4mo ago

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

(I'm trying to adjust my shopping habits for quality, long-lasting goods from reputable brands. This isn't some hailcorporate thing)

314 comments

There are tons of great quality brands. Until capitalism kills them and they become the same as the rest.
- I remember when Logitech was the stamp of quality in computer accessories.
  Now? It's trash!
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  They still make some good hardware, but I wouldn't trust the company one bit.
- When the MBA’s take over, the company is sucked dry.
  
  Take me over next, MBAs
- 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?
- 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.
- This is the truth.
- 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.

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
  
  Fuck off
- 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.
- Nah you can't trust Keen anymore as of like 7 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.

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.
- 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.
  https://www.lecreuset.com/outlets.html
  
  Also thrift stores. The only Le Creuset pan I own cost me $7.
  
  2nd trick, they have an outstanding warranty. Bring it in, they swap it out.
  
  There's plenty of knockoffs brands that seem to be as hardy; might but be worth the premium anymore.
  
  Not everything Le Creuset. They seem to be very similar to other kitchen brands (kitchenaid, Cuisinart, etc) in that they make a few excellent products, but the rest of their line 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A lot of OXO stuff is cheap made in China junk these days.

Why would you trust a brand? The brand that you like wasn't the same people 20 years ago, and that will change again.
- there still are brands that make a good quality product and haven't tried to scam customers. Leatherman comes to mind.
- You can like the quality the brand embodies and sells.
  If you know the quality is a good compromise to the amount of money you spend it's tbh a no-brainer.

Regarding online services, Proton.
https://proton.me/
- I love Proton’s mission just like all Lemmy users but I wouldn’t say you can trust them in terms of quality. Apart from Proton Mail and Proton VPN, most of their other products unfortunately have a deep lack of features.
  
  I use Mail, Pass and VPN with no issues.
  What lack of quality and features do you refer to?

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.
  
  anchor
  is tupperware
  
  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...
- 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?
  Edit: for reference, see this link by The Verge or this one by Mozilla and scroll down a little.
  
  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.
- They've been my go to for headphones & speakers for a while, but my last few purchases of different models all ended up getting returned due to the same connectivity issues. Sitting at home, the headphones are fine, but when I'm out for a walk, they experience some sort of interference that causes the music to skip/stutter. I still have an old, long discontinued, pair of Anker earbuds, and when I go for the same walk with those, there's zero connectivity issues.

Merrell hiking boots.
- 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.
- My keen boots fit me better than Merrill.
- 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.
- I have a pair of Oboz that have held up for quite a while
- Yeah. All my shoes are Merrels =)

I was looking in this thread for Brother printers. They are consistently OK, as all other printer brands have gone to shit.
- My 15 year old brother color laser printer is still going strong after 78k pages printed. And they still sell replacements parts for it so I can repair it if there is ever a need for it

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

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.
  
  Are you promoting throwing those used condoms in the wash with a little oxy clean?
  
  Man, oxiclean really is a life saver for me. No store brand has really been as good.
  
  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
- 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.

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.
- That's amazing. I'm going to look into this. I suppose they make this work because most customers actually find it inconvenient to send their destroyed socks back or the terms to do so make it difficult.
  
  The socks are $20-27 pair, but they're the most comfortable sock I've worn. I'm switching my whole wardrobe or socks over as I can afford.

"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.
- The only brands I trust are owned and operated by individuals. I do woodworking and I use Japanese tools (their quality is incredible) and good blades are individually forged by masters.
  Unfortunately the greatest smiths are always poor, or at least never rich. They all have an extreme devotion to integrity and quality that I highly admire. I wish to make a storefront to support these dedicated craftsmen.

YKK zips. On anything I've ever owned, they don't break. And I find that more durable clothing brands will use YKK zips.
- My anecdotal experience, don't get them on tall boots
  I have a couple pieces of clothing with riri zippers, they're fantastic

Kirkland anything (nearly anyway)
- Similarly, nearly everything made by H-E-B / Central Market. Save for maybe one or two things where I’ve been disappointed, I like and even prefer their store brand for many things.
- No thanks https://vegworldmag.com/opinion-costco-must-take-accountability-for-animal-cruelty-at-its-suppliers-instead-of-suing-us-for-protesting/
  
  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.
  
