oldschoolcraft
Well-known member
I've been using tools for around 30 years to various capacities. A few years professionally, mostly as a home gamer. I've noticed a variety of trends changing over time. Think of this as a business history discussion for a historian making a documentary!
I remember Home Depot and Lowes used to have house-brand tools Husky and Kobalt made in Taiwan and then gradually moved over to China. A lot of moving manufacturing overseas over the last 30 years. But I dont want to focus this thread on outsourcing, that's not that interesting. I want to talk trends in products on the market.
A big trend is IP copying. You got your Vims and your HFs copying other people's designs. Seems like a lot of innovation these days is in making clones of tools for 1/3 of the price that are still of a high quality. I dont remember that much copying in the 90s, but maybe it's because US production was relatively cheap compared to what it is now, and outsourced cheaper production was relatively **** quality compared to now. To put in 2024 dollar terms, imagine you could buy a Snap On Pliers for $25 or buy a Chinese made knock off that's 10% as good for $10. Most would buy the Snap On. But when US costs soar, and that pliers is $80, and Taiwan can make a tool that's 80% as good for $20, then that sparks a knockoff market. I said I wouldn't talk much about outsourcing but I think the improvements in Taiwan production have sparked this clone market that wouldn't have existed in the past.
Ratcheting wrenches, I remember they existed in the 90s at Sears but weren't very popular. It seems like it's only been in the last 10 years that you'd have to be lunatic not to be a professional mechanic without ratcheting wrenches. I've seen people suggest your first pair of wrenches be ratcheting combination wrenches!
I've noticed multi-bit screwdrivers becoming way more innovative in recent years. For the longest time, the main multibit screwdriver was the Klein 6 in 1. Now we have all sorts of different versions popping up. Most notably, multi-bit nut drivers. Up until a few years ago I never saw anything like this, and now there's a bunch of them from multiple companies where you have 11 different nut drivers all smooshed together on a single hex bar that you can flip around to hit each size.
I also see a lot more 1/4" hex bit sets being popular. I think it's because of the increase in variety of fasteners in use. Security Torx wasn't that big until recently. Hex bit sets weren't that useful when the bits were 3 sizes of Phillips and 3 sizes of flatheads that did 99% of the fasteners. Now with 30+ bit sets, they're more versatile.
Speaking of that, I also noticed cordless impact drivers are becoming HUGE. Back in the 90s and early 2000s they were considered junk. Now, a lot of people are running them as their only "drill" with hex-end drill bits. I think Milwaukee M12 Fuel Impact Driver is what revolutionized this. And supporting tools like the Railer bit driver packs emerged which wouldn't have been popular if not for the Impact Driver craze. The 11-in-1 nut drivers are also usable in these impacts.
I'm noticing high end tool companies like SnapOn splitting their high end wrench sets into more industry-specific sets. Like a 10-12, 14-17 instead of just doing sequential numbers. I started a thread on that last week, and the main idea seems to be that these wrenches are so expensive that they can sell smaller sets to techs who specialize on one type of car, and be more marketable than trying to sell a $1500 set of wrenches with mostly unused sizes for a Honda tech, for example. Again, a factor of US production costs soaring, if the wrenches were cheaper to make and sell, then people would buy complete sets.
Tool Bags seem to be making a huge resurgence. Veto Pro Pac seems to be the cause there. Surprisingly, I haven't seen any competitors in their price/quality range. Also in portable tools, the Milwaukee Packout seems to have become a trend setter. I dont think they are the original innovator of that type of modular portable toolbox, but Milwaukee has a huge cult following.
Speciality Pliers seem to have made massive improvements over the last 30 years. I attribute Knipex as being the biggest innovator here. Cobras, Pliers-Wrench, amazing. I didn't do a lot of car repairs until the last few years, so I could be wrong but I dont remember so many speciality car pliers being available in the 90s and early 2000s. Even last year, a very popular new plier, the Lisle Electrical Disconnect plier launched and sold out for 6+ months. Personally I've expanded my car mechanics pliers drawer to around 40 pliers in recent years. Up from having a single slip joint, a single needle nose with side cutter, and maybe 2 sizes of channel locks back in the 90s. I have more money now, but I dont remember that many cool pliers being around.
Power tools in general seem to have killed off a lot of other tools. There's been cordless power tools since before I was born and I owned some in the 90s, but something seems to have happened with the Milwaukee Fuel era of tools. Now you'd be laughed at to be a professional showing up on a PVC plumbing job site with a hacksaw and PVC pipe cutters as your primary tools instead of a cordless PVC cutter and cut off tool. When I look at the milwaukee catalog I'm amazed. Caulk gun, apparently squeezing the handle is too hard these days. And when time is money and you dont want to go home exhausted, I get it, but these things didn't exist en masse until very recently.
