A little more than a year after a judge threw out a class-action lawsuit asserting that troubled retailer Sears knowingly led customers to believe their iconic Private Brand Craftsman Tools are still Made in the USA, the retailer continues to face public outcry.
Part of the mystique of the Craftsman brand was that the hand tools were proudly Made in the USA. But in recent years, Craftsman, like many tool brands, started manufacturing many of their products in China while continuing to run advertising that would lead customers to believe all the tools were still domestically produced.
Since 1927, Craftsman has built its brand on a credibility and reliability that was brought to life in its now legendary lifetime guarantee: if a hand tool breaks, just bring it back to the store for an immediate replacement. The problem? Made in the USA Craftsman brand loyalists are disappointed with what they feel is a violation of the brand promise. They simply do not want to replace their broken USA manufactured tool with one from China because they suffer from the not unfounded fear that the quality will be substandard to what they expect with the Craftsman name. They also resent the fact that the prices havent dropped to reflect international sourcing.