Brands that you fondly remember not being shit

Just unpacking from a weekend Scout camp. I’ve got a 20 year old Karrimor rucksack that is absolutely indestructible and shares nothing in common with the that carries that name now.

Airwalk

Sports direct.com , browse by brand.

Apple

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

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.

Snap-On. They’re OK, but nothing like the reputation would suggest

Mercedes. They don’t build them like they used to.

Volkswagen. Nowhere near as reliable as they used to be.

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.

Dr Martens.

Buffalo.

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

Suntour invented the double-parallelogram derailleur we all use. Couldn’t be arsed to renew the patent, so Shimano moved in and took over.

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!

Mavic. -rims got left behind being heavy and hubs are shit.

SRAM chains. -hardening issues plagued them for years

Ford. – always been rusty but everyone else seemed to sort it out. Used to at least have reliable engines. Not any more.

IBM, Toshiba, SAAB, John Lewis.

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

Endura

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.

Marks and Spencer suits!

I’ve got a 20 year old Karrimor rucksack

Too funny.  I saw the thread title and I just though ‘Karrimor’.