(I’m trying to adjust my shopping habits for quality, long-lasting goods from reputable brands. This isn’t some hailcorporate thing)
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I don’t think you can completely trust any brand. Obviously some are better than others and I assume that’s what you’re asking.
Bosch tend to make pretty good machines. Mercedes cars are okay. Jura coffee makers are decent. Snap on tools are nice. Petzl outdoor gear is good. Armytek lights are solid. 3M products are good. EDZ and Icebreaker garments are nice.
This might sound weird, but Apple. I was NEVER disappointed by any of the products I bought. Sure, they are fucking expensive. Sure, they sometimes release really dumb products that most people probably shouldn’t buy (e.g. the 2015 MacBook). But if you make all the right considerations before your purchase, I’m pretty sure you will have a product that won’t disappoint you. At least that’s been my experience so far. That doesn’t mean that I’m perfectly happy with everything, for example I’m trying to switch away from an iPhone (I will definitely keep using macOS laptops/desktops though) for privacy reasons. I wasn’t really disappointed here, when I bought this phone, I knew what I was getting myself into, but Google isn’t much better.
Proton for secure email/calendar/whatever they offer now. I’ve been a subscriber to their paid plan for years, really happy so far.
IVPN and Mullvad for a trustworthy, private VPN provider
Casio
Seiko
Slackware
Vibram
Shimano
Coen BrothersShimano really should have turned to shit, what with them effectively having a monopoly (in mountain biking certainly) for literally decades. I don’t know whether it’s a Japanese thing or what, but they never did. Just kept quietly putting out decent gear at a variety of price ranges.
I picked up a full set of XTR v-brakes from eBay a few years back. Those things were still as good as the day they were new, despite being old enough that I only paid £20 for the lot.
old casio products are unforgivingly reliable. I’ve literally never had one fail regardless of the ridiculous amount of abuse I put them trough.
The new ones tho… “it’s water tight not water proof” is what support told us when their “water tight” watch died after a minute of rain
Well, that technically applies to all watches. They are just water tight to a certain degree, but none are completely waterproof. Depending on the ATM rating a hot shower can be enough to kill it, whilst others can survive diving hundreds of meters deep into salt water
I’ll start my own thread with OXO for their kitchen goods. After a decade of dealing with subpar containers and utensils, I’ve slowly started to rebuild my set with OXO stuff and habe yet to be disappointed by anything of theirs.
Seconded with Knipex hand tools. They’re far pricier than the competition you’ll find on the store shelves, but the quality and engineering is better than anything else you can reasonably find (barring boutique toolmakers).
IIRC OXO measuring cups have raised lettering 1/2c. That’s so clutch, the painted letters seem to come out in the wash.
I’ve used my Knipex 5” cobra pliers more than anything else in the toolbox, except maybe a torx set. Solid tools.
They’re great. As a line cook, I used to EDC a pair of the 4" minis in my pocket for taking off burner nozzles for cleaning. By the end of my year there, everyone else I worked with had bought a pair because they were so much better than dealing with the garbage Hart brand pliers the restaurant supplied.
Have you tried their cantilever grips? Thought they’d be a gimmick but I’ve stopped carrying spanners because they’re so good
OXO quality has tanked over the last 15 or 20 years since Helen of Troy bought them who source all of their products from Mexico and China using shady subcontractors. They had a lot of innovative designs when they started out, but don’t really invest in that anymore.
Knipex on the other hand is still pretty solid on quality. They’re still family managed and their manufacturing employees are primarily union workers, so they’re able to keep the skilled workers around.
My OXO kettle’s handle fell off during regular use, it’s just held on by a tiny clip.
Their conical coffee grinder is as expensive as a bur grinder.
A lot of OXO stuff is cheap made in China junk these days.
Le Creuset… but there’s a secret… They’re SUPER expensive.
So you find your local outlet store and sign up for their mailing list. You’ll regularly get 30%, 40%, 50% off deals.
Not everything Le Creuset. They seem to be very similar to other kitchen brands (kitchenaid, Cuisinart, etc) where they make a few excellent products, but the rest of their lives is overpriced stuff that isn’t as good as other brands you could buy. Their Dutch ovens are good, for example, but not their French press so much.
