Over at Contractor Mag, there’s a press release about how Skilsaw launched a new brand identity. A quick look at the new Skilsaw site doesn’t reveal much, but there are some nice images of their new SPT67WM-22 magnesium Sidewinder circular saw.
In addition to the magnesium SPT67WM-22, there’s also a new lighter weight resin-housing saw coming out soon too, model SPT67WL-22.
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The two new Skilsaw Sidewinder circular saws are professional quality saws, and I must say, they certainly look the part – at least the magnesium version shown here. Both saws feature new motor technology that helps them “stay true.”
Skilsaw is also offering a Stay True Guarantee. Buy the saw, and try it out. If within 180 days you’re not happy with its performance, you can return it for your money back.
We’ll talk more about the new saws once additional details are made available.
Now, as for the new Skilsaw brand identity…
I think I understand the motive behind the Skilsaw branding shift. Skil has recently partnered with consumer hand tool OEMs to produce some questionable tools, such as the Secure Grip wrench set, Speed Slide wrench, a ratcheting adjustable wrench, and Ratch-N-Lock pliers. I have seen a number of Skil hand tools before these, but none that were so “holiday giftable” as these contraptions.
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The Skil in Skilsaw looks nothing like the Skil in Skil, and I think that was part of the point of all this. Will it be enough to help create further separation between the brand’s professional saws and their more consumer-targeted tools? It could be.
It will definitely be interesting to see what evolves from all this. My feeling is that the Skilsaw brand will be kept under the Skil umbrella, but perhaps the different look will be enough to keep professional users from seeing Skil and Skilsaw as one and the same.
It’s possible for one brand to have different sub-brands which represent different levels of quality – just look at Stanley and Stanley FatMax; Proto and Proto Blackhawk, Snap-on and Snap-on Blue-Point, and Craftsman and Craftsman Evolv.
Perhaps there was already some differentiation between Skil and Skilsaw, but I never really considered Skil and Skilsaw in different light. And that’s part of what probably helped inspire these changes. Brands often cannot be multiple things. Can a brand offer professional tools alongside DIY/consumer/homeowner tools? It sends mixed signals when the sub-branding isn’t clear enough, and mixed signals lead to lost sales opportunities.
What do you think? Will the new Skilsaw branding help you disassociate the company’s higher-end saws from less relatable tools that only bear Skil branding?
fred
For someone who has been buying tools for over the last 50 years, this seems like just another bit of evolution in branding – where everything old is new again. Skil made its name and became synonymous with its SkilSaw. Other brands too were once seemingly associated more or less with a particular tool: Dewalt with Radial Arm Saws, Milwaukee with its Sawzall and Porter Cable with woodworking tools like routers, powered planes and sanders. I then saw an age (1970’s) when the power tool companies seemed to want to have a full spectrum of offerings – everything from the lowest-end homeowner product to the top end industrial tool. Black & Decker – made the great Super Sawcat and the not-so-great orange colored cheap saws and a variety of other corded tools. Rockwell – Porter-Cable – kept the Porter-Cable name on professional quality tools – some they called “GTO” (Guaranteed To Out-Perform) – but then came out with a cheap line bearing light green plastic cases and the Rockwell name. Skil too became a full line manufacturer – with saws, drills etc. spanning the quality range. Milwaukee seemed to try to stay a bit above the fray – with most offerings aimed at the professional market. One game changer seemed to come from Japan – with Makita cutting into the marketplace – initially undercutting prices – but then adding new better quality tools. Then the market seemed to open for consolidations, buyouts, mergers, new Japanese (e.g. Hitachi) and European (e.g. Bosch) entrants – more mergers and then the explosive entry of Taiwanese and then mainland China producers. Over time – some brands – once associated with high quality – may have been so cheapened – as to become nearly worthless (I’m thinking here about Schwinn Bicycles) and needing life-support or at least a makeover. As you point out, the Skil brand has of late been slapped (what was Bosch thinking) on so many tools of questionable quality and of cross-purpose to the brand identity – and now the brand is now in need of a makeover.
.357 magnum
Thx for your comments. I to work in the construction field for 10 years and when I started the tools were much better quality. I especially thank you for your clarification of the difference between Skil and Skil saw
Mike
If I didnt have a newer Porter Cable circular saw I would look into these. They look really nice.
Mike
Squeezing the last few dollars out of a dead empire. Skil brand circular saws were once so ubiquitous that all circular saws were commonly called skilsaws. Just like Kleenex for tissues, Xerox for copiers, Crescent wrenches for adjustable wrenches, and Kleins for lineman’s pliers. Then, as pointed out, the brand name got diluted by using it on cheaper (and all too often just plain cheap) versions of the saws along with anything else they felt like they could put their name on. Now, when I see the name Skil, I immediately think of cheap cordless screwdrivers that wear out in a year unless they’ve already outright broken by then. I believe that line of thinking is justified. Even if they started making only super high end tools again, I’ll be long dead before the brand name is synonymous with quality. Changing the name to Skilsaw isn’t going to make that happen any faster. Anyone old enough to remember the generic name skilsaw is going to see this as a desperate attempt to cash in on the company’s former glory, anyone who came after that era isn’t going to recognize the skilsaw name as anything special.
