Craftsman tools are a known name in the industry, but after Sears went bankrupt, Stanley Black & Decker acquired them, but are they as good as the past?
The Craftsman tool line has been around for almost a century, launching in 1927 as a house brand at Sears department stores. In time, Craftsman became synonymous with quality hand tools at reasonable prices that could be trusted to last, thanks to the lifetime warranty provided by Sears.
“Did you know that the first Craftsman hand tool we sold back in 1927 is still under warranty today?” read the copy on Sears’ “Why Craftsman?” web page in 2002. “So are all the hand tools we’ve sold since. That’s what is known as having confidence in our quality. As the Craftsman Unlimited Hand Tool Warranty clearly states… If any Craftsman guaranteed forever hand tool fails to provide complete satisfaction, return it for free repair or replacement. Period.”
The world has changed since then, though: Sears filed for bankruptcy in 2018, which also happened to be the year after it sold Craftsman, eventually being bought at auction by billionaire hedge fund manager Edward Lampert.
