I went down a rabbit hole on who owns every power tool brand

I worked for a privately held $company, looking to launch a new, commercially-focused lighting control product ecosystem. Along with other advisors, we hired a prior Milwaukee employee who had focused on JATCs (Joint Apprenticeship Training Centers, IBEW Locals).

At their recommendation, we internally staffed a Quality Training and Service Team to focus on hands-on training with on first-year electrical apprentices.

With the guidance of the erstwhile Milwaukee re, our QTS team developed and delivered hands-on trainings (with $company’s products) in the US & Canada, for first-year apprentices.

I covered the Western Region at that time and every training center I observed, from Hawaii to Colorado, had Milwaukee-provided tools and training for the apprentices to learn & grow with. When they turn out (become journeymen), it’s little wonder what they “Pack Out” with. Which is what we hoped to — and at least in some markets did— accomplish with our product.

I’ve personally been a DeWalt guy since the early oughts, and in addition to feeling a steady decline, I was particularly hurt when one of my (Milwaukee-loving) foremen informed me that “T-Stack” sounds like a male enhancement pill.

edit: clarity, grammar. not-edited: my irregular use of the AI-shibboleth emdash

This aligns with my limited personal power tool owning experience. Milwaukee is pretty consistently good quality and their high capacity lithium batteries are expensive but worth the price. My $100 Ryobi electric power washer is also still going strong after a couple years of ownership.

Craftsman is a shell of its former self, tools are complete garbage imo and you're better off buying cheap tools from Harbor Freight at that point.

Klein is still good too.

Sad there's no rabbit hole for the Chevron group (not related to the oil folks). They took over SKIL from Bosch in the late 2010s and they also produce power tools for Kobalt at Lowes, plus the Flex and EGO brands.

https://global.chervongroup.com/en/what-we-do/our-brands