Brands that you fondly remember not being shit

Just before they were sold Karrimor were selling some amazing kit, I still have a jacket that’s like new

Not completely convinced by it but I think there is something to the argument kit can be too good. If it lasts forever then you wont be buying a replacement in 10 years.

Sadly though many companies seem to have extended this idea to “replacement in 2 years”.

Hatter I agree but when brands that have a reputation for quality are selling stuff of dubious quality for a £100 when you can get the same crap elsewhere for £30! I find that a bit much.

Nail – head. The product changes, materials and assembly are shifted to the lowest bidder with minimal oversight but the marketing remains the same, trading on the legacy built when they did things properly, that’s where I feel most of us take issue.

Sadly the market rewards firms who do this, looks at Shein’s estimated value vs some of the old school legacy brands that still manufacture in house. If consumers cared where and how their stuff was made and were willing to pay for quality then we would be living in a very different world.

Much like politicians,we get the market our actions incentivize, even if it’s not the one we claim to ‘want.’

So basically, pretty much everything we buy these days is shittier than it was before, and twice as expensive. As good a reason as any to just stop buying stuff and use what we have until its truly dead and beyond…

Enshittification applies to real world goods, not just digital services.

T’internet.

The Classifieds…

Runs and hides…

The Classifieds…

Runs and hides…

You don’t think removing the ability to message sellers is an improvement?

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

Came here to say the same thing.

it’s allowed me to remap the Shazam trigger to it, ……………………………….. 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.

I mean, the Pixel* just has whatever is playing scrolling across the lock screen constantly.  But if you want to have it hidden in buttons then you do you :-p

It could be worse though, it could be the Bixby button on Galaxy’s which wasn’t mappable.

*apart form a few of Googles cool party tricks, the Galaxy is a much better OS and phone.

Helly Hansen, …………………….. now their outlet shops in centres in the middle of nowhere sell predominantly cheap tat.

They were adopted by Chavs when Chavs were a thing long before Gorpcore. They still make proper sailing gear and the thermals are available at a very reasonable price from Screwfix.

Original Aldi (Crane) from 20 years ago or so is still going strong. New Crane has gone down hill ?

Ditto for Lidl.

My commuting jacket is a Crane softshell from about 2006! Discovered recently the shoulders have started to wear through 🙁 God knows how many gallons of nikwax it’s absorbed!

And Aldi / Cane waterpoof socks are still the best out there IME (and cheap).

I also really like the Crivit (lidl) STVZO bike lights. They’re not as good as the Moonshine 1700, but they’re usually only a tenner.

Karrimor Rucksacks. I’m heartened to see they feature heavily here.

I had 2, a Hot Ice and a Hot Rock. Both bought in the 80’s and made out of KS100E. Indestructible and really well made packs. Still got the Hot Ice.

invent stuff

Really?

Karrimor Rucksacks. … Still got the Hot Ice.

My climbing rucksack is a mid-90s vintage Hot Ice. It still looks brand new.

Karrimor is an interesting one, they’re born of the post-war cotton industry in East Lancashire. My bag came direct from their outlet in Clayton-Le-Moors.

Sadly, when the arse fell out of the mill towns things were only ever going to go one way and a lot of companies suffered. The phoenix from the ashes of what was once Karrimor proper is Lancashire Sports Repair in Burnley, the Karrimor brand is Sports Direct these days I think?

U2 have always been bad in my humble opinion.

At high school, you either liked U2 or Simple Minds. I was in the Simple Minds camp, but with the benefit of hindsight U2 had the Edge.

So basically, pretty much everything we buy these days is shittier than it was before, and twice as expensive.

That’s not what I was trying to say, more that the market tends to reward those that reduces quality in search of greater profits as consumers are now accustomed to very low prices.

Quality is out there but you have to look for it a bit more and expect to pay an equivalent price to what you used to have to pay for the legacy brands back when they still made stuff properly and weren’t run by VC money men.

I was going to say Berghaus, but then they’re not gash like Karrimor now are, and I’m not sure if they were ever top tier stuff 30 years ago.

IMO 30 years ago they were the dogs danglies, but that may have been completely misplaced. I guess its their abundance in Go Outdoors / Sports Direct etc and providing for the masses that may have tainted this unfounded belief.

*apart form a few of Googles cool party tricks, the Galaxy is a much better OS and phone.

MrsDoris has one of the latest Samsung Galaxy phones. It has some built-in adware from a random Israeli company that you can’t remove or disable, which pops up every now and again demanding that you install all these ‘great’ apps (free games and such). Well dodge.

Still using a Karrimor Hot Earth 40l day sack from the 90s (before the lardy tossbandit got his hands on the brand).

MrsDoris has one of the latest Samsung Galaxy phones.

I’m ambivalent towards Samsung as a brand, but I’ve yet to use one of their Android-based phones which wasn’t gash. I don’t understand why they’re so popular.

MS windows.. I could go on all day… but why are scroll bars now miroscopicaly thin?

Guys, I think we missed something. Cougar2 – “At high school, you either liked U2 or Simple Minds. I was in the Simple Minds camp, but with the benefit of hindsight U2 had the Edge.” Absolutely excellent

It could be worse though, it could be the Bixby button on Galaxy’s which wasn’t mappable.

It was, it just unmapped itself everytime Samsung updated the OS or security software…

invent stuff

Really?

Pretty sure apple haven’t actually invented anything, just patented anything they can get their grubby little mitts on. And then put it in a shiny box.

