Doc martens are not so great quality now. The general consensus is that Solovair are the spiritual successor (in terms of quality) to what Dr Martens were. This video has more info: youtu.be/vkhCcvfVHRs?si=21bH9fSvkNgmjwm1
For laptops O would recommend framework laptops. The idea is that they have upgradable and repairable.modules. You can follow them on mastodon too: @frameworkcomputer And we have a Lemmy community too: !framework
It’s not at all in the vein of work wear, but I have had Klipsch speakers all of my life and have never had any issues with any of them. My dad has some enormous old school Klipsch speakers from the 60s that are almost as tall as I am and are still crisp, clear and deep. I am rocking Klipsch throughout my house as well. They’re very expensive but I appreciate the clarity.
I’ve had their 2.1 computer speaker set for nearly 20 years at this point. The only issue I’ve ever had was crackling when adjusting volume, and that was caused by dust inside the knob. WD-40 to fix. Love them.
Sub Zero Fridges, amazing. Toyota, just about any vehicle they make. Vulcan Commercial gas ranges/ovens. Original Penguin Button Up Shirts or Pendleton outer wear. Stihl chainsaws. Festool power tools.
Sub Zero fridges are great, but keep the maintenance up on them.
I personally own a Wolf DF304 range and if you cook a LOT, they are well worth the money. Mine is 10 years old, is used VERY heavily and it is the best cooking stove I’ve ever cooked on.
I’ve got so many old Pendleton wool shirts. They’re back from the '60s when my dad was a surfer. I didn’t think I fit in him at the moment but I don’t want to get rid of them
3 years ago I bought a double pack of usb-C to A cables on Amazon. Description mentioned a lifetime warranty so I took a screenshot for future. The only thing Anker wanted to know was the production number (which is on the packaging) and a proof of destruction of the old broken cable. Not a single usb cable survived longer than a year at our household despite Ankers.
Amazon Basics’ line of braided USB cables is comparable to Anker, btw. Lots of people estimate that they’re made on the same production line.
I bought a three pack of their lightning cables five or six years ago. Every single one of them sees daily use (at my work desk, in my car, next to my bed) and every single one is still working just fine. Hell, they outlasted the phone I bought them for.
Anker is basically the only phone accessory brand I use. Now that iPhone moved to USB-C, Costco finally carries USB-C cables and they sell a really nice set of Anker cables, and Costco vouching for them tells me all I need to know.
I’ve had an Anker 2 port 3A charger for at least 5 years or so and don’t have any complaints about it. I’ve been an Anker fanboy for a while (albeit, I don’t buy a ton of electronics, but when I do need something Anker is my go-to), but I will say that doing some Googling recently it sounds like their quality might be going down. Just something to be aware of; I’ll probably keep buying from them unless I have a bad experience or keep hearing similar things. I’m just not aware of an alternative that’s as good as they have been.
I’m an Android developer and have owned a huge amount of cables and use them an absurd amount for times. Unfortunately I didn’t have a good experience with Anker cables. They seem to die on me as fast as other brands, usually what happens is phone connection ends up being hit or miss after a lot of use (eg. You have to wiggle it or the connection is lost if the cable is lightly disturbed).
From my personal experience UGreen is currently holding the record for longest lasting cables. So far they have outlasted all of my other cables to the point where almost all of the cables I have left are UGreen because all of the other cables have failed.
JanSport backpacks. My wife had the zipper wear out on the backpack she has had for ~20 years. She contacted the manufacturer. They don’t make that particular bag anymore so they just sent her a comparable equivalent with almost no questions asked.
Yup they will just send you a new one. I’ve been using the same black jansport bag for > 5 years. As far as I can see the new ones they sent has the same quality as more than 5 years ago.
I know it’s only one data point, but I was gifted a Zanussi fridge freezer by my best man as a wedding present in 2004. It is still going strong. I will never buy any other brand if and when the time comes.
Doc Martens are now Chinese made IIRC and don’t last.
Solovair is the the company that used to make Martens and you can still buy that style there. I hear they’re much better than Martens, but also occasionally a mixed review that they didn’t last very long.
I’ll offer a mixed review for carhartt…while they used to be strictly workwear, they’ve started putting up retail spaces in designer clothing areas. Prices have shot up. I had a belt from them that fell apart pretty quick with normal wear. Got a work shirt that’s doing pretty good though. IMO they’re headed down the same road as a lot of brands that get popular - price hikes with decreased quality.
I just got some Carhartt “wool” socks for Christmas. They are pilling like crazy after 1-2 wears/washes. They’re less than half wool, so that might be the issue.
