When Keyana Sapp, 31, went shopping for a new backpack, the brands he remembered as a kid were just not the same.
He researched the companies, from North Face to JanSport and Eastpak, and soon realized they were all owned by the VF Corporation after a wave of acquisitions in the 2000s. After a Reddit post he made about his discovery picked up traction, he started looking at other types of consumer goods – cookware, shoes, tools, clothing.
“It seems like that was a story that just repeated in every industry,” Sapp told the Guardian.
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.