Hi there, I came here to the BIFL Lemmy out of suspicion that the reddit posts are just unlabelled marketing, and I was wondering the possibility of sourcing goods that are more to a BIFL standard? In my area, second hand goods tend to be really quite poor in quality (reselling fast fashion) or otherwise not present, and I have not inherited anything that does last. So I would apprecite advice or reccomendations for finding goods at a BIFL standard. I was also wondering if maybe there would be anyone with good advice for finding sustainable, local textile production so that I may be able to tailor what I need without having to buy from the poor selection aforementioned, does anyone know of any of this?
TL:DR I am suspicious that a lot of what is claimed as ‘BIFL’ has been enshittified, and would like advice on being able to search for sustainable goods for a local area (not specified because I’m hoping for advice with searching, not exactly for specific reccs)
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My tiny contribution here is to look things aimed at commercial use, not consumer grade. For example, next time you need to buy a can opener, buy it from a restaurant supply shop instead of Amazon or Walmart.
Same with electronics - instead of a smart TV from Amazon get an industrial TV from B&H or similar (they’re the kind used in store displays like the menu at burger king etc)
Bonus is they likely won’t have “smart” features or AI
Yoooo, that’s the best! Fuck smart tv’s sideways
Specifically, if you want just a tv monitor display(IE no smart tv but also sometimes no speakers or even no remote) you’re looking for what is often called a “Professional TV” usually listed under a brands commercial signage section.
For example: https://www.lg.com/us/business/digital-signage/professional-tvs you can also often purchase directly from a manufacturer these days.
And when doing home repairs don’t get contractor grade. It’s the worst quality possible. I do extensive amounts of cooking and most of my stuff has been from restaurants supply stores, antique shops or handmade by me.
Your first two sentences were promising, but then the following sentences didn’t lead me to where I thought you were taking me, haha
So if “contractor-grade” sucks for home repairs, what grade is actually good?
Unfortunately most items don’t have standardized labeling. You can frequently find “contractor grade” or 'builder grade" listed but you won’t find much beyond that because no one wants to put 'retail grade" on anything. You have to look at the items. Does it look like metal but it’s plastic? Trash.
It’s a bit like how you’ll see things advertised as being made of “aircraft grade” aluminum.
I’m an aircraft repairman, there is no such thing as “aircraft grade” at least in the United States; the aviation industry does not maintain its own standards for metallurgy, it uses SAE standards, and a lot of different alloys get used in aircraft for various applications. Sheet metal skin and structures is usually 2024-T3, you’ll see 6061 or 6065 in castings, hell they make pure aluminum rivets for fastening placards. So most things that say “aircraft grade” on them usually mean they’re 6061-T6 or similar. which is legal for use in aircraft construction if its properties are called for in the design. It’s just some wank they can legally get away with putting on retail packaging.
For me aircraft grade aluminum is right up there with space age technology. The space age was 50 years ago.
I think it depends on exactly what item you’re looking for. Plenty of vintage coats out there, I just bought two 40+ yo military wool coats this season since my old jacket is wearing out and isn’t that stylish. There’s probably local jeans manufacturers that also recycle fabric, like Jeansverket in Sweden. Rose Anvil on YouTube is a good source for finding boots that will last decades.
There is definitely enshittification out there, but it’s not impossible to find BIFL out there.
I am suspicious that a lot of what is claimed as ‘BIFL’ has been enshittified
Sadly, I’m sure this happens a lot in the name of “marketing”.
There are a few things that I look at to help ensure the best chance of getting something that’s BIFL:
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Does the company or product have a good track record? I’d trust my Leatherman to be BIFL over whatever no-name clone you see on Aliexpress.
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Does the company offer a lifetime warranty (or one that’s 20+ years)? If so, has the company been around for decades?
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Is the item repairable and easy to maintain? Even if something isn’t marketed as BIFL, you can likely extend the product’s life by decades through simple maintenance and care.
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Does the item have any built-in planned obsolescence features? Proprietary built-in battery? Components that are glued in place? Sealed shut so you can’t open it without destroying the item? etc…
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Is the product simple or complex? The more complex, the more likely it will fail, but this isn’t always the case if you are able to maintain/repair components.
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Textiles can be tricky, but not impossible to keep going for decades if the quality is good enough.
Sadly, I do think that many companies aren’t interested in making BIFL products because PROFITS!!! I think the market for BIFL will be more with custom fabricators and small businesses.
Thank you :) One of the harder parts about finding things that last is that small businesses don’t have many many millions of marketing behind them, which makes it a big struggle to find them.
That’s very true. I’m discovering a bunch of small businesses that I never would have found, had I not been looking.
And sometimes you only hear about them through word of mouth.
Does the company offer a lifetime warranty
jansport backpacks. but when i sent them a backpack i’d been using since the 90s that started coming apart, they replaced it with the shittiest cheapo version they have
so unless the product only has one version of a thing, don’t be surprised when they replace your $80 thing with the $20 version
That sucks!
