Smarter every day did a video on this topic recently. As I watched this video I felt like I saw the moment Destin started to become a socialist.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vS6HEes8daw&pp=iggUQAFKEGpXMkZUWTlLQkxpcFZaSUM%3D
It's not just physical manufacturing quality. I feel like nothing is ever made or designed correctly anymore. I have no idea where Designers are being employed, because every website and product is made wrong. Nothing is ever easy to use, or explained well. Nothing ever uses words. Like Reel Big Fish said, Everything Sucks.
I wish I had more upvotes to give, you get one alone for the Reel Big Fish reference. But I wholeheartedly agree with the rest of your comment. Enshittification has taken over the whole world, everything is made to be replaced, nothing is made to be repaired anymore. Interfaces are about capturing as much of your time as possible and collecting as much data as possible. You can’t own software anymore, just subscribe.
I can’t believe people are accepting all this. I’m a greybeard engineer/architect so I keep replacing services with my own, and we’re here on the fediverse to push back, but we’re in the minority. Something’s gonna break soon..
Please skip the article and check out the site being referenced: worseonpurpose.com
There’s an opportunity to support Keyana in their endeavor and get an early contributor price before 8/31/2026.
The only way I can see is everyone to learn to evaluate products quality and abandon brands as soon as they start to enshittify. That of course requires there to be a good quality alternative.
That's why I get my backpacks and such from a guy at Renn Fest who hand stitches the leather.
For the quality, they're actually very reasonably priced. My full grain leather briefcase was only $220.
Thats basically the only way to avoid shitty companies and practices and to get a quality product.
To find some artisan to handmake the item custom for you.
and unfortunately, for the overwhelming majority of people cant afford to pay 180 dollars for a custom, artisan made backpack when they can pay 20 bucks every where or two for a piece of mass produced mostly plastic garbage that wont last. Or any other item, for that matter.
It basically circles back to the Boots Theory of Economics, as everything seems to do.
Yeah, I subscribe to Vimes philosophy whenever I can afford it.
It makes it a lot more palatable when you look at the cost per year. That $220 briefcase could easily last me 20 years (no signs of wear after 5), so $11 a year is pretty good.
Having to buy a $50 backpack every other year is objectively worse.
yeah, but you gotta have that 220 dollars to take advantage of it.
and most people wont.
Most people will get the 40 dollar briefcase, and 180 dollars of food/medical care/etc.
Is there a list of what PE owns?
Also, fake plastic leather that will peel off in three years making a mess everywhere.
I don't care about leather look. Just give me a nylon finish, or any other finish that will not peel off destroying the product. Though I suppose that's the purpose, program obsolescence so you buy another.
Y recently bought one and the sliders buckles were bad, they didn't grip properly.
I've been noticing too, how everything is just worse, cheaper made with less quality control.
Found the Colemak keyboard layout user
These "watchlist" ones do need reading before making up your mind, as the author puts them there for various reasons.
E.g I need a new tent so I've been looking at Decathlon and found it on the watchlist here.
#Decathlon
The world's largest sports retailer. Twenty-plus house brands own the cheap-and-good quadrant, with 10-year warranties on some gear.
#Ownership
Founded by Michel Leclercq and majority-held by the Mulliez family alliance. No external investors, no debt structure. FY2025: EUR 20.7B in sales across 1,902 stores. A 2025 handover put Julien Leclercq in the chair and Javier Lopez in the CEO seat.
#Why Watchlist
Ownership is exemplary and the family reinvests rather than extracts. The problem is conduct: a February 2025 Disclose investigation tied Decathlon's second-largest Chinese garment supplier to Uyghur labor-transfer programs and filmed a 12-year-old working on Decathlon polos. The company confirmed the supplier while denying the Xinjiang subsidiary link. Watchlist until credible remediation is published.
I'm not happy about this, but it's nearly impossible to avoid both Chinese manufacturing (or even just Uyghur labor) AND American capital in this day and age. I can see why it's on the watchlist and for anyone avoiding it, kudos to you for being stronger than I am, but what I'm reading is "no product quality issues mentioned, is not owned by a private equity firm, not American, not publicly traded".
But I'm not pulling the trigger yet, so if anyone can suggest something that's not US owned, is decent quality, and does NOT use uyghur labour or child labour, and is widely available in Europe, I'm all ears
Macpac is my go-to generally. They're New Zealand owned and everything I have bought from them has been really good.
Late stage capitalism phase. Everything is owned by fewer and fewer companies, which have fewer and fewer regulations, and more and more influence. Politics lies in bed with them. Fascism is the current next step, which is trying to solidify this fusion of megacorps+government for a long time. With this comes fewer and fewer rights for consumers and citizens.
I think that we are now witnessing that capitalism has failed because it got too unregulated and companies grew too powerful. And this systemic collapse will cause a lot of tragedy until it's replaced in the far future.
I think that we are now witnessing that capitalism has failed because it got too unregulated and companies grew too powerful.
In other words, capitalism has failed because it's capitalism.
