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Comment by sjf | Hacker News Reader

I don't want to buy new clothes either. Where can I find clothes that will last 10 years. The article didn't help with any specifics.

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Quite a lot of things will last a decade. Probably half of my wardrobe is at least that old and I don't spend a lot of time searching out the best stuff. However, you've got to be realistic about it. T-shirts will stretch all out of shape and the collar will fray, because they are essentially disposable clothes. I go through trousers fairly quickly (like I need to buy a pair every 3-4 years), but until recently I only had 2 pairs of trousers. I'm up to 5 now because I found these amazing winter trousers at Uniqlo that are ridiculously well made and also very warm (they are 3 layers).

Although I say I only had 2 pairs of trousers, I actually have a wardrobe for winter, summer, and spring/fall. In the summer, I often wear a jinbei which are... kind of like pajamas. But they are loose and cool and don't really wear out. In the winter it is trousers and shirts, but with a high quality undershirt. Generally I go for "outdoors" wear because it is usually of much better quality and also performs dramatically better (warmer, breathable, lighter). I wear exactly 1 fleece jacket (although I keep getting more as gifts... not sure what to do with them) and I don't dare to even imagine when I first got it -- probably over 20 years ago.

Check out the Buy It For Life subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/

If you live in Europe, here are some brands:

French basic T-shirts: https://www.maisoncornichon.com/product-page/coton

German made basics https://merzbschwanen.com

French made: https://debonnefacture.fr

Leather and denim are probably your best bet. Higher quality leather jackets can last for 10-20 years if you take care of them.

Personally I recommend Schott in NYC. A bit pricey but my jacket still looks great 5 years later. I imagine it will be wearable for at least another decade.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schott_NYC

Denim, specifically jeans, is getting ridiculously thin. I used to be able to count on jeans lasting well over 5 years, but now they’ll wear holes (particularly around seams or pockets) in a year, tops. And these are Carhart branded work jeans; not exactly a brand I associate with low quality clothing.

A personal pet peeve of mine is this newfangled stretch denim that more and more jeans seem to use. At the start of the day the fit is fine but before the end of the day the elastic has relaxed enough to where you need a belt to even keep them on at all. Add to that the magically shrinking pockets and I haven't been able to find reasonable jeans in a few years now.

Denim doesn't last anymore, last pair of jeans I bought blew out at the ass at work after about six months. They weren't cheap or ill fitting either.

Plus denim isn't acceptable attire at many workplaces.

Jeans last for at most a year for me before my saddle eats through them.

99% sure you are referring to a bike but 1% curious if it’s a horse.

I go to thrift stores and look at the "made in" labels. Anything from the US, Europe, or Japan tends to be a safe bet.

L. L. Bean used to have this reputation, although I think it's been walked back a bit in recent years.

the quality of llbean is decreasing, they have a 10 year warranty, but I'm not sure whether they still hold it.

LL Bean used to have a "lifetime" guarantee but like others (e.g. REI) have backed off considerably. I'm not sure how much of that is because quality has in fact decreased as so many of these brands have shifted manufacturing to the Far East--and how much is because people in general are probably more willing to abuse things like return policies. I suspect it's a bit of each.

They used to have lifetime returns! Regardless of condition, no questions asked!

This American Life did an interesting piece on it, I was surprised the degree to which people abused—or, I guess, took advantage of—the policy.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/591/get-your-moneys-worth/a...

I wonder if it has to do with the spread of e-commerce more generally. L. L. Bean is a mail-order company. Returns are one way to reassure customers who can't even look at the clothes before buying them. (And Amazon has a pretty generous return policy on clothes now for that reason.)

But people are used to buying things sight unseen now; maybe the ironclad return policy doesn't have the value -- to the company -- that it once did.

The policies were always abused. I've heard people boast about taking in a well-used rain jacket every five years and swapping it for a new one although most didn't do this of course. I certainly don't have the data to support this sort of thing being more common; it's just a general impression that there are fewer social norms against gaming the system to your personal advantage so long as you can get away with it.

>people in general are probably more willing to abuse things like return policies.

Citation please? This seems like the Welfare Queen argument that has been disproved.

My instinct is that as many people were willing in the past, but with modern social media use, everyone who is willing is made aware of all the best return policies to abuse.

My last 'wool' button-up shirt from LL Bean was 97% polyester.

All of my Darn Tough socks have lasted 5 years so far. Cheap retail store brands (Hanes, Fruit, etc.) have always been awful after about 6 months. They're expensive to lose though. I've yet to find the equivalent for T-shirts.

I've had the opposite experience. Darn Tough has replaced a half dozen pairs of socks for me because I end up with big holes in them in about nine months. Which is a shame because they're quite comfortable.

For pants, I was using lululemon for a while and just accepting that their build quality made them last about 18 months to 2 years, while the warranty was five years, so I would just have the company swap them out for new ones on a regular basis. I'm trying some pants from prana and arcteryx now that offer equal freedom of motion but hopefully will be a little more robust.

Arcteryx is the way to go, in my experience. The only prana pants I’ve liked are the continuum, which are bulletproof and fantastic even though they’re just cotton canvas. I’ve shredded them against granite and you can barely tell that there’s some wear.

Thanks! I would have probably just gone with the Arcteryx but my wife really likes me in jeans...

The heavy duty cotton Hanes ones seem pretty good. Although, to be honest, even without seeking them out I end up with more tech swag than I can use and I end up donating a lot of it. So I basically never buy cotton T-shirts. The heavier pre-shrunk cotton Hanes ones seem solid though.

Darn Tough will also replace socks at any point if they develop holes (which is inevitable with wool socks).

Probably depends how much you walk on them and on what surfaces. I wear slippers 95% of the time indoors and none of my socks have ever developed holes. (They lose elasticity and unravel first.)

I would recommend military surplus and outdoor/workwear. Not the fashion clothes from workwear brands, the actual chunky workwear.

Obviously you will be a little challenged on the aesthetics, but that is sometimes the price you pay for durability.

Try American Giant: https://www.american-giant.com

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