What's one brand whose products you can always trust?

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).

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.

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

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)

Kirkland

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.

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

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

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.

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.

"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.

Casio
Seiko
Slackware
Vibram
Shimano
Coen Brothers

Stihl tools. They just fucking work.

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.

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

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.

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.

OceanGate, depending on your goals.

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.

Stanley. I have my grandads original Stanley thermos from around the 40's and its in amazing condition. The new Stanley products are still top notch.

I'm going to name a few as I do a lot of different hobbies.

For tools (hand\power) Milwaukee brand is hard to beat, and for hand tools I'm a fan of Husky generally. Underrated.

For Music equipment: Boss and Roland are always a safe bet and worth at least comparing to whatever you are looking at. (amps, pedals, drum machines, synths... etc)

For inflatable water craft (rafts, kayaks, fishing boats): Sea Eagle is the shit.

For computer components (motherboards, video cards, etc): ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI. (ASRock is an honorable mention) I've built PC's for over 30 years now. Thousands of systems. I stand by this.

For computer accessories (hard drive docks, adapters, misc) Startech makes great stuff for the price and all kinds of useful equipment.

For 3D Printers - I love Ender's due to the amount of easy upgrades\hacks\upgradability to turn a $200 3d printer into a printer that can rival anything out there for it's type. And a lot of the parts you can just print with the printer you bought. You can do this with many brands but I found Ender to be very accessible with a lot of ready made parts on the web you can get started with immediately. Not to mention upgrading the motherboard\step motors and what not. It's a great hobby if you like to tinker.

Cars (vehicles): I've owned many brands at this point in my life. From high end Volkswagen sports cars (2008 Rabbit modded out) to low end beater 96 Ford Escort, Dodge Dakota pickups and Chevy SUVs. And at this point in my life, with all the money spent, accidents, long road trips and broken parts, I'll never buy anything besides a Honda or Toyota. They are the best value out there. Period.

Anker. Every time I buy one of their products, I'm impressed by the quality. It's come to the point that I'm seeing knockoff brands inserting the Anker keyword into their product descriptions, hoping a search will put their product up in view.

Deuter backpacks.

In many years of backpacking I never met someone who had trouble or regrets with a deuter bag.

I broke one of the steel rods in mine after years of heavy use and clearly by my own fault and way out of any manufacturer responsibility and they just replaced it for free. I just asked if there is any way to get spare parts and they were like "Here you go, have a good trip."

Besides that, you have put in serious effort or serious stupidity (in my case) to break them at all. Especially normally easily breakable parts like clasps and zippers, are super sturdy.

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.

Garmin. They have been churning out better and better stuff over the years. Its pricey, indeed, but both hardware and software quality is top.

Been using the Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar watch, which has amazing battery life, amazing sensors, top hardware quality overall and software is perfect for the job. Screen too is amazing (MIPS, not Amoled...).

Also using bike computer and radar (Edge+Varia), where battery life could be better, but easy to remediate.

There are competitors, but at the same price point I wouldn't ever give up in Garmin for them.

JetBlue, I can always trust that their flights will be delayed an hour minimum.

Garmin watches, Carhartt clothing, RTIC cups, Crocs, Yamaha guitars, New Balance shoes, Birkenstocks, Murray’s Hair Dressing,

Honestly: The LTT merch store. The product was never bad, support was very good as well as the will to fix problems (albeit at a slower pace than one might be used from amazon).
I was complimented from the family for the quality and look.
It's certainly pricey but alright.

Bonus: The branding on most is very minimal.

Klein tools. They're just really good through and through.

Mazda for cars (pretty much anything after 2013)

Shout-out to Raritan Engineering. I accidentally cracked the porcelain bowl of the head that was original equipment in my 1974 sailboat, and needed a new one. Not only is the company still in business, the parts from a model they still sell are compatible, 50 years later! Their support techs were able to tell me exactly what parts I needed to buy.

Actually, quite a few marine brands are always reliable. The harsh environment at sea tends to out cheap crap in a hurry.

