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Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#31

Post by summarybot »

Your logic breaks down at the critical point of sourcing: not only must we have the means of production and the schematics, we also need the original materials required to create the stuff. If we lose access to the original materials, or if they are no longer available, then the rest of the chain doesn't matter.

However, I do find promise in one aspect of your idea: an infinite archival catalogue of items-that-once-were. Then, you can link to things like, as others have mentioned, eBay listings where you can still find the "originals.'

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#32

Post by rickypp »

Tanoc wrote: post #25

I've been wearing the same pair of shoes for (Vans Camacho) twelve years now because I cannot find any that actually fit my feet. Vans made these shoes that I purchased over and over again for ten years, but discontinued them in 2016. I've had to learn cobbling to some degree to keep these shoes going, though now the bottoms of the soles are so thin that my big toe might finally wear through them in the next year. It…

I have a discontinued shoe that I really like and I've had great luck getting them on eBay lightly used. I keep a few spare pairs and swap individual shoes out as they wear. You might be concerned about odor/cleanliness but I've had a good success rate, the sellers with good reviews that are doing this professionally have the hygiene program down pat.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#33

Post by kotaKat »

> Where does my logic break down? What am I overlooking?

You're in a room of software developers who keep breaking and changing everyone's "favorite everyday" workflows, every time a piece of software is changed.

Even something as dumb as changing a design language is the same thing as a brand discontinuing your favorite every day item. Why did my UX have to get ugly for no reason? Why can't I go back? people cry out.

What do we do to support peoples' choice of software over the longterm when they can't choose to 'roll back'?

Your favorite T-shirt is still available for sale. It's just got a giant black box strapped to the back of it called AI. The t-shirt companies said that's good for you so you have to wear it now.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#34

Post by GreenPencil7 »

dividedcomet wrote: post #6

I’ve had this happen with the clothes I get from Patagonia. What was only a few years ago a thick plaid button down is now thin and not nearly as warm. And Patagonia still makes good stuff! But I do wonder if it’s time to start shopping around again.

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#35

Post by GreenPencil7 »

summarybot wrote: post #31

Your logic breaks down at the critical point of sourcing: not only must we have the means of production and the schematics, we also need the original materials required to create the stuff. If we lose access to the original materials, or if they are no longer available, then the rest of the chain doesn't matter. However, I do find promise in one aspect of your idea: an infinite archival catalogue of items-that-once-w…

Yes, that's a good point. Schematics, manufacturing, and patterns are powerless if the original materials disappear or change. I haven't researched this yet, but I assume that the same variety of apples, cotton, paint pigment, or grapes will be different if it is grown in different countries. Even though it's the same variety. And that's a problem.

I have a hypothesis that it's possible to make the paint independent of the supplier, so that it is the same paint every time, after 1, 5, and 20 years. We can standardize not the raw material, but the result. Using paint as an example, it's possible to create a digital color passport, and then comparing the standard with the incoming raw materials will allow us to identify the difference and compensate for it. This would make it possible to achieve a color that does not depend on the place of production or on time.

I don't know if this will work in practice. I think this kind of engineering solution could bring us closer to the idea of unchanging clothing.

What do you think?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#36

Post by GreenPencil7 »

mancerayder wrote: post #3

There might be something to this. It does seem older models of things are better than newer models of things. So it could be the drive to lower costs and increase profits are causing this, at the appliance, car, etc. level. It doesn't explain why every couple of years I have another four or six pairs of yet another set of socks, from the same company, but with enough variation that now I have multiple different gener…

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#37

Post by GreenPencil7 »

mysterydip wrote: post #14

I finally found a brand+model of jeans that I liked. I don’t have to buy pants/trousers often, so of course the next time I went to buy some it had been discontinued by the manufacturer. Even the “this is the closest style to that one” online recommendations had been discontinued, leaving me back at square one.

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#38

Post by lopis »

secretsatan wrote: post #5

I always have trouble buying shoes, most shops don’t stock my size in the first place, and sizes vary greatly across manufacturers, and even styles. Now when i find shoes that fit, i go order at least another 2 pairs online to avoid having to hunt down a new pair that fit well. One bizarre one, i find when i find some foodstuff i like, the shop will eventually discontinue it, it seems almost personal…

Lidl has trialed vegan lasagna a couple times now. It sells out so incredibly fast all across the country, to the cries of many vegans in Facebook and reddit communities. And yet they discontinued it years ago. I don't understand the economics of it, but I would assume such a popular product would be a no brainier.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#39

Post by lopis »

lurn_mor wrote: post #4

This assumes there's no advancement in clothing manufacturing and design. Could you buy a 20 year old computer today and use it with a modern OS? I believe the engineers and artisians who make the clothes you wear are also pushing the boundaries of fabric, patterns and cuts to feed an ever-famished audience looking for the 'next thing'. Besides, they read the room - you no longer fit in those same sizes anymore!

Advancements in clothes technology in the last 40 years only optimized production, not quality...

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else tired of brands discontinuing your favorite everyday items?

#40

Post by CSSer »

explorigin wrote: post #17

Discontinuing a product breaks the cost-comparision chain. It makes it easier to increase prices or reduce quality without direct backlash. Releasing new products also makes for marketing announcements that work like advertisement (or is advertisement directly).

A consumer watch dog that meticulously tracks equivalents to combat this would be an interesting project.
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