I tried to subscribe to boot economics and spend the money on nicer clothes with the expectation that they’d be of higher quality and therefor last me longer. Boy do I look fucking stupid now in my expensive ass patch covered jeans and “nice” boots with the heel worn down to shit. You can’t even buy nice things anymore. You have to sacrifice a child straight to Epstein Moloch if you want quality these days
The thing is, without extensive research and the ability to find non-astroturfed reviews, you can just as easily spend more and get even worse quality.
I have a hard time buying things online because of this. Like I’d like to have a monitor mount to have more desk space, but they all look similar but they’re probably all pretty shit, so I have no idea how to get a good one.
Or I need oven gloves (my current mitts have a hole in them that burned my finger, causing me to drop the tray and accidentally grab it with my other hand that didn’t have a mitt), do I buy official Ove’ Gloves™ at $18 per glove or some brandless gloves that are $10 total? Is there actually a quality difference?
buy the cheap product once. if it lasts a while, congrats, it was worth it. if it craps out, buy the expensive product. aka the harbor freight rule
I bought my monitor and TV mounts from monoprice after a coworker recommended them. They just rebadge OEM products, but at least they have a minimum quality standard and list accurate measurements and weight capacities.
Mounts for monitors/TVs are either cheap with varying quality when bought online, or wildly expensive (also with varying quality) when bought from a big box store.
You know it’s funny, I bought a pair of Docs casual boots way back in 2018. Didn’t do anything special to take care of them and I beat the heck out of them until late last Spring when the tread caught on something at work and got partially torn from the boot. I really liked them, so I ordered a pair of actual work boots from the company. If you remember in that time frame there was a period where literally everyone wore Docs to the point that it was a little absurd. Well they must have seriously cut back on quality control to meet quotas for that trend because those work boots I bought are on their last leg less than a year later. The heel is all broken, the slip resistance is rapidly disappearing, and the leather is practically disintegrating in some places.
Maybe they’ve always been shit and I just got lucky with that original pair of boots, but I bet they just said “fuck it” and tried to push out as many of those shiny plastic pairs as they could at the expense of actual decent products.
I can’t even fucking find boots that fit me most of the time, and when they do none last longer than a year
I bought a pair of Thursday boots - meme fashion boots, not even good Goodyear welt boots - before I went vegan and they’ve served me very well. $200 or $250 maybe, after 2.5 years the sole wore out and I had them resoled with a heavier tread pattern for like $90. I’ve never actually worn out a pair of shoelaces before.
But I have never tried to buy clothing that lasts, I just thrift and tailor if need be.
