3 ms·

This is pretty common in my experience? Market some relatively common item to an out-group of individuals at stupid markup based off brand recognition alone and

This is pretty common in my experience? Market some relatively common item to an out-group of individuals at stupid markup based off brand recognition alone and reap the rewards. LTT looks to be flexing his brand here on unsuspecting PC enthusiasts where anyone with more experience in the electrical trades knows where to get higher quality tools for better/similar pricing. I'll compare to my time in Paintball years ago. Any site marketing woodsball gear to paintballers had nutty markups, but if you went to any Army Surplus or Hunting outfitter you could get a lot of similar gear for way cheaper at better quality because it wasn't marketed specifically to a niche sport relying on brand name alone. It happens all over the place. Consumers not doing their due diligence have only themselves to blame.

kaladin-jasnah 4y ago
Another example: I feel like DACs have the same problem where companies like Schiit market their products to Hi-fi enthusiasts when you can get an audio interface with similar performance for a much lower price.
ptasci67 4y ago
I take the video with a grain of salt of course but just to be fair here, the video spends the majority of its time explaining in great detail why Linus did NOT just slap his name on a megapro screwdriver. I actually found the minute details of how they designed, prototyped, and stressed over the screwdriver quite fascinating and while it may or may not translate to quality... it at least is a weak signal to me that someone considered every facet which I believe is somewhat correlated with quality.
isitmadeofglass 4y ago
> Market some relatively common item to an out-group of individuals at stupid markup based off brand recognition alone and reap the rewards. Yes, but is that really so bad? I mean you can get cheaper T-Shirts with better quality than the ones at the merch stand at concerts. People don’t buy them because they are under some delusion that their great value for price. They buy them to support the creators, and to be able to show and talk about their support of the creator to others.
defterGoose 4y ago
These types of products generally fall under the header of "lifestyle brands", and IME are experiencing a big boom right now due to the advent of "influencers".
cowmoo728 4y ago
I don't understand the assumptions in this comment. Linus is selling a screwdriver that he designed and would not otherwise exist, and that he believes is better than any other screwdriver available. That's different than selling a common item at high markup. It would have been more profitable and far less work to put the LTT brand on an existing screwdriver. I'm still not going to buy it because it's too expensive and I don't care enough. But most of the cost here is associated with a small player trying to make a product from scratch rather than using existing tooling, molds, parts, etc. That seems very different than how you characterized it.

kaladin-jasnah 4y ago

Another example: I feel like DACs have the same problem where companies like Schiit market their products to Hi-fi enthusiasts when you can get an audio interface with similar performance for a much lower price.

ptasci67 4y ago

I take the video with a grain of salt of course but just to be fair here, the video spends the majority of its time explaining in great detail why Linus did NOT just slap his name on a megapro screwdriver. I actually found the minute details of how they designed, prototyped, and stressed over the screwdriver quite fascinating and while it may or may not translate to quality... it at least is a weak signal to me that someone considered every facet which I believe is somewhat correlated with quality.

isitmadeofglass 4y ago

> Market some relatively common item to an out-group of individuals at stupid markup based off brand recognition alone and reap the rewards. Yes, but is that really so bad? I mean you can get cheaper T-Shirts with better quality than the ones at the merch stand at concerts. People don’t buy them because they are under some delusion that their great value for price. They buy them to support the creators, and to be able to show and talk about their support of the creator to others.

defterGoose 4y ago

These types of products generally fall under the header of "lifestyle brands", and IME are experiencing a big boom right now due to the advent of "influencers".

cowmoo728 4y ago

I don't understand the assumptions in this comment. Linus is selling a screwdriver that he designed and would not otherwise exist, and that he believes is better than any other screwdriver available. That's different than selling a common item at high markup. It would have been more profitable and far less work to put the LTT brand on an existing screwdriver. I'm still not going to buy it because it's too expensive and I don't care enough. But most of the cost here is associated with a small player trying to make a product from scratch rather than using existing tooling, molds, parts, etc. That seems very different than how you characterized it.