Also thrift stores. The only Le Creuset pan I own cost me $7.
That’s a hell of a thrift store find.
2nd trick, they have an outstanding warranty. Bring it in, they swap it out.
I have an outstanding warrant …is that the same?
Not quite, but I encourage you to visit your warrant provider for more details to prevent loss of service.
There’s plenty of knockoffs brands that seem to be as hardy; might but be worth the premium anymore.
Lodge is also quite good and a fraction of the price.
Cuisinart makes a dutch oven that’s just as good but lighter somehow.
The only OXO product I’ve had issues with is their rotating cheese grater, but it’s so nice to use that I just buy a new one every seven years or so.
Arm and Hammer, solid products that aren’t overpriced. I use their laundry soap, deodorant, toothpaste, and previously, the cat litter. Seems they’re focused on doing a few things very well.
Church & Dwight is the conglomerate that owns Arm & Hammer, and they own some other cleaning product brands like OxiClean and OrangeGlo. They also own Trojan condoms and First Response pregnancy tests.
I use oxiclean to help clean gunky beer kegs. It actually works really well to put a scoop in, fill with hot water and let it sit overnight. By morning it’s like a new keg. I then finish sanitizing with StarSan
Are you promoting throwing those used condoms in the wash with a little oxy clean?
I know you’re joking, but no don’t do that.
has 21 babies from the same condom
NOW you tell me!
Man, oxiclean really is a life saver for me. No store brand has really been as good.
I really like Arm and Hammer’s scentless laundry soap and their baking soda/peroxide toothpaste.
I’ve been using both for years and feel no need to change.
Merrell hiking boots.
Until they replaced gortex with a plastic grocery bag for water proofing. Now it feels like I’m walking in wet dog shit while making a constant crinkly noise.
My keen boots fit me better than Merrill.
I’ll second Merrell’s. I’ve worn the shit out of every pair I’ve had and they’ve lasted longer than any other shoe/boot I’ve owned.
Yeah. All my shoes are Merrels =)
I have a pair of Oboz that have held up for quite a while
Hopefully they haven’t gone downhill lately but I’ve always gotten good quality products from Anker and one time they even sent me an “upgraded” set of headphones for free because I complained about the pair I bought having poor sound.
My history with anchor is varied. At one point they produced the finest of everything at the cheapest possible price.
Then for a couple of years they produced a bunch of garbage that would barely get the job done.
I was buying a lot of anchor products for work. About half the power delivery chargers I purchased over a three or four month period burned out at least one of the ports. I have a bunch of battery banks where the USBC port stopped working.
Now they seem to be back on top again, but I don’t just blindly trust them and buy from them anymore I’ll get one or two and test things out before I buy a bunch.
Yeah, i can second the power strip thing. I have three right now, one is completely dead, the usba/c ports don’t work on another, third one has been flawless so far.
I might look into the newer options, but I’m a bit skeptical now…
anchor
is tupperware
anker has a smart home division called Eufy that has some TERRIBLE software that ruins nice hardware like their doorbells
Wasn’t there a privacy scandal involving them a while back?
Indeed. I no longer buy Anker as a result.
We had a Eufy baby monitor that was so bad (replaced three times when trying to update firmware, the fourth time it died it was due to a drop) that it has actually made me think less of Anker as a company. If they stick to that being their low quality bargain brand, maybe I’ll consider Anker again, but for now I’m out.
There are tons of great quality brands. Until capitalism kills them and they become the same as the rest.
The most memorable example of this for me was a long time ago. I was newly married and very poor. I was just starting to build my tool collection in the apartment.
I needed a circular saw to repair some craigslist furniture. So I carefully went around to the hardware stores looking at the prices. They were all more than I was willing to spend.
Then in Walmart one day I took a look at what they offered. It was pretty much an exact replica of the top of the line model at 1/4 of the price. The box was a bit dusty and next to another saw with the same name and UPC. It was obviously a newer box of the same item. It was the cheapest looking thing I could imagine. Completely different from the older one. It looked like a great way to lose some fingers and toes.
