Is ICON the new Craftsman?

[NUTTSGT]

The old Craftsman was a tool department at Sears, a full on brand with stuff you could order if needed.

HF is a tool store and has several lines of tools and brands under that umbrella.

Without splitting hairs, I'd say HF picked up where Craftsman left off.

 

[slowtwitch73]

More like 35 or so. I remember craftsman sears fondly.

Ok.. so everyone < than 35yo stfu and get off my lawn.

 

[zendriver]

Just saying that is easy to compete with companies when those companies pay your design staff for you.

True, but they really didn’t invent the concept, Sears did

 

[Bubba Fett]

SBD Craftsman is the new Sears Craftsman in pretty much every way. Similar selection, relatively similar prices, and sold in B&M stores. Hand tools, Power Tools, Lawn & Carden tools. Some of their tools are great, some are not. Examples: Their pliers are terrible, but the screwdrivers, wrenches and sockets are fine.

Icon is closer to industrial brands, but not quite tool truck quality. For most of us, that's more than good enough. Quinn and Doyle are just below that, and are a good bang for the buck.

Tekton, in my mind is what Craftsman was at their height, minus power tools and lawn & garden tools. They have been improving their tool quality, and now have a decent amount of USA-made stuff.

At the end of the day, Sears Craftsman was the store brand, meant for DIYers instead of professionals. As consumers, we now have far more choices than before thanks to the Internet.

That said, I really, really miss walking around the tool section in Sears. There was a feeling I got that I never get at HF, Ace, Lowe's, etc. Maybe it's just me missing trips to the store with my Dad.

 

[four.cycle]

ICON can never be "the new Craftsman" until and unless they start peddling wheelbarrows and lawnmowers.

 

[dawgn86]

I think you guys are thinking about this too clinically. The quick answer is yes. Some of you may not remember the glory days of Craftsman.

I went to the mall with my wife. She went to housewares, and I went the basement where craftsman was. They had every tool a mechanic or handy man needed. They were open on Sundays. You could buy a set of wrenches really cheap. They had huge sets of tools, the craftsman 503 pc set (where did they come up with that number?) that we all drooled over. Sure there was a lot of junk we'd never use in that set, but they you would have EVERYTHING.

There were aisles of inexpensive, but still very attractive toolboxes. Some had ball bearing slides! (not mine).

If you were in the middle of a job, you could stop into a Sears and get a specialty tool you didn't have and it was there on a rack. Sockets were available as individuals. Warranty was a breeze. At my local Sears, the tool section was staffed by retired engineers, mechanics, ex-army vets from Viet Nam. They were strait laced, short haired guys from another era. If you were warrantying something fishy, they'd give you the hairy eye ball, then talk about OTHER people taking advantage of Sears warranty (was that a hint? were they talking about me? I never knew).

It was the convenience of having tools at our fingertips. No, I never cared or knew about Snap On. Snap On and Craftsman existed in separate universes. That was not available to me in any way. There were cheaper Taiwan tools elsewhere that were absolute junk. I recall friends with strange and wonderful brands like SK, but I never knew where they came from. My first metric socket set came from a grocery store.

Craftsman was a solid brand, not going anywhere. The tools you bought for life.

I didn't bother try to show parallels with HF. Leaving that to you. I will say, my wife would no more step into a HF, than she would go looking for me in Sears' tool section. I'd find her when I had seen everything.

spot on post!

I think you just had to be there in these past Sears stores.....remember going with my Dad to the Sears in our hometown in the 70's and when they opened up a new mall where I live now in 1980, it had a brand new Sears. Many days of walking those tool and hardware aisles looking and dreaming. I was a young married man and a poor college student. Always bought Craftsman tools when I could and received many as Christmas and birthday gifts. Now I have two boxes full of them as well as SK, Tekton and some Harbor Freight. Many good memories of Sears.

I do enjoy strolling through the Harbor Freight stores near me, especially the newer stores. No complaints on any purchases there, but note my tools are just for home projects, etc.

 

[FigN⋅m]

spot on post!

