As you might recall, Stanley Black & Decker bought Irwin and Lenox tool brands. That was announced back in 2016.
Every so often I search for new trademark filings from my favorite brands. Sometimes trademark applications give hints at what a brand might be coming out with, other times it leads to an interesting brainstorming activity.
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You know what? It’s hard to interpret trademark applications. But it’s fun, and potentially insightful.
There are 5 relatively new Irwin trademarks that were filed in recent months, after the acquisition.
2 of the trademarks refer to jig saw blades (Duracurve, Blasttec), 2 refer to hammer terms (Vibe Defense, Shock Shield), and 1 refers to a demo bar tech (Gripper Ripper).
Maybe the jig saw blades will be under the Irwin brand. Lenox, maybe? Neither?
As for the hammer and utility bar names, that’s an opportunity for a good thinking exercise.
Right now, Irwin offers some basic hammers – simple and inexpensive general purpose hammers with their name on it. I saw them in store, and they’re forgettable. I might have purchased one last winter holiday season, I’ll have to check. There are still some things stashed away that I didn’t dig into yet.
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Stanley and Dewalt offer a wide range of hammers, and other Stanley Black & Decker brands offer many varying models too.
Dewalt and Milwaukee are in fierce competition for shelf space at Home Depot.
But what about Lowes?
Lowes has a good relationship with Irwin and Lenox, carrying a good selection their tools, even more during holiday seasons.
Lowes carried a greater selection of SBD tools before, most notable Bostitch, in recent memory. But that was quite a few years ago.
I wouldn’t be surprise if SBD was looking to place a lot of new Irwin and Lenox tools at Lowes, which in my opinion would be a good thing. In terms of tool selection, Lowes could benefit from more offerings outside their Kobalt house brand.
I wish I had more for you, but Stanley Black & Decker hasn’t discussed their Irwin or Lenox tool brand plans yet, at least in the way of new tool launches or teasers.
What do you think they’re planning or working on for Irwin and Lenox?
fm2176
Lowe’s only carried most of the Bostitch hand tools for a couple of years, IIRC. The Father’s Day sale in 2010 was a great one, with a BOGO deal that included a hammer, a tape measure, torpedo level, dual-blade utility knife and one or two more things. I remember paying the New Lower Price of around $7 for the knife and getting the $20 level for free–bought a few tools for a wedding gift as well.
It will be interesting to see what new tools are released and whether or not Lowe’s carries them (not to mention how low the price will drop when Lowe’s stops carrying them). SBD tools seem to come and go fairly quickly besides the mainstays like clamps, Vie-Grips, tape measures, and such. I picked up my FatMax box levels fairly cheap a few years ago when the color scheme was changed.
fred
Interesting speculations.
One of your statements caught my eye:
“I might have purchased one last winter holiday season, I’ll have to check. There are still some things stashed away that I didn’t dig into yet.”
Quite a number of years ago we bought out a failing business. Doing our due diligence, we noticed that their small tool and parts inventory was a real hodge-podge. They had only a small inkling of what they owned and where it was located between their building storage trailers and vans. They apparently bought stuff as they thought they needed it. Surplus stuff and even tools, that they didn’t need after a job was done, were seemingly thrown into one of several possible storage spots. They undoubtedly regularly overbought – even though they were often having cashflow problems. This was no way to run a business – and may have contributed to their failure.
I contend that every business (maybe the ToolGuyd business too) would benefit for having an up-to-date and well maintained inventory. The inventory should include what’s on-hand and where it is located. Inventories take some time to maintain and can get out of date quickly – particularly in reference to consumables. But using an inventory, as a management tool, helps increase productivity. They help with accounting and understanding the costs you incur by carrying inventory. Having a good inventory can facilitate developing a strategy for using what you own (usually FIFO). Reviewing your inventory helps prevent overbuying. Your inventory review can give you a heads-up when you need to order more. And finally, periodic inventory review may tell you its time to sell off or dispose of items that are no longer needed rather than paying to store them.
BTW – there is always a cost of having too much in inventory. That cost may be in terms of clutter and lost productivity or fire hazard. That cost may be in terms of a lost opportunity to better use that capital tied up in inventory. Or, in extreme examples, that excess inventory may be translated into adding or leasing storage facilities that are not really needed.