On a ‘completely’ unrelated note, anyone seen any Black & Decker products at jobsites recently?
fred
Does Stanley-B&D even put the B&D logo on anything approaching professional quality?
I’m not sure about national sales figures – but in my neck of the woods – on the higher end – I see mostly what’s sold at HD (Dewalt and Milwaukee) – with some Makita and Bosch power tools.
I also see HF compressors and power tools on many jobsites (I guess cheap has its appeal) – but can’t recall seeing any Skil or B&D tools being trotted out.
Mike
They don’t, and that was my point. B&D is another former giant who cheapened their name to the point of being known for lower quality DIY tools and absolute junk.
fred
Probably so – but they (the parent corporation) did some of the same to Porter Cable. For reasons known to them – they seem to have decided that Dewalt would be the “professional” brand, P-C an intermediate brand – and B&D would compete for the bottom. They are now also slapping the Proto name on some power tools – presumably to align with Proto’s auto mechanic markets. You probably also know that Stanley once put their name on high quality powered saws and routers (after they acquired Carter in 1929) – so just imagine what confusing niche each brand would fill – if Stanley-B&D had decided to keep 5 brands for power tools. I still have a B&D Super Sawcat with electronic brake – that I consider one of the best saws ever made.
d
You stated that you do not see and B&D tools being rolled out, I think that is because the changed identity’s a while back and they are now the Dewalt tool line
… A marketing genius was at play..
rx9
When a brand name becomes synonymous with a generic item of the same type (I.e. Xerox, skilsaw, etc.) that word has now become what is referred to as a “brand eponym”. Interesting, huh?
joe
“Skil brand circular saws were once so ubiquitous that all circular saws were commonly called skilsaws. “
There needs to be a balance between marketing and the end product….sometimes the marketing is generating more than the product itself. I understand what you mean, I’, hispanic and mostly hispanic people that are not very tool savvy call grinders makita….when in reality the grinder is another brand but for some reason in their heads it’s a makita. Funny how they don’t own makita tools but the makita label is stuck in their head.
bobbg
I just go this Saw today, short of fell of a truck, no seriously the rep dropped one taking it out of a building it was his demo unit. I grabbed the other one so it didn’t bite the dirt, stacked in back on his cart and helped him roll it to his van, before I walked of he handed me one. I hadn’t read the name on the tool. But I thought Dam this must be a nice saw. I’ve got an older Craftsman that works just fine for what I do. I got this home opened it up, This is no toy. Its a quality built saw I’ve yet to try it out. But ITs weight suggest it was meant to be on a job seight and used by a Pro.
Let me tell you I was SURPRISED at the Detail on this saw. GO Pick one up its not a junk tool. I’ll try it in some 2×4 to see what its made of, then a 2×10 then perhaps 2 2×10 stacked. I’ll be happy to let you know what I think of it.
It came with a Freud saw blade Diablo 7 1/4″ . I seriously thinks its going to eat wood for lunch breakfast and dinner and ask for seconds.
First test it was dropped from about 6′ in the original box and landed on concrete. No damage.
BRB gotta load up the blade it came with, put on some shoes and grab some wood and a square and I’ll let you know how it made out.
Granted I got this free from the rep at a woodworking show so its been all over the country, but I’m not going to let that sway me any.
Nice long cord, Blade Lock button for blade changes, also on tool storage for wrench. E-z depth adjustment and angle adjustments cast base Not so much plastic. I think this saw would fair well on a jobs seight. It weighs close to the old Craftsman I have. Depth of cut just over 1 1/2 a 2xx4 thickness I used a 4×4 post to test strength had to flip the stock But the saw never bogged down It did nice clean cuts and did the work. What more can you ask for out of a Saw?
I like the Plate on this one a lot better then some of the saws I’ve used over the years. Its not some flimsy stamped steel plate.
If I bought one to try out I’d keep it. Either way I’m keeping this one!
Thanks SKILSAW REP. I didn’t cut myself with it like you mentioned not to.
Moral to this story: If a Rep comes out a door lend a hand, he could have given me a T-Shirt and I’d have been happy I didn’t need anything. Come back to KCMO next year I’ll be looking for you. 4/10/2016
PS: this Saw got Dropped about 6′ befor I ever got to try it out.
If I did that with my Craftsman it would have bent the bottom plate
Mike foley
Gut reaction? I absolutely love it! I’ve noticed a surge in sightings lately on things like t shirts around the west coast. I am completely looking forward to more.
