Olight, Klarus, Acebeam for lighting. LAPG for clothing. First Tactical and Vanquest for packs. ZT and ESEE for knives. Sawyer water filters big time. Leatherman Raptor shears! Knipex mini tools and Glock since 1990, G24, G24C G35, G23, G27, G20, G21 and soon the G40 10MM. KKM barrels because I live 30 minutes from where they are located in Mound House Nevada. He custom fits my barrels to my Glocks. WOW! I just realized I’m a gear whore and this place is awesome! I purchased 9 flashlights this month and one of them was the Acebeam X45. Got in trouble big time for that purchase, Thanks Amazon for sending all my purchases to my wife’s phone, man I hate that.
Funny how many people have quoted their favorite brand of jeans. To me, they’re all garbage nowadays. I remember back when getting a new pair of jeans was like wearing chaps, or armor-plate. It’d take a few weeks and many washes to just be able to flex enough that you could sit down and not have to remain standing all the time. You’d outgrow the jeans (vertically or circumferentially) looooooooooong before they’d even come close to wearing out.
Now? Wrangler, Lee, Levi, Land’s End, no matter, they’re trash. A year at best before they’d get threadbare and start to split in random places (the “distressed look” on the cheap).
Grew up on Wranglers, but after they changed their “cut” I found that Levis just fit better. Land’s End were just Levis in drag. Best of all I could mail-order LE because I have arms’n’legs like an ape and need looooong inseams unless I’m going for that Capri-pants look.
Bought a coupla pair of Wranglers, which both split on the front-thigh in the same exact spot. And I got an office job, so it’s not like I’m hauling bales of hay or trudging through a coal-mine or anything. They just split. And I like a looser fit, so it’s not like they were stressing or straining.
Levis? Same dealy for the most part. They just got threadbare from the wash, got another front-thigh split, now a few rear-thigh splits are in the works in the gauzelike spots of material that wore through. This is the last week I’ll be wearing this pair, as I broke out another (new) pair from my last buying-spree. Literally just over 1yr of daily-but-outdoor wear. In the house, it’s b’ball shorts or sweats, so it’s not even like I wear jeans 7 days/week. As soon as I get home from work, the jeans come off and the shorts go on.
I got recommended… was it Carhartt?… jeans that seemingly last forever just like Carhartt shirts, that a lot of truckers wear. Maybe I’ll have better luck with those…
Agreed, but I’ve been buying some pair of Levis at Walmart that has some stretch to it (can’t remember the name of the “technology”) that seem to wear a bit better. They’re about $20/pair, comfortable, and look decent. I also wear them out in less than a year, but I am often crawling through attics or doing other activities which are hard on clothes.
I have had some Carhartt pants that were pretty tough, I think they are a quality product. I have heard good things about Duluth Trading Co. and may try some of their stuff next go around:
https://www.duluthtrading.com/men/pants/jeans/
My only grex about their shirts is that the collars tend to be a little snug/small. Love the quality, though.
Ah, that sounds familiar.
Otherwise, I can’t think of anything approaching brand “loyalty”. Temporary preference, maybe, but there always seems to be a race-to-the-bottom sooner or later. At the very least, quality-fade.
Yeah, I’m just a ray of sunshine, ain’t I?
I’m new to the flashlight game, but I’ve developed a love for Emisar so far.
They’re pretty high quality for their price, and Hank is quite helpful with any questions and is active on this forum.
Although I’m trying a lot of different lights from ZebraLight, Sofirn and Fireflies currently.
I tend to lean towards a single brand, but I force myself to try something new every once in a while.
For batteries, I’ve had good experience with Samsung, Keepower and LiitoKala although they often have fraudulent floating around.
levi’s have been junk since they went to thinner material 15-20 years ago.
Now they are just “coasting” on a reputation they don’t deserve anymore.
TwoSun Knives
Subaru
Nokian Tires
Skecher shoes
I’m still new to flashlights, but I love Sofirn torches
iPhones
Kendall motor oil
Twosun Knives are amazing! I have so many of them in my collection.
For flashlights I like Fireflies, Emisar and Astrolux
Cell phones: Samsung
Laptop: Dell
Supplements: Now
Cars: Subaru
:+1: 
for shoes, skechers are junk. the last pair i had wore through the outsole in less than 6 months.
Try Dockers. Garbage, at least their slippers. Needed a pair, went to Kohl’s, saw them on sale, bought. Stretched to about 2-3 sizes too big within a week, literally fell apart (sole split off the rest of the slipper) in less than a month.
Vaguely recall an episode from an old teevee show (fiicr which, though) where someone was able to get beautiful shoes for heavily discounted prices. Anyone who bought ’em had the shoes self-destruct in no time at all. Turned out the shoes were geared towards morticians to put on stiffs, and the glue didn’t stand up too well to body heat from anyone still living.
That’s what those Dockers were like. Oh, beautiful high-quality-looking boxes, but garbage product inside.
Only brands I can “root for” (because they haven’t turned into garbage yet) are for shirts: Carhartt, Sonoma, and Eddie Bauer. Tough, soft, and a-little-of-both, respectively. Don’t recall ever having any actually wear out.
One from Apt 9 eventually stretched from a teeshirt into a dress with plunging neckline. Lost all elasticity. And either Cherokee and/or Jerzeez (forgot which) basically self-destructed after less than a year of ~1day/week wear.
I noticed a bunch of shirts from Port Something. Got some artwork shirts from Amazon from them, got a few regular unadorned teeshirts from ’em. Not sure which brand it is, but one just developed a hole in the underarm. Hope it ain’t that one, as I got a bunch of ’em.
Sox and unnerwear, generally trash that doesn’t last terribly long. “Denim” jeans, I already went into my tirade about those. Belts? Oh, man, got one POS from Kohl’s, reversible, leather held into the buckle by 2 eyeglass-screws, essentially. Leather was brittle, which bent, and later literally cracked. Garbage, garbage, garbage.
Got one now that’s non-reversible, that looks to be decent quality, also from Kohl’s in the same batch, but hopefully a different mfr.
Jackets, I do like Columbia and North Face. Got a RainForest that I quite like, too.
Backpacks, JanSport. They do tend to last forever, and I might put their “lifetime guarantee” to the test, as I washed mine in scalding hot water (as I do all my clothes) and the waterproof “skin” inside peeled off. My bad, but let’s see what they do. 
Best boots I ever got? Cheap-ass “Vietnam Jungle Boots” from Sportsman’s Guide. Good Lord, they lasted ’til well after I wore down the soles to slicks. Looked like Hell with some kind of mesh uppers and leather toe-caps that eventually peeled the coloring, but they lasted nigh forever. Couldn’t kill those things except by sheer mileage. Went up to a size bigger, stuck in innersoles for summer, thick sox for winter. All-year wear. Nice deep tread so you could walk up the side of a tree if so inclined.
Reminds me, should get a coupla more pair…
Try Timberland belts. You can get them at Marshalls. About $15. Heavy leather that lasts.
Going with well known brands is a way to guarantee reasonable quality without having to research the particular items. But do expect to pay a premium for your time.
When it comes to flashlights the current leader seems to be Emisar.
I’m also partial to jungle boots, except my brand is Atalaia, one pair of which I have on the mail now. They last a full 3 years on average, which for the equivalent to 30 dollars is pretty damn good. They only get retired when the outsole starts breaking in half, which it inevitably does.