It goes without saying that capitalism sucks and corporations suck. I don’t have loyalty to any “brand”. But I do care about me and my comrades being able to afford to live.
There’s that phrase that “it’s expensive to be poor”, which I think is very true. When you’re poor, you can only afford the cheapest commodities. These inevitably break, so you have to spend more money on a replacement.
I’m trying to break out of this cycle myself as much as possible. Instead of buying the cheapest replacement, I’m trying to save up my money to buy a replacement that will last. Unfortunately, researching this is hard. There’s so much astroturfing and “sponsored content”. So I figured I’d ask my fellow hexbears, what products do you know of are made in a way that they will last and actually cost less than buying replacements? There’s a few suggestions I can offer:
I used to work in a pretty solid outdoor gear store, and I was really impressed with the Deuter backpacks. They were always really durable and cheaper than Osprey. I have one I bought in 2007 and I still use it regularly today.
I own a Casio G-Shock watch. The “squares” are usually relatively affordable. The bands and batteries can be swapped out. I’m pretty tough on mine and it still looks mint. I do expect I’ll be wearing mine for a very long time. Or if you don’t want to spend money the F-91W is like $10 and still works well even though it’s not ruggedized. Worn by Bin Laden, too.
Something in the ideal category of durable and cheap are Sungait sunglasses. They’re like $15-$20 each and have UV400 protection. Mine have lasted a while and have handled a lot of being thrown around
As a parent, we have some Hape toys our kids beat up and they stay together well. My wife bought some Primary dot com clothes thinking they would last but they don’t seem any better than the super cheap clothes at Walmart or Target we normally buy.
Surprised nobody has yet mentioned /r/buyitforlife aka "BIFL". If you have specific needs it is a good search.
In general its hard because if someone has something they bought 20 years ago, its difficult to know if the same model of the same brand produced today will perform as well.
I think looking at the length of the warranty is a good metric. Not just if it breaks but if it requires service. Are parts available? Look up online people attempting to replace or upgrade diy.
And you can learn to inspect items to see how likely it is to hold up. For textiles: Always prefer a YKK zipper to an unbranded one. Look at the stitching. To start with, on things you already own, compare how an item which you feel is good quality is made to a bad quality. Turn a good and bad pair of trousers inside out and put them side by side.
I have a bag with a failing zipper. Its arguably my fault for putting too much stress on it. However the zipper is badly placed due to strange design. I tried to reinforce the zipper with some extra stitches, but now I see the zipper has barely anything to attach to and I'm just sewing into some thin nylon. Also the zipper tape is weaker, thinner than you'd expect on a backpack and there is nothing really to grab onto at that side. To salvage this bag would require substantial reconstruction and this isn't the only flaw. It was not extremely expensive but I could have bought something for 1/3 the price that wouldn't need this much help. I will just have to be extremely gentle with it.