  That is horrifying, what the fuck is wrong with these people? How hard would it be to get nitrogen?

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.
- Dualit used to be the dog's bollocks of toasters but they sold out, and Breville is the new king.
  If you can find a 20 year old steel Dualit on eBay however, it'll last the rest of your life
  
  How exactly did Dualit shit the bed? Aren't they still repairable and made in the UK? Sorry, I've been doing a lot of toaster research and have one in my cart literally right now, so it would be awesome to know if I missed something before paying $350 lol
- Can confirm. They're not commercial grade kind of quality, but they are some of the best consumer grade right now, mostly because they use fewer plastic parts than most and good quality steel. Though they still use too much plastic in things that would be better served by lower grade metals or glass.
  I also have an espresso machine, coffee grinder, and toaster oven that I've had for ages and never needed new parts. I also have an all stainless french press that is really sturdy, but because the shape isn't perfect, the rod for the press needed to be replaced once since it requires a lot more pressure than it should to use it. But even with that defect, it has lasted nearly 15 years, and I only replaced the rod and filter once.

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.
- I second this recommendation. They're certainly not the best at anything, but they're a good value for the money and good quality.
- Opinel is amazing too for knives. Their pocket knives are cheap, sharp and easy to sharpen and durable.

Kirkland
- Surprisingly good quality for just about everything except dishwashing and dishwasher detergent.
  
  I use Kirkland dishwashing detergent; the new formulation is comparable to Dawn, at about half the price. The older, clear formulation was not quite as nice.

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.
- This needs more upvotes. 6k pages from a single cartridge.
- A brother laser printer was the best decision of my college career. I only wish I'd have bought it sooner

Casio
Seiko
Slackware
Vibram
Shimano
Coen Brothers
- Shimano 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

Stihl tools. They just fucking work.
- Add to this Husqvarna, Bahco and Fiskars

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.
  
  ......are they marketed by Jake from Statefarm?
  
  I think the pack I have is the same fabric. You’re right, it reminds me of Dickies – indestructible.

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 you think smartwool is good, you should check out darn tough socks. Those things are amazing, and come with a lifetime warranty
- Smartwool enshitified by dropping their warranty to two years. Used to be able to take an old pair to my outfitter and pick out a new set, no questions.
  Like the other user said, check out DT. EZPZ replacement.

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.

OceanGate, depending on your goals.
- "I want to go to the bottom of the ocean"
  "Say no more..."

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.
- Most of the shit is made in China now, including Craftsman, Snap-on, and other traditional American tool manufacturing brands. Wera and Wiha are made in Germany, and worth the extra money if you expect your tools to last a lifetime.
  
  Wera and Wiha are both great but Craftsan and Snap-On still machine and manufacture tools in the US
- i cite from popularmechanics.com:
  As this graphic from PressureWashr.com shows, just 18 megabrands control 91 percent of the global power tools market. Of those, four companies control 48 percent.
  picture: https://hips.hearstapps.com/pop.h-cdn.co/assets/17/39/1506429411-pressha.jpg?
  
  I like how Hilti and Makita own… Hilti and Makita.
  
  I like the hilti part
  
  Good ol' Makita. I got locked in to that battery ecosystem but I'm not disappointed about it much.
- I got so sad when I picked up some Airwalks a few years ago, only for them to fall apart pretty quickly. Turns out they’d been bought out by some branding firm who had licensed the name out to whoever wanted to make them on the cheap. So yeah, Airwalks used to be one of the big names in skateboarding shoes with Vans and DC, and now they’re dog shit.
- Or buy Festool.
  
  sure let me go take out a loan for a biscuit joiner.
  