Kent
I had completely forgotten that Skil makes a few good tools. I lump them into the same category as Ryobi; low dollar stuff for the homeowner who rarely uses a tool.
Toolfreak
The first thing I noticed was the “SKILSAW” logo uses THREE different fonts in that image – one for the logo on the saw, one for the two logos in the center of the saw blade, and yet another for the stencil background text on the blade.
So…my impression so far of this “SKILSAW” branding is that it’s either highly experimental and these were just test shots and they still need to pick which logo they are going with, or the effort is headed by incompetent and/or lazy designers who think it’s ok to use three different fonts for the brand – all on the same product.
To me, “Skilsaw” isn’t a brand, it’s just what Skil puts on their circular and miter saws out of tradition. While I like the idea of using fresh, new graphics on stuff like the saw blades and maybe even making the red/black color scheme of the products wilder than it has been (although it was pretty wild not that long ago), it’s just going to confuse a lot of people if Skil goes nuts and puts “Skilsaw” on power tools that aren’t saws.
Bosch/Skil could still use the traditional Skil logo, and just have some fun with the fonts and graphics otherwise, but if they go to far and really try to make SKILSAW a new/different thing, especially on stuff other than saws, well, it’s going to confuse a lot of people and probably be a real embarassing flop.
I agree that Skil’s licensing out the name and logo to have it on wrenches and pliers and other cheap gimmick tools was a mistake – it would have been better to expand their power tool product line and offer more innovative tools, or even just a low and middle price point offering of the power tools that Bosch offers, keeping Bosch as the professional/high end.
I like Skil tools, it would be a shame to see them ruin a good thing more than they already have.
Adabhael
Good point about the typefaces. It is even worse if you look at multiple images because then you see there are at least four on the one product: the three Toolfreak pointed out, plus one more italic “Sidewinder” on the motor housing. And who knows about the fine print.
I had a boss who used to call any building that did this a “hodge-podge-lodge” I am all for clarity of branding if it helps customers identify products with a differentiated product line, but this just seems disorganized and sloppy.
Toolfreak
The “Sidewinder” text looks fine to me – that definitely should be a different font than the Skilsaw text, and it works well.
Mike
People forget that black and decker had a great line of professional tools back in 70″s and 80″s but what killed them was they put out home owners tools which contractors bought thinking they were professional tools but when they didn’t last long word got around that there tools sucked so professional’s stopped buying them but homeowners bought them by the droves and it became a huge company
dan
My understanding is that Black & Decker professional line was renamed and marketed as dewalt , this happened when stanly bought the name dewalt, the dewalt RAS line was sold off and is now the original RAS company.
Ray
When I started in Construction skil brand saws were commonplace on jobsites and everyone called circular saws ‘skil saws’.
I wish they would move the wormdrive and sidewinder production back to the US, their old saws were the best circular saws I ever used. The newest chinese stuff is far lesser in quality.
I’m hoping dewalt starts making circular saws here in the US again, I use one all day as a a carpenter and hate having to deal with all Chinese junk.
Jared Richael
B&D have professional quality rated tools their called DEWALT. That’s why I buy bosch because their there own company. Plus you can’t go wrong buying German.
fred
Bosch has been putting some of their lesser-quality tools out under the Skil brand name (they also have Dremel and Roto-Zip brands) – and while the parent may be in Germany – production is more global. I did a look at our tool inventory database, some of our Bosch corded power tools were made in Germany, others in the USA, some in Switzerland and some in Mexico. Some of their cordless tools were made in Malaysia and some in China – so what else is new ??!!
Toolfreak
Bosch owns Skil.
Both Bosch and Skil tools are mostly made in China these days, though there are some made in Mexico and a few other countries as mentioned above.
It’d be nice if they were German-made for sure, but China just has all the factories that make the small electric motors, batteries, etc. etc. that power tools use, and so they can supply them cheap and ship them overseas for a price that’s hard to beat on the bottom line.
bobbg
WRONG!
Buy German products put americans out of a job.
Buy American give your negibor a job so he can buy his own dam sugar feed his kids and so on.
I’m not convinced German made anything is better. It’s not. Now with that said there is a balance between junk, ok, good, better, best and OMG… Botch lands in the Good to better range, its not the best and its certainly not OMG.
A lot of Botch is plastic stuff that if you dropped it would break.
Saws with electronic speed control minicomputers ex.. are just more parts to repair or replace when they fail. Botch loves to use this type of stuff, I think its useless extra parts that drive up the cost or take from other parts quality to hit a price point.
As for Cheap old Skil jigsaws from 37 years ago when you could pick one up for 12 bucks, I’ve git 2 of them they work today but they even with a new blade cut like shit, Point is if you want to do a job buy the best tool you can afford when you do it or look for good used tools.
Porter cable should be B&D’s flag ship tool as its been for years.