I think you just had to be there in these past Sears stores.....remember going with my Dad to the Sears in our hometown in the 70's and when they opened up a new mall where I live now in 1980, it had a brand new Sears. Many days of walking those tool and hardware aisles looking and dreaming. I was a young married man and a poor college student. Always bought Craftsman tools when I could and received many as Christmas and birthday gifts. Now I have two boxes full of them as well as SK, Tekton and some Harbor Freight. Many good memories of Sears.

I do enjoy strolling through the Harbor Freight stores near me, especially the newer stores. No complaints on any purchases there, but note my tools are just for home projects, etc.

I can't believe along with the warm fuzzies from 80's trips down the Sears aisles, I'm now longing for the old HF store in town,
which felt more like you were going to the adult book store instead of a tool shop.
I knew it was naughty to be buying such tools, but I knew I was just gonna use 'em hard and put 'em away wet.

 

[M635_Guy]

I'm now longing for the old HF store in town, which felt more like you were going to the adult book store instead of a tool shop.
I knew it was naughty to be buying such tools, but I knew I was just gonna use 'em hard and put 'em away wet.

Well, that would explain the funny smell back in the day...

 

[2ndGearRubber]

Icon is perfect for its intended goal

“Professional grade tools” at 1/5 the cost of the leading tool truck brand. The economics of the future we’ll see how this plays out.

As much as I practically begged him to go into HVAC Grandson is hell-bent on mechanics and just signed up borrowing money to go to diesel tech school. Of course, when he graduates, he’ll need tools so now he’ll have to decide how much more debt he wants to go into.. some with icon or way more with tool truck outfit.

Regardless, hopefully the money will be there to pay back all that debt. :

That was my thing with Icon, I can buy similar tools for 1/6 or 1/7 that of Icon claiming to be 1/5th or whatever.

I would never tell anyone to go out and buy Icon, outside specific items. That's why I don't understand the brand. It's a decent tool AND local, the latter I understand is very important to some.

But if we're talking about just buying a decent tool there's tons of brands that can do that so I don't see what makes Icon special outside the "buy it today and have it in your hand" feature because they're in retail locations.

Most of the people I have met who want cheaper tools than tool trucks, want stuff even cheaper than Icon. Maybe they'd be better starting off with quality Taiwanese tools like Icon than trying to get the lowest price and frequently getting bitten by that.

More like 35 or so. I remember craftsman sears fondly.

I'm 34 and remember USA stamped tools from Craftsman before I could drive. My parents bought me a basic mechanics tool set when I turned 16 so I could change oil or similar. I still think the blow molded case is in the bottom drawer of the toolbox I gave my father, big USA stamp on it.

They must have had a 30ft long isle of open stock and hand tools, it was pretty impressive. Only thing I've seen close are some rural king locations.

 

[Wamsutta]

May favorite thing about Craftsman was their nut drivers. They were made by either Western Forge or Pratt-Reed; I don't know which.

 

[M635_Guy]

That was my thing with Icon, I can buy similar tools for 1/6 or 1/7 that of Icon claiming to be 1/5th or whatever.

I would never tell anyone to go out and buy Icon, outside specific items. That's why I don't understand the brand. It's a decent tool AND local, the latter I understand is very important to some.

I'd be interested in examples. A lot of people compare Icon to Tekton, but at least for wrenches and sockets, it appears Quinn uses the same ODMs that Tekton does. A while back I decided to sell my SK Xframe and Tekton sets use the money on a couple Icon sets. Before I sent the Tekton wrenches to their new home, I compared them with the Icon set. The Icons were definitely a tighter tolerance than the Tekton set. My Hazet set was even better. All of them work very well.

But when I look at testing like the TTC did and see Tekton at 25th in their scoring and Icon at 6th, it tends to validate that there's something decent going on there. In a different batch of tests on their "Pushy the Wrench Dyno", Icon scored within 6% of the SnapOn FD+. Pretty good.

My point the other products that are in that discussion are guys like Milwaukee and Carlyle (which are both from the same ODM as Icon), with the rest being the usual suspects: Snap On, Proto, Wright and Mac (which is currently at the top of their testing). My guess is Quinn would score very similarly to Tekton. Husky/Koblat/etc. lagged. Pittsburgh is...meh at best. So it's not entirely shiny marketing.