I grabbed the solid looking one and walked happily out of the store. It’s had a lot of use since then, and it’s still working flawlessly. I am still the proud owner of all my fingers and toes.
Ya I have found some ultra cheap gems from China that were either equivalent or surprisingly, superior in quality for a ridiculously low price. Makes “you get what you pay for” a little more of a blurred line.
Evaluating products based upon quality not being loyal to a brand ca save you a ton of money.
Brand loyalty is taking advantage of the brain being lazy. It doesn’t want to reprocess every little thing. So when something has worked well in the past, people tend to grab the same brand. It takes a lot for people to reconsider their choices again.
Once companies break the brand loyalty due to shit performance, it is extremely difficult to get it back. This is why mismanaged brands that have gone to shit, always attempt to rebrand themselves.
Not the question.
OP asked for what you like at this point in time. OP never asked if you will still like them in 10 years.Actually OP asked which brands you can always trust trust, and never mentioned anything about “at this point in time”. My answers still the same.
This is the truth.
Same happens every time I really take a liking to a restaurant.
Deliver a really good product with quality ingredients and become wildly popular, The shareholders will sell you down the road for a nickel and deliver a piece of crap product under the same name to cash out.
One of my favorite restaurants a couple towns over has been excellent for years, decades. T was always crowded and noisy, well known by everyone I encountered. It became my favorites on road trips from college, continued being my favorite as I dated and eventually married. It was still my favorite as I raised my kids to teenagers.
Then I really hadn’t gone since COViD, so my kids took me for Fathers Day this year. It should have been a red flag that the place apwas empty, quiet. Most of the microbrews were gone, service was horrible, half the menu was missing, they no longer put corn bread on the table. Then we got the food, and instead of home made everything, it all tasted like from a Sysco menu. They. O longer even had real plates or flatware. This all-star bbq place might as well be just dashing ketchup on top of microwaved food and opening a can of beans. What the heck happened?
Aww man, Play sounds like it was awesome what a horrible loss.
Covid destroyed a lot of restaurants. Without intimate details of the actual location and history I can only make guesses.
They might have changed hands due to money or an older generation owner might have passed. They might have just changed their business plan all together to stay open.
When COVID hit the first thing that generally happened was the wait staff was let go. Normally for a business that’s not a death sentence, but when it happened it happened everywhere and servers were more or less forced to find jobs not serving food. All the skilled labor exiting the work pool’s a big deal. It’s still rare, 5 years later, to find a restaurant that doesn’t have a now hiring sign out front.
Now you no longer have customer volume but you still have a fair amount of wages. You can raise prices but people aren’t going to put up with that a lot of them are out of work. You stop ordering the more expensive ingredients. You cut back portion sizes and stop freebies.
Congratulations you’re still operating but you’re only operating on the name you made for yourself your current menu is garbage. This is the end downward spiral phase. A mom and pop shop will barely recognize their customer base disappearing. You’re not going to go back there now, your kids probably aren’t going to go back there now. They’re going to struggle for three generations from alienating their current customer base.
Even if they could run a marketing campaign and get people to try them again, they’re not making enough money to rebuild the shop as it previously was. At this point you either sell it off or take on a financial partner who now has say in your business. If the financial partner doesn’t know what they’re doing with restaurants you’ll have a hard time convincing them to return the place to its former glory.
The best they can probably hope for is that someone like you comes along with fond memories of the place buys them out at a discount managers to hire a respectable cook and a decent weight staff and pours money into the place to bring it back to where it was. Assuming it was even operating at a reasonable profit back then…
When the MBA’s take over, the company is sucked dry.
Take me over next, MBAs
I remember when Logitech was the stamp of quality in computer accessories.
Now? It’s trash!
Have they gone that far downhill in just a few years? I’ve got a g502 that I bought 5ish years ago and that mouse is solid as a rock. The g5 I had before that lasted over a decade before I got annoyed at the cord sheath trying to kill the mouse.
This is so true and it hurts.
Have a mouse, keyboard and speaker set from 2004-2005. They all still work. I’ve bought several new Logitech products since 2015 and all have failed or have some defect. I’ve reached the point where I don’t buy anything Logitech.