I support a company out of Quebec that makes bike panniers. They ended up sending me free replacement parts to fix a SECOND HAND bag I purchased locally.
Some companies have certainly enshittified their warranty, but hopefully that’s not too common.
Two Wheel Cycle Gear? If so, I absolutely love them. I have a one of the convertible pannier backpacks, and absolutely love it.
I’ve got a few of their handlebar bags, but I was referring to Arkel. Their cam lock latch is bomb-proof!
For convertible pannier backpacks, I picked up two Arkel Bug packpacks off Kijiji. But I’ll admit that the Two Wheel backpack looks better.
Cool, thanks for sharing those. The cam lock looks solid. The klick-fix system that two wheel uses is solid, however it’s popped off once
Klick-flix is a good ecosystem, but not easy to find in Canada. I have a Tern folding bike that uses a klick-fix front mounting block and I can seap from front basket to rack to bag if a wanted, because they all interface with the same mount!
Other than the Arkel bags, my only other experience with rack mounting systems is with cheap ortlieb knockoffs 😂
One thing I would watch out for is “has the company been purchased by another company?”. If the answer is yes, then the product has almost certainly gone to shit and you should definitely not rely on older reviews, etc.
That’s an unfortunate reality. Yes, for sure, be cautious of that!
do you know good methods of finding this?
I’m sure there are better ways, but for large companies I can usually just check Wikipedia.
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i think one thing to keep in mind with BIFL is that it’s gonna be painfully expensive, and we tend to have a skewed perspective since a lot of what people buy these days is second hand and thus nowhere near the original sale value.
Like has been said for new BIFL stuff you want to look for business/industrial stuff, or handmade things from passionate people, which is not cheap.
I think it’s pretty unrealistic to expect most of your things to be BIFL unless you can get second hand/inherited things, i’d say think about what things are most important to you and try to invest your money into those few things and find ways to make everything else as minimal and sustainable (and cheap) as possible.
For example people in the medieval era and before generally just wore simple leather turnshoes in the warm seasons, which were fully expected to wear out and they’d need to slap together a new pair every now and then. But that’s fine because literally all you need to make them is some crummy leather scraps!I’ll start tanning some hide right away!
Thank you, I guess it helps to put things into perspective when it comes to pricing. I always try to get stuff second-hand, but then it becomes a struggle to grab anything before anyone else! And then there’s sizing on topnof that. I should probably look into tailoring or alterations.
Throwing in a little odd advice for the secondhand scene - even if the shops are bad, I’ve had some good luck with estate sales and cleanouts (where a family or realtor basically opens the home to anyone who’ll cary stuff away and save them the trouble and cost of throwing it out). It can feel kinda bad, picking through stuff in that context, but we’ve saved a bunch of nice old tools and kitchen stuff that way, and the houses generally have everything else you might need for a house. Personally I think the best BIFL stuff is old and made before they really perfected enshitifying their products.
The cleanouts I’ve been to we found through postings on our local free groups (which I also really recommend) or word of mouth, but I used to know some folks who went to them professionally, looking for merchandise for their own businesses, so they must be advertised somewhere normal people would find them too.
Ok, I will try to find more dying people in my area, thank you!
For certain things, yeah I think so. Good knives, cast iron cookware. Fountain pens yes, as long as spare parts are available. Meze headphones are designed to be completely user serviceable, but that will entirely depend on if they continue to make spare parts.
I would say a majority of modern electronics and appliances are all designed for obsolescence. Born to die. Surprisingly, I have bought things off AliExpress that are more serviceable than most mainstream electronics! Linux-based gaming handhelds that are assembled with screws, no clips or glue. With replaceable components. Headphone amps with socketed op-amps so you can replace or change them at your will.
The real BIFL these days is definitely priced at luxury levels. Speed Queen washers and dryers. Sub-Zero refrigerators. Tudor watches.
With how electronic everything is these days, if you want to BIFL, you better get good at diagnosing and repairing tiny surface mount PCB components. That’s where I’m at now, with a lot of my game consoles. I can toss an SSD in my PS2 and play some San Andreas. No discs, no laser issues! But that PS2 still has 24 year old capacitors, and they’re probably going to die at some point.
I have no idea regarding locally sourced textile goods, sorry. Hammer Made has great men’s shirts, but I don’t know anything beyond that.
To a large extent I tend to think the same way I was taught with cars, simple is sturdy. Skip the fancy features and WiFi widgets and you’ll replace things a lot less often. It’s not always practical, but I’m willing to bet my cast iron cookware is going to be in roughly the same shape far longer than some stamped sheet metal with anti stick coating and a glass lid.
People frequently ask me about appliance advice. I always told him to buy the absolute basic model. Every extra feature is one that can break.