 

[M635_Guy]

More like 35 or so. I remember craftsman sears fondly.

If you liked that version of Sears, you would have liked it a lot better in the before the mid-90's. It definitely pivoted in that timeframe toward something much less than it was "back in the say".

 

[powertrip]

A better observation would be that Harbor Freight is the new Sears.

 

[bobg03]

I too fondly remember Sears, they had boats and fishing tackle and tools. I remember going with my parents as a young child and drooling over the vast selection, then later in life as a young homeowner.

The tools were never top shelf but served the needs of a DIY'er back then, plus the warranty and convenience of a large selection of reasonable priced things that would get the job done.

I still have a few Craftsman tools and some of the older SK stuff, that I got as a young man.

I recall needing a thin walled deep 16MM 6 point socket for the 4 spark plugs on a Jap Bike, Sears had it as a solo item.

 

[Steve_P]

MiUSA Craftsman mainly died in the 1980's. They had "Craftsman Professional" that was still MiUSA in the late 90's/early 2000's, but it all gave way to MiC pretty quickly after that.

Craftsman was selling USA sockets, USA WF pliers and adjustable wrenches, USA raised panel wrenches, USA screwdrivers.... ~15 years ago, as I bought a bunch of stuff at that time. They still had plenty of USA made hand tools around 2010 that weren't the "professional" line.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Craftsman has been around so long, it means different things to different guys.

You need to be what... 45yo+ to have really had the full on Sears store/ Cman experience? 50?

Walk into the mall with the wife and kids. She takes them to look for clothes. . . . "you know where I'll be.". . . .


I think having the Sears tool dept saved many arguments about the husband going with the family to the mall for shopping.

 

[dchawk81]

One would think Icon actually is "the new Snap On"

Good looking, sturdy professional quality tool boxes, sturdy professional quality tools - at way lower, (but still higher than average) prices. Lifetime warranty.

People want and need lower prices today and in into the future.

Only thing missing is the truck.

Nah it's good but not a replacement.

 

[dchawk81]

I think you guys are thinking about this too clinically. The quick answer is yes. Some of you may not remember the glory days of Craftsman.

I went to the mall with my wife. She went to housewares, and I went the basement where craftsman was. They had every tool a mechanic or handy man needed. They were open on Sundays. You could buy a set of wrenches really cheap. They had huge sets of tools, the craftsman 503 pc set (where did they come up with that number?) that we all drooled over. Sure there was a lot of junk we'd never use in that set, but they you would have EVERYTHING.

There were aisles of inexpensive, but still very attractive toolboxes. Some had ball bearing slides! (not mine).

If you were in the middle of a job, you could stop into a Sears and get a specialty tool you didn't have and it was there on a rack. Sockets were available as individuals. Warranty was a breeze. At my local Sears, the tool section was staffed by retired engineers, mechanics, ex-army vets from Viet Nam. They were strait laced, short haired guys from another era. If you were warrantying something fishy, they'd give you the hairy eye ball, then talk about OTHER people taking advantage of Sears warranty (was that a hint? were they talking about me? I never knew).

It was the convenience of having tools at our fingertips. No, I never cared or knew about Snap On. Snap On and Craftsman existed in separate universes. That was not available to me in any way. There were cheaper Taiwan tools elsewhere that were absolute junk. I recall friends with strange and wonderful brands like SK, but I never knew where they came from. My first metric socket set came from a grocery store.

Craftsman was a solid brand, not going anywhere. The tools you bought for life.

I didn't bother try to show parallels with HF. Leaving that to you. I will say, my wife would no more step into a HF, than she would go looking for me in Sears' tool section. I'd find her when I had seen everything.

Until HF sells bras, and you can get an Icon lawn mower, Icon will never be the new Craftsman.

 

[AEAdam]

Until HF sells bras, and you can get an Icon lawn mower, Icon will never be the new Craftsman.

What? No. HF is not Sears. It’s like Sears but not Sears for reasons you mention.

But Icon could replace Craftsman for decent quality, not the cheapest prices, locally available, and in every toolbox on the street. I think that’s the goal anyway.