  My dream shop setup is Festool for corded and Hilti for cordless

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.
- Seconding Startech - I bought a DP to DVI-D adapter for my MacBook Pro and while it worked flawlessly with my PC, macOS was only showing me 1280x800 resolution instead of the monitor's full 2560x1600 resolution. I found that under Windows on Bootcamp it fully worked on the same hardware so it was clearly a macOS thing.
  Emailed their support about it and within a day, got a guy who immediately gave me very technical and specific advice and suggestions, clearly very experienced. We weren't able to solve it (chalked it up to a weird macOS limitation and work gave me a different adapter that worked) but he was still incredibly helpful, and I'll have confidence in buying from them in the future that their support should be excellent.
- Didn't Asus start enshittifying recently? Thought I saw some chatter about that on here 😢
  
  They have had some sus stuff very recently yes.. disappointing.
  
  Just stay away from the RoG nonsense and you should be fine.
- For 3D printers I think prusa is the bramd that can be trusted with quality.
  They are expensive but made in Europe and very reliable out of the box. I've been printing tons of parts for the renovation of my house and tools organization with no issues. I just start the print and come back once it done. Now I even do it remotely from work.
  Compared to my brother who had a Ender 3, tinkered quite a lot with it but was constantly baby sitting the prints and eventually just gave up on it.

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.
- Anker has been a solid brand since at least the 90's. Always reliable. Never the fanciest, but always reliable.
- They were caught spying on their cloud based surveillance camera customers though

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.
- The second part of your comment is flat out wrong for most homeowners. Ryobi tools are fine for Henry Homeowner. And specialty tools from harbor freight are fine. Buy cheap and if you use it enough to break it, then buy quality.
  
  Also for more active hobbyists Harbor Freight can be improved to be good tools. Things like replacing a cheap drive belt with a better quality belt is all some of their tools need. Searching some tool blogs can tell you if a tool is fixable or just trash.
- Would Makita be in the same category?
  
  Makita, Milwaukee, and DeWalt seem to all be comparable.
  
  If you can find Japanese Makita brand products (I.E., from Japan), they have actual quality.
- What's wrong with Black+Decker? I've had many of their appliances and they never let me down.
  
  They have been a shit-tier tool for a long time after being dead solid for decades. I don’t know if they’ve moved up to “ok” recently, but I haven’t bought B&D in 15 years because they were crap.

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

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 bought two large Stanley thermoses when they were on sale locally. Used them every day for 5 years. Besides a few cosmetic blemishes they're as good as new.

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.
- I goddamn hate their avionics tho.
  
  Aside from their love of rotary knobs garmin is mostly fine. Their GA autopilots are amazing. If only everyone used Collins I would be very happy.
- Yeah, it seems like they finally invested in firmware and software programmers. WAY fewer issues than back in the day, still amazing hardware quality.
- I have a Garmin Edge 840 bike computer and I do like it (more than the Wahoo ELMNT Bolt v2 I had before), but man some of the design decisions are just baffling to me.
  Like why can't I have tones for my notifications (for refuelling), without also having them for navigation? And why do notifications close themselves after 5 seconds? I always miss them because I either have the tones silenced and happen to be looking where I'm going instead of my head unit when they pop up, or I have the tones on I miss them because the navigation tones are so obnoxious I just learn to ignore all the sounds.
  And why can't I disable the virtual partner, and why the hell is the arrow on the map for the virtual partner bigger than the one that represents the actual rider?
  /rant
  
  I have disabled the virtual partner on my 520, so you should be able to do the same as well.
  As tones, you can do some tweaking, and I read somewhere that the sound is a file that you can replace by connecting the unit via USB to PC...
  Garmin entire filesystem tree is accessible from PC via USB (mtp)....

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.
- Mainly I use them as a easy way to recognize German tourists. Never seen them on sale anywhere but I guess they must be sold in Germany because Germans sure love them! French can be recognized by Quechua backpacks BTW tho less reliably. And in the past, Italians by Invicta and Swedes by Fjallraven.

