Yeah I got an old cardigan from a relative and it’s soooo comfy
Not just clothing. This youtuber does testing for different types of tools and in this case crescent wrenches: https://youtu.be/cyOd05PUix4
Some of the other brands performed alright, but the best one is the vintage Craftsman that you can’t actually buy new anywhere. I’ve heard similar things about things like kitchen appliances, where vintage versions go for quite a bit online because they are much better and more reliable, even after many years of use.
There were plenty of shit consumer products back in the day that haven’t survived, but the ones that are still around like Sears Craftsman Tools from before the buyout or stand mixers from the 50s, are literally “They don’t make them like they used to”. Refinements of all kinds of cost cutting measures and planned obselescence and other bullshit have drastically changed the math behind the manufacture of consumer goods. Metal parts that would last for decades are now plastic parts that maybe last for years. It’s cheaper that way. Screws have been replaced with glue. Hell, in cars buttons are being replaced with touch screens because buttons have to be made to spec but you can just order flat screens and put them in any car you want.
Idk, it’s all bullshit.
Sometimes I dream of what the Soviet smartphone would look like. It would weigh five pounds. All parts would be waterproof and shockproof. The image quality would be shit but it would also function in space. Every single component would be user serviceable and could be replaced in the field using only a screw driver in less than ten minutes. The 2006 model would continue to be produced for 83 years with parts upgrade kits available every decade or so. Normally the signal would suck but the thing comes packaged with a four foot whip antenna that, when installed, would get five bars in the Mariana Trench. People would complain about them constantly but also keep them in flawless condition and hand them down to their kids.
Speaking of Soviet products, are you familiar with these?
What sounds like a German music festival, is actually the name of a genius east German glass invention, a glass which could last up to 15 times longer than normal glass. The origins of Superfest, literally SuperHard – were twofold. East Germany was always a frugal country with a mindset of not wasting the limited resources it had, and it was driven by technological advances.
But then…
Despite their commercial success in East Germany, the production plant in Schewpnitz was shut down on the 1st of July, 1990. After German reunification, the plant was sold off and scrapped piece by piece – as no manufacturer had any interest in the technology, or in a product which would actually “slow down” sales. And that’s (just one of many small) tragedies of German reunification. Superfest was an invention that maybe could have only been made under a “socialist” system – it was a product that solved a problem, but wasn’t dependent on inflated sales figure due planned obsolescence.
I hadn’t heard of that one. But it reminds me of Pyrex, which isn’t actually Pyrex anymore. It’s just a brand name, now, and the glass they use for the dishes is shit and has none of the durability or temperature tolerance of real Pyrex.
Superfest, literally SuperHard
It gets the point across but Supersolid would probably be a better translation.
There’s a few interesting stories like this, I read a few articles about Christa Petroff-Bohne where she talks about designing every day objects for the GDR. Stuff like making sure service items for the food industry stack well and are made out of materials you can polish scratches out of.
Interestingly enough – the name Ceverit was phased out before production began and replaced with “Superfest (Super Hard), as someone noticed that “Ceverit” was a conjugated form of the Latin word “cevere”, which translates to “wiggling your butt while having sex”. Opportunity missed in my opinion.
Lol!
Every single component would be user serviceable and could be replaced in the field using only a screw driver in less than ten minutes.
Crucially, to keep it in top working order you’d have to do it every two weeks, but to keep it generally functioning you have to do it every 3 years
This reminds me of my roommate who was an engineer for bank atm enclosures, he braged to me about how only an engineer could make a bridge or building that just is on the edge of collapsing but dosent because its ‘efficient use of resources’ after that day im becoming confident that engineering is almost most certainly a waste of time, I get the point of this in the context of say space shit yeah weight is limited but replacing doing planed obsolescence is a crime against nature.
As is often the case capitalism is a problem. A lot of engineers I’ve met love old consumer appliances and tools and various bits of technology that showcase ingenuity, durability, user-serviceable parts, and elegant function. They’re not happy about some dickhead in finance pressuring them to remove screws or create thinner casings to shave off another penny per unit, or marketing telling them that they have to make the casing look good and to hell with the internal components. I’ve met a lot of software engineers who drink the silicon valley koolaid, but engineers who primarily build tangible stuff seem to have far less tolerance for it. Probably because it’s a pain in the ass to get new tools anymore and they spend so much time fighting with software licensing.
Uft. That’s really dark. Clothes in the 90s sucked ass.
Also, the US is going to invade Haiti to keep the minimum wage from going from like 37c an hour to 56c an hour, because this would cripple the fast fashion industry.
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
I can’t even fucking find boots that fit me most of the time, and when they do none last longer than a year
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.
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?
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.
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 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.
That’s because all the clothes nowadays are made by genocided Uyghur slaves