Stuart
Great points!
Those remaining holiday season tools are in a box because I realized it would be some time before I was ready to test and use them for review. More interesting or timely tools bumped them too far down the to-do list to justify keeping them close at hand.
I purchased the tools around December for editorial curiosity and future review purposes. I don’t remember buying an Irwin hammer despite seeing it on several visits to Lowes during the holiday season, but I’m not quite 100% sure. I can still ID the tools in the box without looking, maybe save for a tool or two.
I have recognized the need to work lighter, and have been striving for it. But it’s hard to juggle everything right now, and it will be some time before I am as fully neatly organized as I would like to be.
There are some instances where I’ve had to buy something that I know I have but cannot find, but that’s so far been limited to things like Teflon tape, good electrical tape, and #6 self-tapping screws.
Yadda
Teflon tape must be the missing socks of the tool world. I have rolls of Teflon tape in almost every drawer and several tool boxes because I can never seen to find a roll when I need it.
Travis
This is a very good point. For many smaller enterprises it might be difficult to accomplish due to a lack of resources that can be dedicated to inventory. However, we have found that by frequently taking pictures of the drawers in our toolboxes, shelves and other storage areas, we can often locate things very quickly or at least know if we need to re-order something. It’s more of a hybrid approach but it can prove pretty useful. Especially when working at remote locations. Better to know in advance of going there if I need a tool or a consumable. And someone can photograph the drawers within a toolbox in a few minutes and we upload them to Dropbox so that anyone on the team can take a look.
fred
What a cool idea.
I know lots of folks who have a video/photo inventory of the contents of their house(s). I had one done of my primary residence – in conjunction with my insurance carrier. They particularly focus on paintings and antiques/collectibles if you have any of them in the house. But for me they also took a video in my shop. They then assessed the value based on their review, made up a new “schedule of contents” based on actual not some formula. Of course this all meant that my premium (coverage too) was adjusted upward. If I buy or sell something significant – I speak to my agent – and the policy is adjusted.
For one of our businesses that focused on production, inventory was a critical factor – so we dedicated staff time to that function.
For one of the other business our receptionist wore many hats including answering the phone, greeting the infrequent walk-in client and updating inventory on a rotating basis. Mobile phone-headsets and her computer skills facilitated her being able to juggle all of this. We paid her accordingly – and I think she liked walking around the buildings and yard.
I too had a MBWA style – that seem to work for me.
ktash
It would be great if they continued or even expanded their made in Germany pliers to other tools. Here are the diagonal cutters with a power slot that I got from Lowe’s, $24, a great price, btw. https://www.lowes.com/pd/IRWIN-8-in-Cutting-Plier/50289489 You had some articles on these made by NWS and Irwin a while back. I got a couple other of these pliers when they had the $10 off $50 promo. They are pricey but amazing quality. I hope they stay with this line. In general I’m not enthused about Irwin tools, but I am about these.
fred
My understanding about Irwin’s origins was that they were the major competitor of Russell Jennings. Russell Jennings made high quality double-twist auger bits. This was during an age where the combination of a hand brace and an auger bit was “king” for most wood boring. Stanley also made auger bits – but many considered that a combination of a North Brothers brace and a Russell Jennings bit was the epitome. The only issue was that this style bit was not as quick cutting as it might be Then along came Irwin – inventing the solid center single twist auger bit with a more aggressive lead screw, The Irwin was an instant hit with lineman and with carpenters doing rough work. Fast forward some years and both Russell Jennings and North Brothers were acquired by Stanley. Fast forward a lot of years more – and now Irwin is owned by Stanley.
Brian
Duracurve will definitely be Lenox… Probably Lenox Gold Duracurve jig saw blades: http://www.lenoxtools.com/pages/power-arc-curved-wood-reciprocating-saw-blades.aspx
BTW, I hear that the blades aren’t very good, though possibly not necessarily the curved design being the problem. Outside of hole saw blades, not too many fans of Lenox blades…there are some people that swear by them. Then again, there are people that swear by HF tools, personal preferences can be all over the place.
fred
A curved jigsaw blade? On the power arc reciprocating saw blades, both the back and cutting edge are curved. That wouldn’t work work with jigsaw blade guide systems. I guess they could design the back to be straight.