> I'll be writing about those next. I doubt it, you didn't write about this! You prompted it and signed your name to it.
Yep, I’d rather read the prompt.
Backpacks got worse on purpose
41–50 of 396 posts
Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#42I swear by Swiss Gear nowadays. However, it's been several years since I purchased one. I don't know if they've maintained the same high quality. But I had a Swiss Gear backpack that was fantastic, and it lasted me nearly a decade. It was originally purchased at a Target. It was versatile and I could take it anywhere. It had little grommets to pass-through earphone cords and such. It survived even through several was…
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Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#43Why do we allow megacorporations to exist at all?
Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#44On the flip side, a really good bag, and these have lasted so long I can not recall when I purchased them, are really expensive [ https://www.tombihn.com/ ]. What is really irritating is that sometimes we see the same thing within a single brand (we have a garbage entry-level item and a top tier item which is good).
guess who has a new owner and is starting to make some of their bags overseas
https://www.tombihn.com/blogs/main/fall-2025-factory-update-...
Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#45Whenever I buy something with a zipper I check that it’s YKK first.
If it isn’t, I know there’s a good chance they’re cheaping out on other places as well.
Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#46Private equity, and computers, optimized all the profits which drove profit quality down. We all have lower quality products to enrich a few finance individuals
Or more likely consumers vote with their dollar and cost matters over quality. PE is just a bad scape goat, there are obvious outliers but largely companies make products that consumers want.
Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#47As much as the result for consumers sucks, is this just a result of the quality backpack business not being a very profitable business to be in anymore? The reason they were able to buy all those backpack brands is because each of those brands were not making much money running a backpack company selling quality at a reasonable price. The purchaser makes some money leeching value out of the brand reputation, but then…
Absolutely this. I am sure there are recorded cases where companies have gone out of their way to make things break early but I think it’s more times than not simply that cost matters and consumers are the voters and for the majority cheap wins. The average consumer is not very thoughtful and will opt to buy the cheaper good. For sure there are many economic constraints and not everyone has the luxury of buying quali…
The high cost of labor has nothing to do with reusable parts of the washing machine. If it was all standardized, you could do a lot of repairs yourself.
Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#48As much as the result for consumers sucks, is this just a result of the quality backpack business not being a very profitable business to be in anymore? The reason they were able to buy all those backpack brands is because each of those brands were not making much money running a backpack company selling quality at a reasonable price. The purchaser makes some money leeching value out of the brand reputation, but then…
It's much more likely to be a result of the modern drive for companies to keep growing. This leads to a need to maximize profit endlessly, which in turn leads to cutting corners as much as you think you can get away with, or just ballooning prices. And this problem goes up and down the supply chain, of course - even if you want to run a non-growth business manufacturing quality backpacks, if your suppliers want to run growth businesses, they will eat up your margins and force your hand.
This obsession with ever increasing revenue is a major source of our worse and worse consumer economy.
Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#49> I'll be writing about those next. I doubt it, you didn't write about this! You prompted it and signed your name to it.
Keyana Sapp is the "author"
Good to know they hire that kind of incompetence at Palantir. It makes them less effective.
Re: Backpacks got worse on purpose
#50Got me an Osprey ~12 years ago. Light as a feather, tough as nails. But it's not the kind of thing you can just sling over your shoulder like my old North Face bag (which was stolen). But yeah, the moral of the story is, as always, "If you want durable, don't buy it from Wal-Mart" (or Target, or Kohls, or Amazon)