Not your imagination: from backpacks to food, consumer goods are getting worse

Is it possible to avoid the continuing decline in quality of consumer products brought on by corporate greed? When Keyana Sapp, 31, went shopping for a new backpack, the brands he remembered as a kid were just not the same. He researched the companies, from North Face to JanSport and Eastpak, and soon realized they were all owned by the VF Corporation after a wave of acquisitions in the 2000s. After a Reddit post he made about his discovery picked up traction, he started looking at other types of consumer goods – cookware, shoes, tools, clothing. Continue reading...

Heather Timmons · Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 5:00 AM
US news | The Guardian

Not your imagination: from backpacks to food, consumer goods are getting worse

Is it possible to avoid the continuing decline in quality of consumer products brought on by corporate greed?

When Keyana Sapp, 31, went shopping for a new backpack, the brands he remembered as a kid were just not the same.

He researched the companies, from North Face to JanSport and Eastpak, and soon realized they were all owned by the VF Corporation after a wave of acquisitions in the 2000s. After a Reddit post he made about his discovery picked up traction, he started looking at other types of consumer goods – cookware, shoes, tools, clothing.

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