The boots theory is an economic theory that people in poverty have to buy cheap and subpar products that need to be replaced repeatedly, proving more expensive in the long run than more expensive items.
The boots theory is an economic theory that people in poverty have to buy cheap and subpar products that need to be replaced repeatedly, proving more expensive in the long run than more expensive items.
Related concept: buy twice. Buy cheap the first time. If you use it enough to break it then buy a higher quality option.
So far the buy cheap options haven’t broken, so…
Yes! We call it the Harbor Freight methodology. When we’re buying something unfamiliar, we get the cheapest and use it.
When it breaks, we will have learned about using it and why we use it, on what we use it for, we can make a smarter purchase in the next price tier (or top, depending on the outcome)
The trouble with that is that sometimes you don’t know how much time you’re wasting with a poor quality tool even when it’s not broken. A couple examples come to mind. I got a cheap detailing sander. The sheets that came with it disintegrate quickly, and the unit overall just doesn’t work well. I regret that purchase. At work I had to drill a few dozen holes through 2 in thick aluminum. I spent forever on the first machine and broke multiple bits. When I had to do it again, I ordered new drill bits. The job took me half the time and was way easier on my arms. Using the used and abused worn out bits cost the company more in my labor than purchasing new bits. Some things, like taps, can cause damage that takes more than they cost to fix. A broken off tap can’t be just drilled out. They’re too hard and will shatter a drill bit. I’ve also had poor quality screw drivers and sockets round over fasteners that led to horrible times drilling out fasteners on vehicle/machine parts that are expensive to replace.
If you can work on projects with others and occasionally use their tools, you can get a better sense of which tools are worth being more discriminatory on. Unfortunately, that’s not always an option.
You wont know that before buying. Its just as likely if not more so that you buy the expensive version of something when the cheaper version would have been just fine.
There was a brief moment in ecommerce when you could figure that out by looking at product reviews, before reviews turned into something for companies to manipulate.
Now I just hope project farm evaluates something I’m interested in purchasing.
There are a lot of well-off people in the off-roading community who swear by Harbor Freight’s Badlands winches. Certainly a bunch of YouTubers, and I might say that’s all because of paid promotion but they and others also swear they’ve been running them for years and years. But I do understand what you’re saying.
That’s the thing with harbor freight stuff. It might be great at a lower price, and last forever, or it might be the worst piece of garbage imaginable but you aren’t out too much money to find out.
I’ve broken harbor freight tools on my motorcycle. I took them to get replaced for free because of the lifetime warranty on some of their stuff. However, most of it has worked great for years. I’ve abused the hell out of some of it both in and out of the garage.
I wouldn’t use the wood router I got from them to make a pocket in a particularly soft piece of cardboard, but the great majority of their other tools have been fantastic for me.
I find that works well for something like a wrench where the cheap version works ok, but for some things the cheap version works so poorly compared to as least the mid-line version that whatever money you saved wasn’t worth it.
The only tool I used enough to get an expensive one was my multi tool. Everything else is usually lost by the time I need it again, and cheap enough thats not a big deal.
I’ve lost every single multitool I’ve ever owned. I only buy aliexpress now. But everything else is either older than I am, or priced to outlast me.
This has been my strategy for power tools all my life. Has worked out great so far.