I do WFH and I don’t wear shoes in the house, but that’s literally why I wanted wool socks.
I asked my parents for wool socks for Christmas twenty years ago and they gave me a few pairs each of three or four different brands. The ones that have lasted the longest and include a lifetime warranty is Redhead from Bass Pro. I’ve only exchanged them once or twice. They’re tall and thick with high pile wool. I’ve worn a pair almost every day for probably nine months out of the year, sometimes year-round, ever since I got them.
I’ll offer a mixed review for carhartt…while they used to be strictly workwear, they’ve started putting up retail spaces in designer clothing areas.
Carhartt and Carhartt Work in Progress are two different brands, the former is the good workwear one, the later is the designer fashionable stuff. Stick to their non WIP stuff
Slight correction: From my understanding, Solovair is the company that purchased the cobbling machinery/factory that DocMartens sold off when they fully off-shored. DocMartens then contracted with them for their limited release, price-inflated, Made in UK boots. As the designs are long out of patent, Solovair also manufactures their own. I see Docs at a 15% markup, just for the name.
Bosch electric drill. I’m not a tradesman or a professional, but I’ve had mine for over 30 years, doing household and hobby work, drilled holes in brick, concrete, wood, metal, and it’s never let me down.
Tools are kind of a cheat, they’re pretty solid chunks of metal and even halfway decent tools will work a while with care. There are absolutely lemons out there made of junk metal that will shatter.
So a shout out to Harbor Freight. Buy their Icon brand or Doyle hand tools. They are often good enough for some serious mechanics, and absolutely good enough for the home wrench slinger with normal use. Yeah, there are a lot of upper tier tools like Gearwrench that will last forever, but HF stuff will get the job done for cheaper and last just as long.
The normal kitchen aid stand mixer. A no-brainer.
A nespresso-made nespresso. Not the cheap ones made by breville or whatever that are sold at Target. Our Nespresso has been seeing fairly regular use for almost 2 decades. Don’t expect it to literally be BIFL, but it’s doing great.
Strongbags. Designed for flight crew, but anyone can buy it. Super-durable gear for travel. Maybe not fashionable in the trendy sense, but it’s well made and as close to BIFL as you can get. Doesn’t have the trendy cache of Fjallraven and the like. Had one of their coolers for 15 years now.
An odd one: Bestek. Bought one of their car power adapters. 12v with 3 12v sockets and 4 USB out. Damn thing won’t quit. Charges all the family’s devices on road trips plus runs the dashcam.
Kent comb. Yeah, it’s just a comb. However, that cheap shit at the chain drug store (like Goody) cracks, loses teeth, and is just cheap. Unless you deliberately abuse the Kent comb it will last a lifetime.
Knipex smooth jaw plyers were sort of an accidental purchase, my last $50 I ever spent at Sears.
I won’t use any others when given the chance. Easy to wipe clean, very strong action, and the handles have a bend so you kind of can’t pinch your fingers when gripping something small. I love em.
Have you tried unplugging it with things powered on to make sure the battery is working? The batteries are supposed to be replaced every couple years, I found out when I started having power outages last winter and my (seasonic) PSU just turned off when the power flickered and PC was running. I bought a replacement battery off Amazon for cheap and it was easy to swap out.
PSU is different than UPS. PSU is the Power Supply Unit and doesn’t have a battery. UPS are Uninterruptable Power Supplies and do have batteries. Seasonic only makes PSU’s.
Speed queen washers and dryers. LGs and Samsung’s drop like flies in comparison. They are expensive but they are made in the United States and last donkeys years. I’ve heard of people moving out after 10 years, and taking their speed queen dryer with them.
Also, in general, hand made Japanese knives. Any knife will keep cutting if sharpened but most of “sharpness” is thinness of the blade. That’s why we don’t use meat cleavers for daily prep. Japanese knives are made to be thinned and polished, as the edge will become thicker with repeated sharpenings. Other knives will get thicker and thicker and become complete carrot crunchers. These can be thinned too but it’s much more difficult with only sharpening stones.
Additionally the handles are easily replaceable by anyone, western style handles require destructive disassembly of the existing scales and rivets.
Japanese knives are great if that’s your preference but that excludes a lot of other BIFL knives worth considering.
Wusthof in particular should be on the list as well as Global. In general kitchen knives are more forgiving in the BIFL category because a lot of it is just properly caring for what you have.
I’ve had wusthof handles break on me and they are a pain to replace. You have to drill the rivets, remove the scales, glue new ones, drill new rivet holes, hammer new rivets and then shape them. With Japanese knives you tap the handle off and put in a whole new one.