 

[zendriver]

Nah it's good but not a replacement.

You are probably right, that’s how America works.

I tried to teach my grandson to be frugal, we’ll see how it goes, but he presented with a “just sign here” deal, for the $16,000 tool chest

 

[d.mcfarland]

Just because Craftsman/Sears succeeded at their goal doesn't necessarily mean that ICON (a random HF brand) is the new Craftsman/Sears. Times changed and availability and accessibility did too.

They just copied the business model. Same way they copy Snap On tools.

 

[Aaron_W]

Sears is dead. Sorry to bear the bad news.

 

[sparky 1971]

When I was a teen, Craftsman ruled. Affordable, and other than the ratchets, good enough, as well as easy to get. Harbor Freight as a whole has replaced the Sears tool department, but Icon hasn't replaced Craftsman. Realistically, Icon is better than the normal Craftsman was. Craftsman Professional might have been better than Icon, but I couldn't afford that stuff.

It might just be a coincidence, but at one time we had two Sears stores, while those are both long gone, we now have two Harbor Freights and they are both within two or three blocks of where the Sears stores were. One is even in the same parking lot, but in a different strip mall and the other is across the street.

Harbor Freight hasn't replaced Sears. I don't think anyone will ever walk into a HF to warranty a ratchet and walk out with a new TV and one of those new fangled VCR machines like I did once at Sears. I tell my 15 year old about Sears and he has a hard time believing there was a store that was a one stop shop for everything except groceries.

 

[dscheidt]

I'm 34 and remember USA stamped tools from Craftsman before I could drive. My parents bought me a basic mechanics tool set when I turned 16 so I could change oil or similar. I still think the blow molded case is in the bottom drawer of the toolbox I gave my father, big USA stamp on it.

They must have had a 30ft long isle of open stock and hand tools, it was pretty impressive. Only thing I've seen close are some rural king locations.

that's nothing, really. The Sears I shopped at in college had an amazing selection, they had an entire 20' aisle dedicated to screwdrivers. Sets, of course, but open stock of every screwdriver in the catalog, which even back then was a lot of styles. I remember needing a long #4 phillips screwdriver, and having choices of 8", 12" or 24". There should have been a middle size, but it was sold out. Toolboxes, all of them, as far as I could tell, same with the stationary power tools. Open stock professional bleed wrenches, replacement forcing screws for pullers, piston ring tools, just all sorts of stuff I can't imagine they really sold a lot of, but there, ready to go. This was a small city store, with a fairly big catchment area of farmers. The bigger city store in my hometown did not have as good selection and inventory, but there were other places that sold tools.

 

[zendriver]

Sears is dead. Sorry to bear the bad news.

Oh, No!

How did it happen?

 

[AEAdam]

Harbor Freight hasn't replaced Sears. I don't think anyone will ever walk into a HF to warranty a ratchet and walk out with a new TV and one of those new fangled VCR machines like I did once at Sears. I tell my 15 year old about Sears and he has a hard time believing there was a store that was a one stop shop for everything except groceries.

Gosh guys. No one is talking about Sears! This isn't about HF replacing Sears. Its about a once ubiquitous house brand called Craftsman being replaced by a house brand called Icon.

Craftsman was homeowner quality tools, made in all the varieties you could possibly need, brick and mortar available, with in-store easy warranty service as a selling point.

 

[sparky 1971]

Gosh guys. No one is talking about Sears! This isn't about HF replacing Sears. Its about a once ubiquitous house brand called Craftsman being replaced by a house brand called Icon.

That's cool that you only quoted part of my post, which was directed at the people comparing Sears to HF instead of Icon to Craftsman. Go back and look at post's 18 and 24, which were made by you reminiscing about Sears of days gone by, you even managed to mention your beloved Snap On in both posts.

 

[dnschmidt]

Quinn is the new Craftsman. ICON is clearly a step above anything Craftsman ever made except perhaps their Craftsman Professional line. My dad bought Craftsman raised panel wrenches which he never used as he use to steal my Proto. I couldn't really blame him much for that.

 

[dchawk81]

What? No. HF is not Sears. It’s like Sears but not Sears for reasons you mention.

