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Comment by rsync | Hacker News Reader

"This is noticeable in many other consumer goods verticals, e.g. good luck researching decent home gym equipment that is durable and not overpriced with fat margins."

I agree with you but there's a simple shortcut you can employ: purchase commercial/industrial models that you see being used in industry.

Gym equipment is a good example: your local, serious weightlifting gym is probably using Hammer Strength plate-loaded machines and Rogue frames/racks.

Cooking: Look in the commercial kitchen of a high end restaurant - that's where I first saw my commercial microwave being used.[1]

TV: NEC P461 commercial display - I found the model number by climbing behind the arrivals/departures board at the airport.

[1] https://shop.panasonic.com/kitchen-and-home/microwaves-and-m...

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> TV: NEC P461 commercial display - I found the model number by climbing behind the arrivals/departures board at the airport.

Huh. Trying to imagine someone doing that and not getting detained. "I just wanted to read the model number, officer, I swear!"

Other than that, good advice. :)

Well, it was ASE. It's a pretty chill airport :)

The irony of this is that Rogue's popularity is due in no small part to their close partnership with Westside Barbell, a quirky club obsessed with both high-end equipment and steroid usage in equal measure. There's a lot of bad equipment out there, but the majority of people, training at home or in a gym, do not need Rogue equipment, and I'm willing to bet that Rogue has higher margins than some of the other good equipment manufacturers.

Agree with others, great advice. I suggested this once for my partner - she needed a laptop and loved her work laptop, so I suggested she look for a refurbished version of her work laptop for personal use, as business laptops often are fairly cheap after their warranty expires and the original owner returns it. She still uses it to this day.

This is great advice. This is what I did when I was looking for a heavy bag and other equipment. I looked at what the dojo had and bought those.

But how the industry pulls that off? They do open calls for equipment and buy in bulk?

It's the market for lemons problem. If it's your job, it's worth it to learn all you need to know to differentiate between junk and quality. If you're buying one of the 75 different appliances in your home, you'll probably just look at a review site, which can easily be gamed by companies selling junk.

The industry has large, potentially repeating customers, who use the equipment until it fails and who often have the resources to sue if a supplier screws then over too badly. This moves the risk/reward sweet spot for vendors towards the “provide good product for fair price” end and away from the “build shoddy malicious crap and spend your money on advertising.”

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