Sports direct.com , browse by brand.
I was going to say Karrimor
But they were going down hill 20 years ago. In 1993 i was about to buy a big Karrimor rucsac to go round the world. I mentioned this, on the phone, to a mate who managed outside in Hathersage. He said don’t. I said what do in do I’ve a shake down trip this weekend. He said just get in the car and drive here. I’ll stay open for you. So i drove 2 hours for my only personal shopper experience. After ages walking round the shop with ropes in different bags i bought a macpac. They still had good products then but they had added a sort of plastic exo skeleton to the big bags which fell apart. Oh and the clips on the pannier we used on that trip all broke.
I just passed on a 90s jaguar to my son in great nick. I got free at the skip. Some one was trying to throw it away
Came on to say Karrimor.... Sprayway too!!
Howies. When they were good they were so good; jeans, T-shirts, some tech clothing.
Last time to tried their jeans they were these solid lumps of misshapen, cheap-feeling, badly dyed denim that looks like they should have a Tesco label.
+1 for karrimor, i've still got the rucksack i went to uni with, early 90's vintage, horrible colour, but it was half price. Still 100% usable today. Still in a horrible shade of bellend purple.
Bought a karrimor day bag shortly before i emigrated, was replaced with a haglöfs within weeks, after it started to disintegrate. I still have the haglöfs bag nearly 20 years later.
Dug out my 1989 Jag S65 the other day cos my son has started doing backpacking trips. It seems to be in great condition.
Volcom
Was a great brand in the 90s and noughties. Nowadays the quality is Temu-esque
@ayjaydoubleyou has it really. In particular I’d pick out these two as having descended the furthest: Muddy Fox & Nevica / Campri.
then outside the Dick Dastardly empire there’s Oakley, Dawes, Suntour, Stanley, Camelbak, Mercedes, Boeing…,
Hotpoint.
Alpkit. Bought loads though the years but the last few items have been frankly awful quality.
Still in a horrible shade of bellend purple.
I've got one of those, from around 1987. Great bit of kit. Has survived quite a bit of abuse, some of it by me, some by my children.
I like the colour.
Endura. Sizing all over the place, no longer made to last, perfectly good products dropped or redesigned into bad ones.
The lad used my Karrimor Condor rucsac for his DofE.
We still buy Vango tents based off my experience in Scouts and the Force10 I used to have to lug about.
Salomon used to be a decent brand - their kit doesn't stand up to any decent levels of use these days imho
Landrover - ignored their original market and now make amorphic over blinged expensive unreliability.
The North Face.
Used to be genuine outdoors kit, well-made, lasted well. I've still got a sleeveless fleece / gilet thing that I bought in the States about 20 years ago, it's still in perfect condition. Now it's mostly another of the many urban / designer / "outdoors" brands that looks the part but with none of the outdoors capabilities.
Oh and another vote for Endura.
Mountain Hardwear and Arcteryx. Now mainly gone the way of fashion (which is ironic given MH was started up by some disgruntled North Face designers I believe).
I have a fear Montane are heading too far in that direction now too, they've been my go to for no nonsense stuff and not sure where I'll turn! Oh and inov8 seems to be a real mixed bag now too.
Mountain Hardwear and Arcteryx.
Bugger. Just ordered an Arcteryx coat yesterday. TBF I haven't actually seen it, took a punt and ordered it online as it was £600 cheaper than the, frankly ridiculous, retail price. I'll report back when I've tried it.
Did someone up there ^ say Boeing? They've certainly fallen further than most!
Google. Their organic search results (i.e. not paid for ads) are terrible now, I guess by design due to the "enshitification" business model.
Mavic. -rims got left behind being heavy and hubs are shit.
I was going to add Mavic to my previous post.
They used to be THE name in factory wheels - innovative, light, looked cool...
Now it's a confusing mess of similar sounding names, generic looks, overpriced and with annoying proprietary components.
I get that they're far from the first company to do proprietary parts but it's still annoying.
im going to say that North Face still do some pretty good kit but it isn't the street faashin shite that you see everywhere these days. They seem to have two product lines. one for pros and one for show. The good stuff seems hard to come by but what I have I can't fault
Personally never rated ME stuff although I know it is popular on here
Oh but i Just remembered RAB. Oh dear, such a shame
And POD sacs....
