This is still true in the margin, but it requires a shocking amount of research to suss it out. You might enjoy the Rose Anvil channel, as it dissects boots (literally) and discusses their quality in depth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vHTlrwHttc

There are cases where spending more gets you a more premium product ... but in so, so many cases it's just like you stated. You spend on luxury, and the "nice" speakers have the same terrible PCB design and fail in 1-2 years, or the "nice" skilsaw ends up failing way too soon, etc. A brand used to be good, but now it's terrible, and you have no way of knowing. It's all a mess.

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ValentineC 19 hours ago | parent [-]

Rose Anvil has (like many other internet celebrities) had some controversies:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Boots/comments/1oyxfuo/what_do_you_...

That said, I like watching him for validation that my taste is good, since I bought Lems' shoes before he started plugging them.

	▲	everdrive 18 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think that's fair. I didn't know anything about boots before watching him, so I wasn't aware that boot construction could even vary so much. I had no sense that a pair of $80 boots were effectively glorified tennis shoes, whereas nearly any $200 boot would be much more durable and constructed fundamentally differently. (even if all $200 boots are not equivalent with each other) So, even if he's doing a little access journalism and has some bias, I still think there is some value in just understanding the construction of different boots.