Another issue with wusthof is that the bolsters on their chef knives are way too large. They weigh the know down and makes it annoying to sharpen. Over time it will develop a recurve and won’t contact the cutting board. Your only option is to grind it down, which is a big endeavor because they’re so damn big nowadays.
They’re still great knives but because of those issues that Japanese knives don’t have, they aren’t the best BIFL option for me.
I get that everybody has their own preference but BIFL is more about quality of materials, durability, reputation of the company etc.
I’ve had wusthof handles break on me and they are a pain to replace.
How so? You just send it to Wusthof and they replace or repair it. Seems pretty BIFL
Another issue with wusthof is that the bolsters on their chef knives are way too large.
My Wusthof Ikons have no more bolster than my brothers Japanese set. I assume you’re talking about the Classic line of Wusthof?
You raise issues based on your preference but that doesn’t impact them being BIFL. They’re well made, hold an edge and Wusthof stands behind them 100%.
I dropped my utility knife once and it bent the tip. I shipped it to Wusthof and they took care of it, only cost me shipping. I also had a knife block that split, for that they wanted a picture, then they shipped me a replacement and asked me to destroy the old one. I used it in a campfire. Seems pretty BIFL to me.
This is the one to pay attention to. Speed Queen is what every laundromat uses, because they’re fucking rock solid and don’t need a lot of maintenance. They don’t have as many bells and whistles as a Samsung, but they’ll outlast two or three Samsungs and still be cleaning just as well as the day you bought it.
They also cost as much as 3 samsungs. I am all for buy-it-for-life, but when I can buy a nice Samsung with bells and whistles, have a better wash, lower energy use, and more flexible options on how the clothing is being washed- then why would I not buy the Samsung? My Samsung washer was 800 and the dryer was 600. A speed queen starts at 2400 each. I could buy 3 washers and then 4 dryers for that. Plus I save money on the energy cost with my Samsung eco settings.
I have a house filled with buy it for life where I can and where it makes sense. And when I bought the washer and dryers I looked into speedqueen. It didn’t make sense. And before people start saying things like “good luck replacing them in 3 years” they are already 5 years old. My 1400$ is 5 years in and doing just fine.they could break today and need to both be replaced, and I am still ahead. I think speed queen is one of the few BIFL brands that I disagree with.
For pots and pans, buy Demeyere. The Demeyere Apollo pots and pans I bought 21 years ago still look just about as good as the day I unboxed them, and I am rough on my cookware. I have a little weathering along the edge of the heart conductive disk on the bottom of some pans, but that is it.
They sit dirty too long and get crusty. They go right into my dishwasher. They fall out of my lower cabinet onto my tile floor all the time. None of this phases them. I bought them over two decades ago because I had an employee discount at a cookware store and the company rep classified them as, “dishwasher recommended.” As an avid home cook and occasional caterer, these pans, a Le Creuset Dutch oven, and my grandmothers’ cast iron are my daily workhorses.
You are going to pay through the nose for Demeyere pans, but they will last long enough for your kids to cook with them after you are gone. You can get their least expensive line of regular pans, cry once, and be good for life.
You might see used Demeyere indoor smokers, asparagus steamers, egg poachers, and other similarly oddball pans in online market places. Ignore those. They were a cheap line made in a different factory at one point. They are not the same quality. All of the regular style Demeyere pans (skillets, sauce pans, woks, sauciers, etc.) are excellent, and I would not hesitate to buy them used.
Baggallini bags are virtually indestructible in my experience. I have a tote and a purse that I’ve used daily for 5 years, and they both look exactly like they did the day I bought them.
The stitches came undone on some areas of my Baggallini after a few years of daily use and international travel. The design of the bag was so good and thoughtful that I just couldn’t bear to stick with the new purse I bought to replace it. I ended up repairing the old bag and going back to using it every day. I think it’s their Modern Everywhere bag.
Outdoor Research for hiking/outdoors wear. Great quality and they stand behind their lifetime warranty. My father in law had his winter gloves split open after owning them for 30 years and they replaced them.
I want to agree, and still do for some of their items, but personally have found a lot of their products have gone downhill in the last few years. Quality control is all over on the gloves nowadays, sent two pairs back with weird stitching and a single pencil point tapered finger on liners. I originally liked the vigor midlayer fleece stuff as a budget R1 but it’s pilled and worn super fast and just isn’t that warm anymore.
Their alpine merino base layer stuff is pretty awesome though, and found the ascent shell touring jacket nice and breathable for backcountry stuff. For the most part I’ll just spend a bit extra and go for Patagonia moving forward, which of also consider a BIFL brand.
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