Recently had to rma my mx master 3 because the rubber was going away.
On the other hand my mx master 2s fared way better in comparison.
I will never always trust a brand, there are some brands that have good trust, but I’ve seen too many brands screw people over for money.
I will say currently, Darn Tough Socks, Keen Shoes, EVGA, Milwaukee Tools, if you are in the cinema / live production world Teradek, and Yamaha.
My only complaint about Darn Tough Socks is that they never seem to wear in. I bought a half dozen pairs several years ago, and all of them are like brand new still, which is great, but they are also stiff and tight like I’ve never worn them. I wear them predominately for work, and I’m on my feet all day, so that’s a testament to their staying power, but damn, I wish they would stretch a little.
I use them too, but I guess I never really thought about socks “breaking in,” like shoes would. After 1-2 years of use, they are holding up like new.
Alongside darn tough, I love me some bombas.
Do you have lightweights? I find those to be tighter than midweights, which also seem a bit more plush.
Darn
Why they gotta swear haha
Darning is a method of mending socks. It is a nerdy pun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darning
Oh my d*rn
Watch ur mouth lol
Fuck off
You’re going down 😎
Nah you can’t trust Keen anymore as of like 5 years ago. They switched to much cheaper shoe materials on their presidio walking shoe that was super popular, but the price didn’t drop at all. At the same time, they started inserting huge globs of rubber in the heel of their hiking shoes so you are forced to use their brand of insert that has a hole to fit said bump.
I’ll be honest, just recently bought new shoes from them haven’t gotten a chance to wear them in yet, the previous pair was pre-covid. But they look and feel exactly like my old pair did when I bought them, so maybe their work line hasn’t suffered yet.
And this is why I’ll never be loyal to a brand, as long as they’re good I’ll keep buying their product, when it’s not good I’ll stop.
You were loyal when you looked for and bought the new pair.
Now you arent anymore.I forgot it’s already bee n 5 years since Covid fuck. Keen definitely got worse way before Covid so it was probably 7 years ago. Updated. You honestly might just not know what you’re missing if you’ve only had shoes from them after the change. As I recall, almost every component of the Presidio got cheaper and it went from a nice leather walking shoe with a well padded tongue to just another synthetic sneaker with a thin tongue basically for the same $110
I went through two defective EVGA cards within the original card’s warranty period. On the second card, EVGA tried to deny my warranty.
They eventually made it right, after I shamed them on Reddit.
Comet Cleanser.
Cascade Detergent.Bar Keepers friend too
Don’t forget BonAmi
Chrome Industries backpacks. They’re marketed to bicyclists, of which I’m not one – but damn they’re perfect.
I’ve been using one for 6 or 7 years now, and it’s amazing. I got one made with Dickies Khaki material and I love the way it looks, and it’s super easy to clean.
Lands End clothing has gone way downhill in recent years, but it is still generally more durable than typical stuff you’d get at places like Target. I can typically wear their items for five years or more. My experience is with the men’s side.
Veto pro pac tool bags.
They’re meant for tradesmen, but they’re tuff AF.
I have a big Veto bag. It was a gift from one of my bosses. I’d never have bought one (though I have occidental bags and am not afraid to spend money on tools) but god damn, it is a fine piece of gear. If it ever wears out, I’d deff buy a new one.
I had ruined so many “heavy” backpacks, it paid for itself in two years.
Kirkland anything (nearly anyway)
That is horrifying, what the fuck is wrong with these people? How hard would it be to get nitrogen?
People won’t stop eating dead animals so they don’t give a fuck.
it would be pretty tricky to eat animals alive, though.
If that’s all it takes for you to boycott, you should avoid everything. A few suffering pigs at one of Costcos suppliers is basically nothing compared to their size. It’s good it’s brought to light. But just like the article says, it’s legal to do what they did, and all they need to do is kill them faster.
It’s only a few pigs but they’re a huge company? This sounds like a rationalization.
Yes.
None. All brands will sell you out of they thought they could while continuing to be profitable after you realized