Sears Craftsman used to be the home owners go to for DIY stuff. They stoped making a lot of there tools and there is talk about shutting down or selling craftsman name. People got upset when it came from Japan now its china.
Stan
What really frustrates me with Bosch is they buy once exceptional companies that at some point in history actually produced power tools and hand tools in the United States, but as soon as Bosch and some cases even prior to Bosch, buys these companies, massive outsourcing occurs and in some cases, there is no American jobs left.
Look what happened to Vermont American, Gilmore, Dremel, Rotozip, Skil and other brands. To my knowledge, only one product is USA made by Gilmore (pressure sprayer) and a very, very small handful of items are still American made under the Dremel brand.
However, knowing Bosch sooner or later, NOTHING will be American anymore with any of the companies they own. I’ve haven’t seen any American made rotary tools or any power tools made in USA under the Dremel, Roto Zip or SKil name in several upon years.
I sincerely wish more people would care about country of origin or at the very least be informed of where the item is manufactured and not just blindly buy a product based on a old reputation or otherwise.
In the end though, I can’t change others and as much as I REALLY wish more people would make more of effort of buying American made items if they live in the US, I can’t control others.
Hard to believe only a few decades ago that Black and Decker actually made anything stateside as now and days this brand is more or less a joke.
Toolfreak
I’m not so sure that Bosch is completely to blame for most of their products being produced in China.
If you go take a look at how Bosch is operated, they have very little greed/profit motive, most of the money they make is given to charity and re-invested back into the company (part of why I like Bosch so much).
They simply design and spec products, and have them built at the places that can build them. Bosch may be a large company, but they do not control the worldwide supply of metals or electrical motors or the machines that make the components of power tools.
Maybe if enough people actually bothered to write to the people in charge, and told them they are basing their decision to buy or not buy Bosch products based on the fact they are being made in China and not the USA, Germany, Europe, etc. then Bosch might consider doing business differently. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to cite China’s terrible labor abuses, lack of environmental standards, etc. etc, and Bosch could certainly use that as an explanation for moving production or no longer contracting with certain companies to make their products.
Hang Fire
Unless they have bottomless old stock (always possible), I don’t think Skil (Bosch, et al) ever stopped making the high-end Worm Drive Skilsaw. I think this is what they are trying to build on/reclaim. As for Skil versus Skilsaw… anyone confusing quality levels here is not at fault, only Bosch is to blame for this mess.
Jared Richael
I said you can’t go wrong buying german not made in Germany. All of bosch tools tho built in China, Malaysia, USA or else where are engineered in Germany and have to be built to their specs and standards. The Chinese can make great products if you want them to make great poducts. Most companies don’t because they want to keep profit margins up and expenses down. Doesn’t make it right that they can get the Chinese to work for pennies on the dollar but a lot of this is do to the fact that companies in certain countries including ourselves can’t make a profit in this country. Big labor unions, regulations,retirement benefits and costs of everything being so hi do to these same reasons all contribute to this. People in this country that I love so much, unfortunately feel entitled to these things and people in other countries are more than welcome to get the jobs these companies provide. Our governments policies have driven great companies out and until we start voting these people out of office we are going to continue losing great tool companies to china.
Jared Richael
Sorry, I meant (happy) to get these jobs not (welcome). I don’t want them getting our jobs. Sorry to get a little political not the place for it. Just needed to get it off my chest.
MJ
I wonder why they didn’t import their European “Skil Masters” branding over from their European operations for their pro line. Brand identities are global these days.
Chris
If you had a choice between a “Skilsaw” and a “Porter Cable” BOTH MADE IN THE USA which would you take
Stuart
Skilsaw.
bobbg
But you don’t both are made in the same factory in taiwan. most likely
http://www.geetech.com.tw/index.php/en/strategic-partenrship-e
Very few tools are made in the USA anymore.
Go read the list of tools made in geentech’s factory,
This is why we lost so many jobs, its also why we should expect to pay less for tools
but this is not the case.
If someone wanted to launch a made in america tool company (Woodpecker)
and made the worlds best tools for that field they would mark themselves a place in the market and do very well.
I think your going to start seeing stuff like saw stops approach on a differnt brand table saw in the usa with a totally differnt approach that could trickle down to other tools. including a hand held saw and routers.
If this only cost you a few extra dollars on a tool to stop the blade if your finger or other living part not wood came close to the moving blade would you buy it?
And how would you feel if tools made for the US market came with removable cords that were universal so you could unplug at the tool and no on the other side of the room? Like the european tools do. I don’t know about you but I would love it.
Daniel Waud
Just bought a SkilSaw Sidewinder. Made in USA. No joke, it is. Good solid tool. Price was less than the Chinese P-C sitting next to it. My SkilSaw worm drive is a work horse. It has never had an issue. It is made in China…