Been about 10 years now and my GoRuck gear doesn’t even look used despite being carried any time I take a trip, which is quite often. Multiple continents, planes, trains, hiking, backpacking, etc. I’d say GoRuck (at least the American made stuff) is BIFL. knocks on wood

I have good luck with Duluth products, I have shirts from 5 years ago that still look new.

At this point, I don’t generally give trust to brands but products. Too many companies that used to be a name to trust have decided to monetize that trust (or get acquired by another company that doesn’t see the value in maintaining that trust), but they might still have good quality products in their lineup along with the cheap ones.

Though I’ve also done well with the “just buy one to see how important it is to have quality in this particular thing”. I just sold my old cordless drill after owning it for about a decade. It was weak but I didn’t even really notice that until I wanted to drill a hole through a stone counter top. A bought another cheap corded drill for that, but have since also bought a quality cordless drill set that might even allow me to sell the corded drill.

And if you need quality, look for stuff marketed to professionals. People who use their drill every single day aren’t going to be using the ones that can’t hold a charge or break after 20 hours of usage. Booster Juice doesn’t have shitty blenders where the connection between the motor and blade wears down with each use such that the motor spins but the blades do not before 3 digit uses, or even 4.

Anyone have suggestions for sneakers? Seems weird that there aren’t any with like zip on lowers or something

Looking around my immediate environment, I see very few things that aren’t

A. already 30 years old made by companies that are essentially defunct and if the brand does even still exist it’s transitioned to another parent company as a zombie brand that produces identical temporary garbage to the rest of the industry, like my Kenmore 80 series washer and dryer.

B. Modern shit with a single-digit year life expectancy, like any computer hardware I have, my cell phone, my printer, etc.

C. Isn’t from a company that has completely pissed me off glares at my very, very last Dell products

D. I didn’t make myself from scratch, like an increasing amount of my furniture.

The only item that falls in my eye line that I can say “buy it now and your grandchildren will actually want it” is my Revere stainless steel frying pan. It’s not as ragnarok proof as cast iron but it also won’t cave in my glass cooktop. I think my grandmother bought mine in the 80’s, you can still buy them today.

I do want to mention my Kitchenaid mixer. The unit itself is well made, I’ve made at least one pizza a week with it for the past…six years? It’s a quality power tool. I dislike the company and their product range. They have a tendency to discontinue attachments in favor of incompatible and worse ones. For example, I’m aware of three different meat grinder attachments, one metal one and two plastic ones only one of which the food mill attachment is compatible with, and they did their best to prevent people from learning that, because the difference between the plastic one you probably already have, that was possibly packed in with your mixer, and the one that’s compatible with the food mill, is like, a few millimeters in diameter here and there. If I show you their marketing pictures (of white plastic on that White Marketing Void background) you couldn’t tell them apart, and the model numbers are very similar. That has rubbed me the wrong way in a bad place.