But Icon could replace Craftsman for decent quality, not the cheapest prices, locally available, and in every toolbox on the street. I think that’s the goal anyway.

You said no, then basically said what I said.

 

[dchawk81]

You are probably right, that’s how America works.

I tried to teach my grandson to be frugal, we’ll see how it goes, but he presented with a “just sign here” deal, for the $16,000 tool chest

Yeah I don't recommend it until you can afford it. I didn't start getting SO until I was in my 40s.

 

[larrygerald]

I like icon , except for the prices, icon could be cheaper. one of the draws from Craftsman was that it was USA, and you could catch it on sale fliers for cheap, and was able to get it warrantied easily as there was a store close by, still have a lot of my USA craftsman sockets and wrenches in use, has been used professionally, held up well, was worth it's coin, not aware of any budget USA brands with as broad of a product line as what they had, have some full polish craftsman industrial wrenches that have been flawless, really put them through the paces for a decade or so and they are still excellent

 

[AEAdam]

That's cool that you only quoted part of my post, which was directed at the people comparing Sears to HF instead of Icon to Craftsman. Go back and look at post's 18 and 24, which were made by you reminiscing about Sears of days gone by, you even managed to mention your beloved Snap On in both posts.

Sorry- maybe I was thinking about another post.

And you were right about Craftsman Pro. I bought my brother Craftsman Pro "full polished" combination wrenches (which were actually SKs and were very nice).

And IIRC, there were "Sears" branded tools (I recall wrenches) that were crappier than Craftsman, possibly imported.

I do think the whole "good better best" marketing scheme has been proven successful with US buyers at least. HF is clearly using that strategy, and Sears did too. The US General Toolboxes look much more attractive beside the much more expensive Icon boxes. I don't recall different brands of toolboxes in Sears. They were all Craftsman that I recall, but there certainly were "good better best" boxes there.

In case I haven't made it clear, I think the OPs question is a good one and I think I agree Icon is the new Craftsman.

 

[M635_Guy]

I guess it depends on which "Craftsman" you mean. The MiUSA Craftsman hand tools from the 70's/80's were pretty great. It's fun when Project Farm and TTC put them in the hand-tools tests.

The early-2000's MiC Craftsman weren't ****. They were serviceable tools. I would put them a shade below Tekton. The current MiC Craftsman seems to be like Husky/Kobalt and the other so-so house brands.

 

[housewolf]

I always viewed Sears (including Craftsman) as a place you could buy decent to good quality stuff at a fair price. If you were a shrewd shopper you might would fair better shopping elsewhere but you knew you weren’t getting ripped off and/or coming home with absolute junk no matter what you bought there (in the 60s thru 80s). Clothes, tools, sporting goods, appliances, etc… it was all generally a good value.

I’m pretty sure I can find junk at HF.

 

[Aaron_W]

Oh, No!

How did it happen?

It was my turn to poke the bear.

I actually kind of agree with the HF is the new Sears tool department, but how can you not say the same about Lowes or Home Depot. They sell appliances making the comparison even closer.

Sad part is Walmart is probably the closest thing to what Sears was.

Housewolf does have a point with quality though. Sears built its reputation on affordable quality, Walmart on "hey, its cheap".

 

[2ndGearRubber]

I'd be interested in examples. A lot of people compare Icon to Tekton, but at least for wrenches and sockets, it appears Quinn uses the same ODMs that Tekton does. A while back I decided to sell my SK Xframe and Tekton sets use the money on a couple Icon sets. Before I sent the Tekton wrenches to their new home, I compared them with the Icon set. The Icons were definitely a tighter tolerance than the Tekton set. My Hazet set was even better. All of them work very well.

But when I look at testing like the TTC did and see Tekton at 25th in their scoring and Icon at 6th, it tends to validate that there's something decent going on there. In a different batch of tests on their "Pushy the Wrench Dyno", Icon scored within 6% of the SnapOn FD+. Pretty good.

My point the other products that are in that discussion are guys like Milwaukee and Carlyle (which are both from the same ODM as Icon), with the rest being the usual suspects: Snap On, Proto, Wright and Mac (which is currently at the top of their testing). My guess is Quinn would score very similarly to Tekton. Husky/Koblat/etc. lagged. Pittsburgh is...meh at best. So it's not entirely shiny marketing.

