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.
Bah I looked through that and I'd call it bogus. The site likes expensive yuppie brands and makes some weird calls. Avoid Ridgid power tools since they've gotten worse due to the TTI acquisition? Um no, there were no Rigid power tools before the acquisition--they only made hand tools. The power tool line has been TTI from the start. They have good and bad points like everything else but the manufacturer has always been TTI.
Klein (approved)? Maybe the company still has its original ownership but the tools have gotten worse according to user reports. They just stick their label on the usual imported stuff now.