Dr Martens
Converse
Carhartt ( some of it is still good)
Any brand now owned by fat Ashley
Cadbury Dairy Milk
Blundstone
Brands I still rate (eg, I’ve bought lots of stuff from them and never had any problems. YMMV)
Sony
Apple
M&S food
Planet X (yes really)
Another vote for PodSacs, had three of their made in Sheffield packs - absolutely bombproof and well thought out.
Seeing the badge stuck on cheap sh*t from PX broke my heart a little.
I read the thread title and immediately thought of Karrimor, I have a thirty year old polartec fleece which apart from the paint marks from decorating looks like new
Volcom
Nah, they're still great. Just started doing MTB gear as well!
Twitter. I no longer have an account because it's deteriorated so much and I'm pretty tolerant of most things.
Ratners. Quality jewellery for the discerning buyer.
Planet X (yes really)
I know what you mean. Never the best but generally good enough (bar some QC issues).
We’ve had a load of cheap but decent enough stuff from them.
I’ve got a 20 year old Karrimor rucksack
Too funny. I saw the thread title and I just though 'Karrimor'.
BBC news, it's been gutted to the point where there's just not the reporters let alone the expertise to report on some topics.
Alpkit
We're always a bit hit and miss.
Decathlon seemed to get much better just as alpkit became expensive too.
Ford. – always been rusty but everyone else seemed to sort it out. Used to at least have reliable engines. Not any more.
Ehh? Our Fiesta is about to turn 21 and the only rust is just starting to appear on the inner door skins.
Transits I'd agree with ?
Irn Bru (pre-sugar tax)
Dairy Milk (pre-Mondolez)
Yorkie (pre-Nestlé)
North Face are shit, another added to the list of stuff that's not worth paying for. Bought some Hedgehogs that lasted no time before the weave on the uppers started splitting. Just about worn them out but they aren't much better than Decathlon stuff for half the price.
Ford, not so much the engines but general parts availability. Including their unicorn piss derived oil that the wet belts need. Also agree that rust is hit and miss. My Mk4 Mondeo is now officially rusty, not bad going for a 2008 model that was often parked a stones throw from the sea for most of its life.
Merlin bike frames from early 2000s
I had a Malt1, my mate still has a Malt 2 - the rock lobster was lovely
used to take pride in their design, be cutting edge and invent stuff you actually wanted before you knew you wanted it.
now just generic hardware with average software
Compared to whom? I’ve yet to see equivalent products from any other manufacturer that would ever entice me to buy it. Folding phones? Stupid idea relying on people so desperate to have something to show off to their Instagram followers, whereas they’re stupidly thick, heavy bricks with an ugly crease across their screens, that Apple are clearly not attempting to follow because you can’t make a toughened glass screen that will fold without failing sooner rather than later.
And I’ve yet to see any other mobile OS that I’d want to use, but then, I’ve been using Apple stuff since the late 90’s, and iPhones since the 3G, before Google copied the design of iOS and changed Android from the ripoff of the Blackberry, to a ripoff of iOS.
That is historically accurate, Google had someone on Apple’s board, when Steve Jobs said ‘and one more thing’, and held up the first iPhone, Google’s boss in charge of Android development was watching in his car; he told the driver to turn around and return to the office, phoned the office and told them to ‘stop everything, we’ve got work to do’.
I’m not an obsessive dweeb who has to keep fannying around with my phones interface, I want it to do what I want, all the time, without having to try to remember what it was I’ve changed recently. The Photos app in iOS 18 has been changed significantly, and it’s pissed me off, because trying to find where everything is in an app I use most days, and have been for years, is bloody frustrating! Thankfully, a bit of digging has restored most functionality to how I want it, when I want it.
That’s not to say change is unwelcome - iOS 18 has allowed me to remove the two functions from the bottom of the Home Screen, which I’ve never used. The introduction of a separate camera button on the right of the case is a great addition, it’s allowed me to remap the Shazam trigger to it, instead of having it open the camera. The only two things I have on my Home Screen are an abbreviated weather widget and a calendar alert - there’s nothing, absolutely nothing that an Android phone could offer me that my iPhone does, and I’ve yet to see any other phone that makes me feel I’d like to have one.
My iPhone 16 Pro Max in its Otterbox Defender case. There isn’t any other phone, by any other manufacturer, that I would want to swap it for.