Curious what trends you've noticed, especially those of you older than me. Anyone in their 60s, 70s, 80s, care to chime in? Also I apologize if I got anything wrong, I probably did, please correct me, I want to learn.
I remember Home Depot and Lowes used to have house-brand tools Husky and Kobalt made in Taiwan and then gradually moved over to China. A lot of moving manufacturing overseas over the last 30 years. But I dont want to focus this thread on outsourcing, that's not that interesting. I want to talk trends in products on the market.
A big trend is IP copying. You got your Vims and your HFs copying other people's designs. Seems like a lot of innovation these days is in making clones of tools for 1/3 of the price that are still of a high quality. I dont remember that much copying in the 90s, but maybe it's because US production was relatively cheap compared to what it is now, and outsourced cheaper production was relatively **** quality compared to now. To put in 2024 dollar terms, imagine you could buy a Snap On Pliers for $25 or buy a Chinese made knock off that's 10% as good for $10. Most would buy the Snap On. But when US costs soar, and that pliers is $80, and Taiwan can make a tool that's 80% as good for $20, then that sparks a knockoff market. I said I wouldn't talk much about outsourcing but I think the improvements in Taiwan production have sparked this clone market that wouldn't have existed in the past.
Ratcheting wrenches, I remember they existed in the 90s at Sears but weren't very popular. It seems like it's only been in the last 10 years that you'd have to be lunatic not to be a professional mechanic without ratcheting wrenches. I've seen people suggest your first pair of wrenches be ratcheting combination wrenches!
I've noticed multi-bit screwdrivers becoming way more innovative in recent years. For the longest time, the main multibit screwdriver was the Klein 6 in 1. Now we have all sorts of different versions popping up. Most notably, multi-bit nut drivers. Up until a few years ago I never saw anything like this, and now there's a bunch of them from multiple companies where you have 11 different nut drivers all smooshed together on a single hex bar that you can flip around to hit each size.
I also see a lot more 1/4" hex bit sets being popular. I think it's because of the increase in variety of fasteners in use. Security Torx wasn't that big until recently. Hex bit sets weren't that useful when the bits were 3 sizes of Phillips and 3 sizes of flatheads that did 99% of the fasteners. Now with 30+ bit sets, they're more versatile.
Speaking of that, I also noticed cordless impact drivers are becoming HUGE. Back in the 90s and early 2000s they were considered junk. Now, a lot of people are running them as their only "drill" with hex-end drill bits. I think Milwaukee M12 Fuel Impact Driver is what revolutionized this. And supporting tools like the Railer bit driver packs emerged which wouldn't have been popular if not for the Impact Driver craze. The 11-in-1 nut drivers are also usable in these impacts.
I'm noticing high end tool companies like SnapOn splitting their high end wrench sets into more industry-specific sets. Like a 10-12, 14-17 instead of just doing sequential numbers. I started a thread on that last week, and the main idea seems to be that these wrenches are so expensive that they can sell smaller sets to techs who specialize on one type of car, and be more marketable than trying to sell a $1500 set of wrenches with mostly unused sizes for a Honda tech, for example. Again, a factor of US production costs soaring, if the wrenches were cheaper to make and sell, then people would buy complete sets.
Tool Bags seem to be making a huge resurgence. Veto Pro Pac seems to be the cause there. Surprisingly, I haven't seen any competitors in their price/quality range. Also in portable tools, the Milwaukee Packout seems to have become a trend setter. I dont think they are the original innovator of that type of modular portable toolbox, but Milwaukee has a huge cult following.
Speciality Pliers seem to have made massive improvements over the last 30 years. I attribute Knipex as being the biggest innovator here. Cobras, Pliers-Wrench, amazing. I didn't do a lot of car repairs until the last few years, so I could be wrong but I dont remember so many speciality car pliers being available in the 90s and early 2000s. Even last year, a very popular new plier, the Lisle Electrical Disconnect plier launched and sold out for 6+ months. Personally I've expanded my car mechanics pliers drawer to around 40 pliers in recent years. Up from having a single slip joint, a single needle nose with side cutter, and maybe 2 sizes of channel locks back in the 90s. I have more money now, but I dont remember that many cool pliers being around.
Power tools in general seem to have killed off a lot of other tools. There's been cordless power tools since before I was born and I owned some in the 90s, but something seems to have happened with the Milwaukee Fuel era of tools. Now you'd be laughed at to be a professional showing up on a PVC plumbing job site with a hacksaw and PVC pipe cutters as your primary tools instead of a cordless PVC cutter and cut off tool. When I look at the milwaukee catalog I'm amazed. Caulk gun, apparently squeezing the handle is too hard these days. And when time is money and you dont want to go home exhausted, I get it, but these things didn't exist en masse until very recently.
Curious what trends you've noticed, especially those of you older than me. Anyone in their 60s, 70s, 80s, care to chime in? Also I apologize if I got anything wrong, I probably did, please correct me, I want to learn.