Ask Lemmy

There are tons of great quality brands. Until capitalism kills them and they become the same as the rest.

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.

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).

Why would you trust a brand? The brand that you like wasn't the same people 20 years ago, and that will change again.

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.

Regarding online services, Proton.

https://proton.me/

Merrell hiking boots.

I was looking in this thread for Brother printers. They are consistently OK, as all other printer brands have gone to shit.

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.

Kirkland anything (nearly anyway)

None. All brands will sell you out of they thought they could while continuing to be profitable after you realized

Breville (Sage in the UK).

They're expensive, but they're good, and they last.

I've owned: espresso machine, coffee grinder, automatic loose leaf tea maker, coffee maker, toaster oven, bigger toaster oven, waffle maker... I think that's everything?

I've never regretted any of these purchases and never had one shit the bed. I did sell the tea maker and the smaller toaster oven, but I still have everything else. The coffee grinder I've had for over 10 years.

YKK zips. On anything I've ever owned, they don't break. And I find that more durable clothing brands will use YKK zips.

Victorinox has never disappointed me. I own a few kitchen knives, their cutlery and an extensive collection of pocket knives. Everything is solid, dependable, arrives sharp and stays sharp. Plus they have good company ethics, as far as those things go. I like their products so much, I frequently give them as gifts.

Kirkland

Darn Tough Socks, made in Vermont USA and guaranteed for life. If you get a hole in one, send it back and they give you a credit to pick any pair you want on their website.

Brother printers. I have 78k pages printed on my 15 year old color laser printer from them, and it's still going strong. They still sell OEM toner and even replacement parts for it, although the only part that ever needed to be replaced so far was the drum.

"Always"? None.

Any time I have found a brand like this, they start enshitifying right after I decide to be loyal to them. If you stop shopping around, they have less incentive to make a good product to create loyal customers.

The problem is capitalism, not the individual companies. Enshitification comes for them all eventually.

Stihl tools. They just fucking work.

Casio
Seiko
Slackware
Vibram
Shimano
Coen Brothers

Chrome Industries backpacks. They’re marketed to bicyclists, of which I’m not one – but damn they’re perfect.

So far, Gorilla brand stuff has been good.

Have yet to wear out a Honda.

Madewell jeans are actually made well.

Smartwool socks. I replaced mine this year because they were getting holes, the ones I was replacing were purchased in 2014 and I wore them daily, had enough pairs to last a week, washed them weekly, they lasted ten years.

Not a brand but cast iron skillets. Some of mine are over 30, they will last essentially forever. And get a big knife you can sharpen, mine wasn't even a good brand and lasted almost 30 years.

If there's one thing the last couple of decades have taught me, is there is no such thing as a brand you can trust forever: even the privately owned family brands sometimes get bought out by some conglomerate or made public, followed by enshittification as the new management tries to squeeze all the value they can of the brand.

You're better off not going by brand and researching every large ticket item purchase you want to make: if you're going to spend $1000, it's probably worth a couple of hours of your time looking into it beforehand unless your hourly rate is pretty high.

At this point none. Trademark law has been rendered null and void when a holding company can own 3/4 of the brands on the market. Go pick up a power tool off the rack at Lowe's or Home Depot and tell me where it was made. When Stanley Black & Decker source different tools for the same brand from different anonymous manufacturers...

I'm at the point where I'm going to suggest to you learn how to work wood and metal with hand tools.

OceanGate, depending on your goals.

DeWalt (aka default) tools. There's a reason every building contractor is carrying around DeWalt drills and saws - they hold up to daily jobsite use, you don't have to handle them like they're fragile, you can get them dirty and they keep working.

Don't buy Ryobi or Black&Decker unless you know it's something you're going to beat to hell for one job and then dispose of. And don't any buy high speed rotary tools from Harbor Freight.