “This is going back a long time, and most of my competitors then are no longer in business. It didn’t take me long to realize the best way to deal with competition was to offer not only something better, but something different, which in a way eliminates the competition. Rather than fight them, improve yourself. It’s positive energy rather than negative energy, and my experience would suggest, good business practice. Our biggest competitors now are without doubt the likes of Amazon and Ebay. Although lock picks are prohibited on Amazon USA and Ebay globally, dedicated people fly under the radar. With no overheads, they seem to be able to offer more for less. Of course, that’s frequently a myth, and what’s on offer is of low quality, with no specialist customer service, or engagement with the community. Again, we compete by offering what they cannot, loyalty, incredibly dedicated and knowledgeable customer service, and innovation. Add to that great prices and high quality, it’s no surprise we continue to grow rapidly and have a great reputation.” Q: I have noticed that UKBumpKeys.com seems to offer products at a significantly discounted price compared to most other distributors. How have you been able to keep your costs so low while maintaining a profit? “There are two ways to stay in business: Sell a few items with a high mark-up, or many at a small mark-up. I was lucky in that I took an item that was exploding online – the bump key – and redesigned it, making it better. In fact, the changes I made are now almost universally imitated (the removal of the shoulder, the variety of bump-patterns, and the use of dampeners). This meant I was inundated with requests for keys. Since the initial demand was huge, I was able to sell them with a small mark-up – whereas if only say 10 people had asked, they would have been more expensive. This allowed me to build a trusting customer base very quickly. And with each new tool we added to our range, the same thing happened, lots of people bought them. This continues to the present day. We have a very large and extremely active mailing list. People choose to opt-in because we don’t spam them, and when we do offer something new, it’s going to be quality and at a good price. It’s a self-perpetuating system. As long as we maintain our standards, from product to support, I am confident we will sell in good numbers, so we can manufacture or buy in large amounts, saving money and being able to pass those savings on to our customers.” Q: What are some of the products that are new to the market right now, and which of your products seem to sell the most? “Our PRAXIS set is our newest innovation. At the time of writing it’s the only dual-gauge pick set on the market. With half the picks being 0.025” and the other half being 0.015”. However, we didn’t want this feature to deter from the other features. So often new innovations will ‘dine out’ on the new feature, allowing other aspects to suffer. A new feature shouldn’t be an excuse to cut back elsewhere, it should add to the all-round excellence of a product. So, the selection process for the types of picks and wrenches included was a thorough and rigorous process, involving the knowledge of many different pickers from around the world. World-champion pickers, people who have published books on picking, and professional reviewers. I made use of the many contacts I have made over the years to produce the perfect pick set. From the steel used in manufacture, down to the length and angles of the tension tools, this set took nothing for granted. We wanted to produce the fruit from the tree of all the available lock picking skill and knowledge. From both the sales and reviews it’s received, I think we did an exceptional job. It also shows our customers that we have remained passionate about our product and that [...]

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