TOPS is known for many things, but one of their more recent claims to fame is the annual employee design challenge, which has resulted this year in the Sidekick Diver from Ana Espinoza.
It must be fun to work at a knife company, particularly one like TOPS which lets everyone get in on the action. The employee design challenge opens the door for TOPS crew members – no matter their official role – can take a crack at knife design, with the winning design brought into actual production and sale. This year’s winner comes to us from an Espinoza – not company CEO Leo, but his wife, Ana, who also designed the Field Dog several years ago.
For someone who isn’t a knife designer by trade, Ana Espinoza certainly has a grasp on the fundamentals, even when it comes to more specialized knives like the Sidekick Diver. As the name implies – or rather, explicitly states – this is meant to be a dive knife, an important but often overlooked segment of the knife market. Espinoza’s goal with the Sidekick was to make something capable of holding an edge for longer than the average examples in the genre, so she made the Sidekick’s 5.75-inch drop point blade out of N690Co – a proven recipe particularly prized for warding off corrosion.
With its combination of straight edge, serrated edge, and a spine-side line cutter, the Sidekick Diver’s blade has a lot going on – and it’s paired to an oversized, comfortable handle to keep users in control no matter the application. The flared guard creates a chunky thumb ramp for guiding cuts, and the gentle curvature of the profile overall makes reverse grips easy too. The Sidekick Diver comes with a Kydex sheath and weighs 12.8 oz. on its own.
It’s available now.
Knife in Featured Image: TOPS Sidekick Diver
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