Oh it's certainly not all marketing. My examples of specific products from Icon, semi deeps, the wrenches, that's most of what I would be directly interested in looking at. I considered Icon when I wanted a different ratcheting wrench to replace a set of gear wrench I had used for ~10 years. And a coworker bought a pretty nice set of 1/4 extensions and I'm picky about extensions.

On the one hand Icon offers a functional product, with some level of quality that's totally acceptable, which is cheaper than the moon-shot pricing of Snap on, or Proto, or Wright. As your post reflects, I can buy Quinn sockets in the very same HF store, or even my favorite the multi-colored sockets which are sadly not 6 point in all sizes. So while the usual suspects at the tippy top seem to be consistently the best, they have a very high price associated. If we cull the top of the market, let's call Icon the most premium brand available just for discussion. Why would I buy a $40 set of Icon 3/8 deeps, when I can buy a good set for $12 from Pittsburgh Pro? Yes the Icons will have the better necked down profile on smaller sizes, however my preference is not having graduations of size like Icon or Snap On, rather having the sockets be identical in length like Pittsburgh Pro. Icon deeps "compare to snap on" are 1/7th the price, 327/45. 327/$13 Pittsburgh Pro is 1/25th.


For many considering Icon here, it seems like there's a "why buy premium brand if I can spend 1/4 and get a quality tool"? Well that sort of wraps back into Icon in my mind, when the Pittsburgh Pro sockets lasted me in the rust belt many years of daily use with good performance. Are my Williams better? Yup. In my mind the mentality which sells Icon to me over Williams, then makes me buy Pittsburgh Pro. That's why I always say I don't understand this middle step between "buy it for a life of use" and "buy it to do the job and minimize cost". Certainly some part of that is my own mentality and doesn't apply to everyone. The extreme version of this is buying all tools from TYBHN56M brand on Amazon which I think gets a bit short sighted. At least with a "known" brand there's some level of consistency expected from the product and hopefully you can rectify a problem easily if it happens right after purchase. The plus side with Icon to me is the easy availability of a product locally which is needed in some areas the cheaper stuff just kind of *****. Extensions in chrome, being a great example I'd say Icon seems like a good choice. Or chrome semi-deep sockets in general, not super common, Icon was smart with those. Now Icon did goof with not adding a significant undercut to aid removal of the sockets, too busy chasing snap on aesthetics. Snap on finally added that undercut, but only on FDX sockets which aren't really usable as daily drivers IMO if you're in the rust belt.



FWIW I hate the Icon/Napa/Milwaukee toothed end. ***** balls IMO. I bought into the Napa Carlyle hype when I first got on here, and those wrenches performed pretty poorly for me. Soured me on the brand entirely, but luckily it was an SAE set so I didn't suffer with it much for the couple years I had them before I traded them.


Please nobody read into this as being anti-HF, anti-Icon, anti-whoever. More options = more better.

 

[Aaron_W]

I have my fair share of old Craftsman tools from screw drivers and wrenches to a table saw. It wasn't bad stuff, but it also isn't all that.

I've got a Craftsman socket set I bought in the 90s, it seems to me to be no better or worse than Husky, or Kobalt. Quinn seems to live in roughly the same space, but is more limited in available options.

Price wise, current Craftsman, Husky, Kobalt seem to be at the same general price point, each offering one or more 50-70 piece 3/8" drive "mechanics tool set" at a $60-90 price range. Quinn is about this price as well, but due to limited selection you have to compare a smaller 35 piece set at $40.

Icon and Gearwrench are significantly higher with 54 and 56 piece sets at $149, Tekton is also higher with a 46 piece at $95 or a 73 piece at $169.

I think you have to go back to my Dad's generation for Craftsman power tools to be anything more than adequate. I've got some Craftsman tools from the 70s that are pretty nice, but the stuff from the 90s and early 2000s, are basically eh, it works.