I just rebought the same Levis jeans I've had for some years. The exact same model, length, waist etc, because the old one from 5 years ago fit me perfectly. The new one is too small, and not just around the waist, but it stops above my ankles where the old one goes below my ankles. You can put them on top of each other and see that the new one is a bit smaller everywhere. I also feel like it got even smaller after washing - at 30° according to the instructions.
I've noticed the same when I go to thrift store. I need L-XL there, whereas when I buy new clothes it's XXL. Being worn out can only account for so much in my opinion.
Yeah, Levi’s completely trashed their brand in the past 10 years. I used to consider it top shelf quality, and now it is actually worse than the cheapest bargain bin brands but still the most expensive.
The new one is too small
there is no standard or consistency for size. Not just across companies, but even internally on the same fucking goddamn product.. Its something that has infuriated me for a decade+
I keep running into it. I buy a T-Shirt or a pair of pants, find them comfortable and like them, and go back and buy 2-3 more pairs.
I get them home and find out none of them are the same size. and I'm not talking about new ones compared to the ones I've been wearing and have broken in. I'm not talking about accidentally picking up a couple different sizes due to a stocking mix up. None of that. I'm talking about 3 supposedly identical items that are never identical. because the clothing is made so goddamn cheap anymore that they dont even bother with quality control anymore.
A prime example of this was last week, bought myself 3 new pairs of pants. Same brand, same model, same size, same cut, same everything. Literally the same pair of pants, taken out of the box, and put on the shelf, stacked up on top of eachother.
One pair doesnt fit cause its significantly smaller than the other two. One pair is in okay fit with an uncomfortably tight crotch thats gonna blow out if I wear them too long, and the last pair is mostly okay and close to the original pair I've bought.
And that doesnt even get into how awful consistency is across brands, either.
and its a roll of the dice to try things on in stores because of nasty, disgusting fucking pigs in human form using the dressing rooms as a bathroom, so there is either no dressing room anymore, or if there is you gotta hunt down someone, who has to hunt down someone who has the key to let you in.. and thats assuming they didnt just shit in/on the clothes itself (which I have seen soo many goddamn skid marks in clothes that someone tried on and put back on the hanger that I even if I wanted to try on clothes I cant bring myself to do it anymore)
Company becomes successful with a reputation for quality ----> equity firm buys company ----> proceeds to cut any cost they think they can, starting with quality ----> people wise up and start avoiding brand ----> do it all again with the next company. They've been doing this for decades and they've gotten to most companies.
Its not just private equity, its consolidation, a nasty little gremlin that people often overlook.
When you've bought all the competition, theres no reason to keep innovating to make superior products, because theres no one left to be superior too.
Exactly
The old corporate raiders, now working under the name of private equity.
Time for corporations to create "premium" brands with same quality as before but at 10x the price. Once those get popular lower quality again and pocket the profits. When people start complaining about lower quality create new premium brands...
As far as backpacks go, there are plenty of companies that offer good quality at affordable prices. Just avoid the big brands and look at some reviews.
You realize this article is about big brands buying out companies with good reviews and lowering quality to increase their profits?
Yes. And at the same time smaller companies are created that offer better quality. I'm aware that these will eventually consolidate and become enshittified large corporations. But that leaves space for smaller newcomers again.
It's everything. We're in the end-stages of capitalism. The trope I always bring out it that my previous bank location had 13 teller stations that were ripped out (no computer) and two tellers with a long line.
This is the "We'll give it and you'll take it," phase.
In case you missed it in the article, or didn't read it at all, here's a direct link to the database: https://ledger.worseonpurpose.com/
Oh this dude is on Mastodon. I love his articles. They’re extremely informative and well written.
I try to buy second hand (not food, obvs). Better quality for lower prices. I have a fully cotton canvas and leather Fjällräven rucksack that only cost me 40 Euro. A new plastic one (without a removable seat pad) would cost 100 more.
i first noticed this years ago when some soap company bought breyer's ice cream.
breyer's used to be one of the best, turned to shit overnight
I feel like breyers was specifically bought in order to turn it to shit, because This used to be their ad.
Indeed. They used to make ice cream. Now they make "flavored frozen treats". The only one I would consider buying is the "natural vanilla" because it is actually ice cream, but the shrinkflation is so massive it's extremely obvious just looking at it.
Used to be ice cream, is now called something like "frozen dairy dessert". Their strawberry ice cream used to be really great: milk, cream, sugar, egg, strawberry. That's it. Now it's a couple dozen weird ingredients that they can't call ice cream, and it's awful.
Yeah there are minimum fat contents to legally be called ice CREAM... cream is expensive.... ice milk is less so etc. it isn't necessarily bad if that is what you are expecting can be a lower fat alternative but if you have years of experience and the fat content suddenly drops... bye bye customers. Grew up in a Bryers house hold... we don't purchase Bryers anymore.
edit I see claims that Bryers does still sell Ice Cream along side their frozen dairy desserts but the average shopper isn't likely to recognize the difference... now I might have go looking and pick up a tub.
turned to shit overnight
Literally? I guess it's possible, but I'd have expected it to turn to soap instead.
Nah it’s just Capitalist Optimization™️
It's always good to get better quality for $5 by time traveling to a thrift store.
Profit motive is grey goo.
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