None. Unless you are referring to the fact you can trust any to fuck you the second you are not looking

3M does tape and chemicals better than most anyone.

If it's supposed to be sticky: 3M over anything else.

Toyota and Honda. I've also had good experiences with Mazda.

Peterson pipes are good and IMP meerschaum pipes are good too.

Continental tires for my bicycles. Definitely the best investment I’ve ever made for my bikes. Always recommend them to friends when they get flats.

You might find this community interesting !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net

If you consider software a product/good then Linux is very good. The kernel still supports systems with security updates that are older than a lot of people here.

Fluke:

https://youtu.be/ay9wFQAW19Y?si=2TAuQ5-lGVRfVczI

I have a few Fiskars products I really like. Hatchet, garden trowel, craft cutting board. They use a very durable, lightweight plastic

Comet Cleanser.
Cascade Detergent.

Look I'm a dad which means cargo shorts are basically required apparel (ok, wore them pre-kids), but Lee Dungarees have always been good to me.

Kleen Kanteen insulated water bottles is my pick. I have one from 2012 that looks like the Gameboy that survived a bomb blast from a decade of dropping it while walking and biking, and it still holds a vacuum on the insulation walls and doesn't leak.

Cactus Outdoor.

I had the original pack now called Vacuole, used it for a long time 10 or so years, lost it one time when moving houses. My boys have one each for school now, I expect them to last for the duration.

I have two pairs of supertrousers and two pairs of hangdog shorts, all have lasted 6 years so far, daily use in summer / winter for the shorts / trousers.

The stuff made in the Christchurch factory is epic.

one example:

i had these hiking pants. they were leightweight, they fit me, they were breathable, thay dryed really quick, they were zip pants, so you could take off the legs and had short trousers. cost like 50 euros.

sold by globetrotter hiking supplies in germany.

first, they were called black bear. then meru grimsey pants. then frilufts.

so, this is what they do: they discover what sells well. they take that, and ratch the price up every three months or so. when one brand is so pricey the sellnumbers drop off, they invent another one as competition, so you have two pants then.

usually there is a huge quality drop then, but also a price drop. but the product is virtually the same, in my case those same pants with different names. if you want pants with certain properties, there is this category.

now, the pants are shite. expensive they dont fit me anymore all features neutered pantlegs are narrow, like, leggins maybe? but thats stupid for the outdoors. you want loose pantlegs, because of sweat bugs, ventilation, insulation, bit of wind draft, and so you can roll them up. my ass doesnt fit as well the fabric is like plastic and not even breathable??? why would i want that?

this ratching up the price of what sells method is a thing these huge stores with great reputation do like, systemattically. i am sure this is like a buisness scholl topic.

what i do, i have alarms so that tell me when somebody is selling a size 48 of these pants. i managed to get two pairs recently.

None.

Veto pro pac tool bags.

They're meant for tradesmen, but they're tuff AF.

My solar powered casio pro-trek wristwatch has been going for over 15 years now. No battery changes, atomic clock syncing, altimeter, barometer, moon phases, tidal display, compass and a lot more.

Seriously i think it might be the last watch I'll ever own and within the first year I bought a second just to have a a backup if this one ever dies.

Toyota

Roland + Yamaha + Steinway (Musical Instruments)

Sennheiser (Headphones)

Roc-N-Soc (Drum Throne)

SmartWool + Darn Tough (Socks)

Khul + Prana (Clothing)

Seasonic (Power Supply)

AsRock (Motherboard)

CloudFlare (DNS Registrar)

PrivateInternetAccess (VPN)

I'm curious if anyone would vouch for a TV manufacturer? Are there any good dumb TVs anymore? I have a Samsung smart TV and it is an absolute pain in the ass to use the remote UI. I have resorted to running KODI on a Linux box instead.

Mountain Equipment Coop. They stand behind everything and it's all lasted me decades.

Wouldn't a general location be important here?

Like if I said that I trust X toilet paper brand that only exists in the US, how would I know that it helped in any way? Maybe you live in Ireland?

Costco. And if they suck, never a question returning.

