The most and least popular brands on r/BuyItForLife
When it comes to finding products that are built to last, the BuyItForLife subreddit is a great place to start your search. We decided to take a look at the most and least popular brands on the subreddit, based on sentiment analysis of 2 years worth of data.
Some of the results were surprising, such as IKEA and Craftsman ranking relatively high despite not being known for durability. At the other end of the spectrum, we see a number of mass-market brands that are producing disposable electronic products, such as Samsung or LG. It's no surprise that these brands are less popular on a subreddit dedicated to finding products that will last a lifetime.
Overall, the results provide a good starting point for anyone looking for durable products that are built to last. We'll work on rolling this kind of analysis out to many more subreddits, stay tuned!
Here are some of the comments from Reddit users that we found particularly interesting:
"I’ve been using the same 500 mL Pyrex glass measuring cup in my kitchen for the past 20+ years.
I’ve been using it so long, in fact, that the measurement levels printed on the outside have completely faded from the glass, rendering it nearly useless as a measuring cup.
It now functions as a sort of Zen kitchen sculpture that defies interpretation and occasionally holds ice cream."
From user u/jraz84 about his experience with Pyrex
"Patagonia and REI definitely top tier quality stuff. Don’t have to be a camper or hiker to enjoy their clothes"
From user u/wafflepiezz about Patagonia and REI
"bought a Victorinox 8" chef's knife in 2011. It's still my go to knife. Thing is a beast and takes to a good sharpening really well. Best $30 I've spent to date."
From user u/magneticgumby about Victorinox
"Ikea does what it does better than you'd expect and their premium ranges, for the money, are very hard to beat. I dabble in quality management auditing and Ikea is often used as a gold standard for QA, if you've got a bit of Ikea furniture which has failed after 3 years, the chances are that Ikea designed it to last three years.
I will add that there's been a noticeable decline in some elements (particularly the switch from all metal to plastic cam locks) which might result in some deterioration even in more premium ranges, but again it's hard to judge because the old metal ones were far too easy to overtighten to the point of catastrophic destruction."