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.
Ah ok, Ridgid licensed its brand name to TTI for use in power tools. Same deal though, Ridgid brand power tools have always been made by TTI. No idea if Rigid hand tools are especially great. All tools are built to price points, especially power tools.
Home Depot has a good-better-best thing where Ryobi is the economy line, Ridgid in the middle, and Milwaukee at the top, but all are made by TTI. TTI also makes Hart (Walmart house brand) and other brands too. I have some Ryobi tools and a few Milwaukee and I’m satisfied with everything. The main thing I hate is battery incompatibility between brands, but you can bypass some of that with adapters.
I’m unconvinced that the high end stuff like Hilti or Snap-on is really better. What you get with those brands is a high level of fleet service. Like if you have a factory using Hilti tools and one of the tools breaks or becomes due for maintenance, the operator just puts it in a box and gets another from the inventory. Once a month the Hilti rep comes around, swaps out the box of broken/worn tools for new ones, and takes the box back to Hilti for repair.
Torque Test Channel is a good YT channel for tools. AvE (Arduino vs Evil) is entertaining some of the time but I don’t watch it that much any more. AvE used to do a lot of teardowns of TTI and other power tools.
My grandpa used to only use Ridgid hand tools for plumbing. That’s about all I know about them lol.
But yeah, Ridgid is great for a homeowner or hobbyist, but doesn’t quite stand up to something like Milwaukee for a pro.
I would not put it in the avoid list. Ridgid is perfectly fine, they have a huge selection, they’re powerful enough, and they warranty is killer. They’re about all I buy for cordless tools, but I’m also just a DIY homeowner and not a contractor. But I’ve also not tried their new Nuke like which is supposed to be “pro grade”.
I just wish they’d put a rack and pinion fence on their table saw before I buy one. When I upgrade from my 15 year old ryobi, it’ll probably be dewalt unless Ridgid upgrades that fence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techtronic_Industries
The reason they’re not as good as Milwaukee is because they’re made by the same company, and they want the Milwaukee brand to mean “better tool”
They’ll purposely avoid making the Rigid or Ryobi tools too good so people have to buy the Milwaukee stuff.
I try to buy mostly Makita, cause they’re high quality, and not built by a conglomerate.