Redwing

deLonghi

L.L. Bean

Eureka Camping Tents

Durston Backpacking Tents

Cotopaxi travel backpacks & bags

Osprey backpacking backpacks

Asolo boots

Redwing boots

Mountain Hardware down jackets (pretty much anything from them is great)

Wüsthof, Zwilling, and Zero Tolerance knives

DeWalt power tools

Wera, and Wiha hand tools

Samsonite, I'm on my 3rd backpack of theirs. I've been using them since I was about 11 or so, I'm 26 now.

They're not officially water or wear proof, but they've always been that way in my experience regardless. Even after years of daily use,and I was a weird school going kid that liked his bag heavy.

Their zippers failed on my on both my previous bags, when they got really cold in the winter. I don't know if it's the less cold temperatures of today, or whether they've improved their zippers, but they've not failed on my latest bag. Which is currently about 13 years old I think? It looks as good as new still

Ogio. I have 5 or 6 bags including some luggage. All have held up for 10s of years. Recently the luggage (7 years old) had a zipper break and Ogio just replaced it no questions asked.

I don't trust brands, I trust their customer support.

Any device/produce can fail, no matter how excellent it is. To me, what matters is how efficiently the issue is dealt with by the support.

Like, I trust Apple customer support and now, after approx. 40 years being their customer, their customer support is the sole reason I'm still buying Apple stuff (I don't like at all what they became and how they make their device unfixable on purpose, it's a shame for a company that so much pretend to care about being eco-friendly). I'm also a fountain pen user and a collector, but the brands I trust the most are not the most hyped and expensive, far from it, they're TWSBI and Lamy, because of their amazing customer support. Or, say, I mainly wear Merrell shoes for hiking (because they fit me well, obviously) because they have a fine customer support. And so on.

I have zero brand loyalty beyond that, and will not hesitate to change brand if they ever cut on their customer support.

Decathlon brands are pretty much it with me, quechua and the assorted brands they make themselves or allow in store.

whether shoes, rucksacks, hammocks, running shorts, I'm consistently blown away by their extreme comfort and durability, especially for the price.

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.

Lush, specifically their shampoo. I would use other stuff of theirs but I live in a country which they do not sell in, so the shampoo (which lasts for ages) is something I buy a lot of when I can get it.

Apple I generally trust (computers, not phones, those are too expensive and limited).

Does it count as reliable if I only have sample size of 1?

Beyerdynamic. Had DT770 pro for 8 years before they "broke" (cable connection failed, I think it's still fixable--making them last for many more years---by someone with skills I don't have, and they could have lasted more if I handled them a tad better.)

Recently I replaced them with DT770 pro X and they sound perfect to me.

Patagonia since they also offer repair services in the event of damage and are relatively ethical.

Keeley and MXR guitar pedals

Washer/Dryer - speed queen

Hottest take on this site: Apple.

I use my 2011 MacBook Pro to manage my 80k photos. My phone is six years old. My iPad Pro is five? (Edit: I lied, it’s a 2017 model) Years old.

I don’t use their desktops, I use Linux for my servers and windows for playing games. But my Apple shit for casual use has all lasted me an insane amount of time.

My 13 year old MacBook Pro still gets through 1.75 playthroughs of Beetlejuice on max brightness! Full disclaimer, I originally bought it for games and used Windows 7 always plugged in, and only now it has an SSD and OSX and the battery has 30 cycles. BUT STILL

I never had any problem with any Kindle that I had. Paperwhite is a wonderful device

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

Carhartt

Flowfold makes great, long-lasting products from recycled materials. I’ve got a few of their products and continue to be impressed.

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.

Better late than never, but I really like Nokian Tyres. They are fantastic.

Miele whitewear

Cotopaxi

Fitbit for fitness trackers. I had one of their smartwatches and never found it useful. The trackers are stripped down versions that do everything I need and have a week of battery life.

McDonalds. Their burgers and fries have consistent quality no matter where on the planet I eat them.

None. Do your research and due diligence.

This could help but make sure you take everything with a grain of salt

https://app.joinbeaker.com/