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

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.
- Ltt store support is far and away the best customer support I've ever experienced
- I freaking agree
- I have their screwdriver and I love it
  
  I finally bit the bullet and ordered mine as well in the noctua coloring because I like that ugly brown unironically.

Toyota and Honda. I've also had good experiences with Mazda.
- As an embedded software engineer, you should never forget the Toyota "unintended acceleration" fiasco. They bent the NHTSA over by only allowing NDA'd engineers to review their software in a SKIF and never directly being able to speak about what they saw. It was millions of lines of spaghetti code scattered across dozens of processors in their cars, and it killed a ton of people.
  I know Toyota is praised for their business practices, their introduction of hybrid cars, and their general good treatment of workers. But never forget their managerial practices that let the software degrade to the point that it killed people.
  
  When they started with hybrids they kinda got ahead with the Prius and stopped.

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

Mazda for cars (pretty much anything after 2013)

3M does tape and chemicals better than most anyone.
If it's supposed to be sticky: 3M over anything else.
- How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe
  https://www.propublica.org/article/3m-forever-chemicals-pfas-pfos-inside-story
  I'll just leave this here without further comment
  
  Yeah, I've read it before. And bayer gave aids to foreign countries, and nestle has done deplorable things, and the banana people have hired mercenaries to kill natives for banana control, and our US government let tons of black people die and spread syphilis because they just wanted to see how it went instead of giving them the cure, cable companies stole billions and never delivered on promised infrastructure....if it's a big entity, they're usually pieces of shit. I'm still getting my tape from 3M.

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.

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.

Peterson pipes are good and IMP meerschaum pipes are good too.
- Hello, fellow piper.
  I also find Missouri Meerschaum pipes an excellent starter pipe for $20 to get someone into the hobby.
  
  I would love to try one of them but I spent all my pipe money on meerschaums so it's gonna have to wait.

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
- I abused the shit out of my loppers and cracked the blade. They sent me a new blade without much fuss.

Comet Cleanser.
Cascade Detergent.
- Bar Keepers friend too
- Don't forget BonAmi

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.

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.
- But velcro, dude. As a gen-x I now hate everything velcro. Teva sandals, cargo shorts, seams on jackets; it's just got to go.
  
  Yeaaah velcro isn't usually my speed but I like the flex ones because they dry out so fast and are very lightweight. I have the heavier duty cargo ones they make that are all buttons no velcro.
- At least navy blue, righ?
  
  I'll be honest I thought they were but being colorblind turns out they were just dark gray :))

I don't trust brands, I trust their customer support.
Any device/product 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.
- Any device/produce can fail
  "Um, sir? This banana has failed."
  
  Better call customer support.
  Of course, they're just going to tell you to turn it off and back on again.
  
  :)
  Thx, fixed
- I’ll never forget when the internal speaker went on my first iPhone, a 3GS. I put off getting it repaired because I was so used to having to send my previous Nokias and HTCs back and being without my phone for a couple of weeks. But the warranty was about to expire, so I bit the bullet and booked an appointment to get it sorted.
  Walked in to the appointment and walked out ten minutes later with a brand new phone.
  That sold me on Apple’s customer support.
  I will say though, that the support seems to have tanked over the past few years. That they’ll jump on any blemishes on the device as a reason to not honour the warranty. Like how the screen in my XR had a tiny burn right at the edge (I was a welder at the time and stupidly had it in the top pocket of my overalls), which they used as reason to not work on it when it kept freezing. They demanded I pay £150 for a replacement screen first, which I refused, so they returned it to me. They’d taken off the screen protector, so I then had to argue with them for weeks to get them to replace it.
  
  To be clear, Apple's Support has its fair share of drawbacks and always had — I've been their customer since the mid-80s, there never was a magical period where they were perfect ;) — but what matters (to me, at least) is that while the product is under warranty a customer doesn't have to worry too much on average (because, once again, there will be cases where support will fail the customer).
  Outside of warranty, that's an other story but then the real issue is in the way Apple designs its machines to not be upgradable or not easily fixable, if at all. That's the real shame and that should be outlawed.

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.

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