 

[Aaron_W]

Oh it's certainly not all marketing. My examples of specific products from Icon, semi deeps, the wrenches, that's most of what I would be directly interested in looking at. I considered Icon when I wanted a different ratcheting wrench to replace a set of gear wrench I had used for ~10 years. And a coworker bought a pretty nice set of 1/4 extensions and I'm picky about extensions.

On the one hand Icon offers a functional product, with some level of quality that's totally acceptable, which is cheaper than the moon-shot pricing of Snap on, or Proto, or Wright. As your post reflects, I can buy Quinn sockets in the very same HF store, or even my favorite the multi-colored sockets which are sadly not 6 point in all sizes. So while the usual suspects at the tippy top seem to be consistently the best, they have a very high price associated. If we cull the top of the market, let's call Icon the most premium brand available just for discussion. Why would I buy a $40 set of Icon 3/8 deeps, when I can buy a good set for $12 from Pittsburgh Pro? Yes the Icons will have the better necked down profile on smaller sizes, however my preference is not having graduations of size like Icon or Snap On, rather having the sockets be identical in length like Pittsburgh Pro. Icon deeps "compare to snap on" are 1/7th the price, 327/45. 327/$13 Pittsburgh Pro is 1/25th.


For many considering Icon here, it seems like there's a "why buy premium brand if I can spend 1/4 and get a quality tool"? Well that sort of wraps back into Icon in my mind, when the Pittsburgh Pro sockets lasted me in the rust belt many years of daily use with good performance. Are my Williams better? Yup. In my mind the mentality which sells Icon to me over Williams, then makes me buy Pittsburgh Pro. That's why I always say I don't understand this middle step between "buy it for a life of use" and "buy it to do the job and minimize cost". Certainly some part of that is my own mentality and doesn't apply to everyone. The extreme version of this is buying all tools from TYBHN56M brand on Amazon which I think gets a bit short sighted. At least with a "known" brand there's some level of consistency expected from the product and hopefully you can rectify a problem easily if it happens right after purchase. The plus side with Icon to me is the easy availability of a product locally which is needed in some areas the cheaper stuff just kind of *****. Extensions in chrome, being a great example I'd say Icon seems like a good choice. Or chrome semi-deep sockets in general, not super common, Icon was smart with those. Now Icon did goof with not adding a significant undercut to aid removal of the sockets, too busy chasing snap on aesthetics. Snap on finally added that undercut, but only on FDX sockets which aren't really usable as daily drivers IMO if you're in the rust belt.



FWIW I hate the Icon/Napa/Milwaukee toothed end. ***** balls IMO. I bought into the Napa Carlyle hype when I first got on here, and those wrenches performed pretty poorly for me. Soured me on the brand entirely, but luckily it was an SAE set so I didn't suffer with it much for the couple years I had them before I traded them.


Please nobody read into this as being anti-HF, anti-Icon, anti-whoever. More options = more better.

I agree with your point on pricing.

I can be a bit of a tool snob, but I also have a frugal streak. While the bulk of my power tools with cords are Dewalt, Milwaukee, Bosch, or Makita, the sneaky old HF with their frequent sales have suckered me into the Bauer line for cordless tools. They work fine, and are really hard to beat for the price. Even Ryobi prices look like premium tools. For me cordless tools are for light duty work and all of them have met my needs.

The Icon tools seem to be honestly good tools, but they are priced at a point where I'm going to be considering other higher end (not truck tool) brands.

I run into this with Hercules power tools as well. A lot of Bauer tools are priced within my impulse price point. Looks handy, lets see how it works. Hercules is priced high enough that I'm going to be picky. The Hercules tool still might come home with me, as I have a few but only after I've given a good consideration to one of the big name brands and don't feel like I'm coming up short by not spending more money


My most recent socket purchase was a 1/4" set (thanks alot GJ, I was perfectly happy with 3/8" until I found out how wonderful some of you think 1/4" sockets are. I do admit I'm enjoying them ). I looked at Icon, but ended up buying Tekton, mostly because it offered more options, not because I felt the Icon quality was lacking.