Guys, I think we missed something. Cougar2 – “At high school, you either liked U2 or Simple Minds. I was in the Simple Minds camp, but with the benefit of hindsight U2 had the Edge.” Absolutely excellent

I think I was more college age, but (unpopular opinion): I liked both Oasis and Blur!

Facebook is unusable now. Was great when launched, much simpler and with a clear purpose

I’m ambivalent towards Samsung as a brand, but I’ve yet to use one of their Android-based phones which wasn’t gash. I don’t understand why they’re so popular

Well the zoom is rather impressive. Miles ahead of everyone else. Less keen on the size and weight of a small brick.

I want to like the folding phones but any screen that can be scratched by finger nail is farcical.

My Karrimor walking boots lasted about 25 years.

Rodeo from C&A were a decent brand.

Also Dubarry boots.

Intel

Google

It used to be much better

Now its just revenue generator software

Sega

My pal has a pair of Karrimor panniers, they must be 30 years old, they’re still a vibrant purple. He did need to buy new straps/buckles as the old ones had perished.

Most German automobil manufacturers. Mercedes rust like crazy, certainly the Sprinters do. VW and BMW not what they once were.

North Facce is for the most part just a fashion label now.

MS windows.. I could go on all day… but why are scroll bars now miroscopicaly thin?

It’s an option under Accessibility.

And, it’s a pain in the arse. See also, hiding file extensions.

Facebook is unusable now.

https://www.fbpurity.com/

I think there’s two issue here:

Once excellent brands/companies that have regressed and now produce objectively worse products

Once excellent brands that have been sold, and who’s name/logo are now being stencilled onto any old tat to try to cash-in on any remaining halo-effect of quality.

I think the latter is far more prevalent.  Karrimor is definitely the latter – As are The North Face who were sold in 2000 to the same people who then later went on to own Timberland (which would explain some things) and Eagle creek.  I have a few pre-2000 Eagle Creek duffle bags which are absolutely indestructable – they have spent some years in the wilderness, producing shite, but bought one last year (they have now been re-sold to somebody else), and again the quality seems to be decent again.

I think this is a factor or “founder/CEO” vs a CEO that treats the brand like a commodity.

Maybe there is something here about us getting old?  That what would now be regarded as the hipster/bouji brands of our youth have since been passed-on / sold by the founder to organisations who just see them as numbers on a spreadsheet – and thats just part of a brand’s life cycle?

Although it’s sad to turn away from brands that were once “aspirational” in our youth –  as consumers we now have fantastic access to smaller/newer brands who we never would have noticed pre-internet – and the quality of these often far exceeds anything you can buy in the shops.

Maybe there is something here about us getting old?

There’s another thing about this I’ve noticed. As you get older the perception of time passing quicker impacts my expectations of product longevity.

For example, something like a t-shirt that would have lasted me from age 18-21 seemed like a long time, after all so many things happened in that time. If a t-shirt lasted me from age 41-44 I’d perceived it to not have lasted very long. All that happened in that time was a couple of holidays maybe a change of job and a few more grey hairs.

That said, my 1997 purchased Berghaus Polartec 300 fleece is still my go to for cold. The Patagonia R1 I bought last year already looks like it’s wearing out.

Russell Brand. Well, he was always a bit shit but now he’s shitter.

Turner bikes, from back when they were Turner Suspension Bicycles

Some of the team that were responsible for the original Karrimor backpacks make military versions. So you can still buy the quality product as long as you don’t mid looking a bit like a Walt.

Still wearing a mid-90s Karrimor fleece jacket, in stylish burgundy obvs. So I don’t need to even try a MIke Ashley version.

Some of the team that were responsible for the original Karrimor backpacks make military versions. So you can still buy the quality product as long as you don’t mid looking a bit like a Walt.

That’s cool, and just get a camo one then nobody will see you anyway.

Wychwood Brewery, that is to say Hobgoblin beer. Now owned by Carlsberg Marstons, original brewery recently closed. Sadly now a far inferior product

I have a Karrimor Hot Rock rucksack bought in New Zealand in 2008 and it’s still in use a few times a week. Has lasted really well over the 14 years. I guess it’s from post “going downhill”?

Alpkit still do some great stuff but they sell a lot of too similar items now and have a very broad range of clothes. It’s harder to pick out the good stuff. Also their yo-yo pricing is annoying. Don’t buy anything without there being a sale or a discount code.

On the other hand, Sonder bikes seem the best they’ve ever been

Thanks Nickc. As they have black and grey options, that’s where my next pack is coming from.

Wychwood Brewery, that is to say Hobgoblin beer. Now owned by Carlsberg Marstons, original brewery recently closed. Sadly now a far inferior product

Hate to break it to you, but Marstons have pulled out of the joint venture and are now just a management company for their pub chain.

On that note Carlsberg, famous for making the third worst Lager in every pub, but actually the brewery pioneered modern beer production and did a lot of the microbial research on it.  Bottom fermenting yeast is named Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis after them.

I have a Karrimor Hot Rock rucksack bought in New Zealand in 2008 and it’s still in use a few times a week. Has lasted really well over the 14 years. I guess it’s from post “going downhill”?

It seemed to happen 2006-2012ish

I lived in sports direct karimoor trainers at uni. They were great.  Then they must have changed factories around 2007 and they lasted a few months at most.

My last pair of walking boots fell apart, my OH’s are still in one piece (they get worn less, but still doing pretty well).  Just seems to depend if it’s coming from an old design and an old factory or something that Sports Direct have made themselves with the lowest bidder.