There's a premium associated with luxury products that is strictly associated with brand recognition and brand cache.

You can often find smaller brands with comparable quality without having the upcharge for celebrity endorsements, tv commercials, golf tournaments, huge management overhead, pensions, etc.

You can get some good values there and even better ones on the secondary market.

This is especially true for clothing, mattresses, furniture, and similar items. Main drawback is that it requires you to gain a lot of knowledge in those areas so you can discern the gems from the junk.

Buy once cry once

The quality on Converse has gone down significantly the longer they've been owned by Nike. The amount of fakes out there online borders on breath taking.

u/CamelHairy do you find the Speed Queen big enough to wash comforters and towels? The capacity looks to be quite low.

Buying one item for life is likely to be cheaper in the long run. I typically try to get the best / highest quality that is within my means.

I am a total gas stove fanatic but the one electric appliance I really appreciate is my tea kettle. Really, it's easier - turns itself off and never boils dry.

Red Wing is a brand. You do NOT buy a pair of Red Wing boots and assume they are BIFL as that's not how that works. They make a mix of $50 shitty boots and $500 BIFL boots, so by choosing the brand name alone is a sure way to waste money.

Everything at Nick's is BIFL, but you are going to pay for it.

And nobody here can help you on this topic as you are conclusion shopping. If you are a hipster who wants cool boots for street cred, there are other options. Replace hipster with molder, logger, hiker and other terms and more options appear.

People don't magically know what the 512 cut is so for those playing the home game, it is slim tapered. Durable jeans start with weight and you want the heaviest jeans you can find/afford in that cut. Will they be the same as 512? No. Each maker has a unique cut and you can try on 32 pair of slip tapered jeans by 32 makers and get a different feeling from each. https://bravestarselvage.com/products/the-slim-taper-21-5oz-heavyweight-japan-selvage-denim is one option.

nicks don't really go on sales nor offer many discount codes as far as i know, right?

Redback boots.

https://shop.whitesboots.com/lifestyle-boots/mp-sherman-toe-cap-half-lug/

Edit: nevermind. Didn't see the budget at first.

Get one of those large inverter style ones you can charge off several times. I don’t have brand recommendations.

Look for woven rugs and not those fuzzy carpet like rugs. More expensive but guaranteed to last longer. On my bucket list. I had a opportunity to buy some rugs in Qatar rug shop once and it was very personable. Ultimately I decided against it because personally I wasn’t making enough then to spring 100s in a single rug then.

Steele if you want something tough. I personally use a couple cheap plastic bins from target and aldi and they still look like new 2 years later. Both feel like a quality plastic meant to last. But yeah plastic.. if you’re zerowaste look into canvas laundry bins from Steele.

Buy once cry once

Steele /thread

It’s a damn A1 Abrams tank.

[removed]

[removed]

I bought this one in 1994:

https://www.go2marine.com/Plastic-Basket-Orange

Another tip… if you wear the same shoes every day, buy multiple pairs and rotate, the moisture will eat them up.

I had a pair of Vasque that lasted forever. they eventually became just my everyday winter boot and were great at that too.

I'm in the USA and wouldn't hesitate to make that drive any day. But I also have an EV so the cost of that trip is essentially nothing.

I don't know if this is the model I bought, since I know I didn't pay this much and it looks different than mine and was in store... But I found a similar one at Target a few years back. I was looking for something that didn't have a plastic handle so I could possibly use it over a fire. (I haven't tried it for that purpose yet, but would probably work, lol)

IF this is the same brand, I'd like it to be a little thicker steel maybe, but it's holding up fine and should be BIFL. https://www.target.com/p/cilio-tradition-stainless-steel-tea-kettle-2-6-qt-silver/-/A-84292309#lnk=sametab

Australian outback trading, my dad has worn the same old waist coat for 30 years, all they need is yearly waxxing/oiling and they are perfect. I just got a shin length coat and they make vests and some shirts too

You've just discovered Samuel Vine's Theory of Economic Unfairness (from the late great Terry Pratchett)