 

[dchawk81]

Oh it's certainly not all marketing. My examples of specific products from Icon, semi deeps, the wrenches, that's most of what I would be directly interested in looking at. I considered Icon when I wanted a different ratcheting wrench to replace a set of gear wrench I had used for ~10 years. And a coworker bought a pretty nice set of 1/4 extensions and I'm picky about extensions.

On the one hand Icon offers a functional product, with some level of quality that's totally acceptable, which is cheaper than the moon-shot pricing of Snap on, or Proto, or Wright. As your post reflects, I can buy Quinn sockets in the very same HF store, or even my favorite the multi-colored sockets which are sadly not 6 point in all sizes. So while the usual suspects at the tippy top seem to be consistently the best, they have a very high price associated. If we cull the top of the market, let's call Icon the most premium brand available just for discussion. Why would I buy a $40 set of Icon 3/8 deeps, when I can buy a good set for $12 from Pittsburgh Pro? Yes the Icons will have the better necked down profile on smaller sizes, however my preference is not having graduations of size like Icon or Snap On, rather having the sockets be identical in length like Pittsburgh Pro. Icon deeps "compare to snap on" are 1/7th the price, 327/45. 327/$13 Pittsburgh Pro is 1/25th.


For many considering Icon here, it seems like there's a "why buy premium brand if I can spend 1/4 and get a quality tool"? Well that sort of wraps back into Icon in my mind, when the Pittsburgh Pro sockets lasted me in the rust belt many years of daily use with good performance. Are my Williams better? Yup. In my mind the mentality which sells Icon to me over Williams, then makes me buy Pittsburgh Pro. That's why I always say I don't understand this middle step between "buy it for a life of use" and "buy it to do the job and minimize cost". Certainly some part of that is my own mentality and doesn't apply to everyone. The extreme version of this is buying all tools from TYBHN56M brand on Amazon which I think gets a bit short sighted. At least with a "known" brand there's some level of consistency expected from the product and hopefully you can rectify a problem easily if it happens right after purchase. The plus side with Icon to me is the easy availability of a product locally which is needed in some areas the cheaper stuff just kind of *****. Extensions in chrome, being a great example I'd say Icon seems like a good choice. Or chrome semi-deep sockets in general, not super common, Icon was smart with those. Now Icon did goof with not adding a significant undercut to aid removal of the sockets, too busy chasing snap on aesthetics. Snap on finally added that undercut, but only on FDX sockets which aren't really usable as daily drivers IMO if you're in the rust belt.



FWIW I hate the Icon/Napa/Milwaukee toothed end. ***** balls IMO. I bought into the Napa Carlyle hype when I first got on here, and those wrenches performed pretty poorly for me. Soured me on the brand entirely, but luckily it was an SAE set so I didn't suffer with it much for the couple years I had them before I traded them.


Please nobody read into this as being anti-HF, anti-Icon, anti-whoever. More options = more better.

I get it. If we call snap on 100% quality at 100% pricing, Icon 90% quality at 20% pricing, why not Pittsburgh Pro for 80% quality at 3% pricing.

If you're not gonna go full tilt, tilt as little as possible.

 

[sparky 1971]

The only Icon vs. Craftsman comparison I can make is with the long pattern wrenches since I have both brands in SAE and metric, but imho, that isn't fair because my Craftsman set came from Lowes about two years ago, well after our last Sears store shut the doors. Icon wins hands down. For work, I have the SAE set of Pittsburg long patterns and those are much closer to the Craftsman with the Craftsman probably being a little better.

Really, thinking about it, SBD Craftsman is the new Sears Craftsman. Somewhat decent quality, readily available and a name most people recognize. I'm willing to bet there are more Lowes and Ace Hardware stores than there were Sears stores back in the day but have no data to back that up. We had two Sears stores. We have three Lowes within a 30 minute drive from anywhere in the metro (two of them are about a 15 minute drive from each other with light traffic) and I don't know how many ACE stores there are, but all of the towns of at least 8,000 or larger seem to have one. I've heard good and bad about the warranty, but have no experience with it. I've broken every single teardrop Craftsman ratchet I owned more than once, gave up and just started throwing them away over 20 years ago. I've also cracked a socket or four, but just toss them and buy something else since I don't consider a $3 thing worth screwing with.