Clint DeBoer knew that professional tradesmen needed (deserved) a better source for tool reviews than what was available. So he started Pro Tool Reviews. His proof of concept – Pulling up to job sites and demonstrating a soon-to-be released power tool, brought the crowds every time.
Listen to Clint DeBoer on the Tool Crave Podcast.
Clint has built an editorial roster of pros that will rival any major magazine. Every year they put a select group of tools to the test for the Pro Tool Innovation Awards, which have become the equivalent of winning an Oscar for tool innovation.
When he’s not remodeling part of his house or playing with the latest power tool, Clint enjoys life as a husband, father and avid reader. He has a degree in recording engineering and has been involved in multimedia and/or online publishing in one form or another for the past 18 years.
Clint has always been supportive of all of my blogging endeavors including my request for this interview. Thanks Clint for sharing a bit about yourself and your tools.
Who introduced you to making and building things?
My Dad, really. He was an electrical inspector at the legendary Bethlehem Steel plant in Pennsylvania where he worked for 27 years. He spent a lot of time dealing with electricity, cranes, and things that were very, very high in the air and very dangerous. I suppose that makes you a bit fearless when it comes to home improvement. Some of that must have rubbed off on me. The funny thing is, most of my instruction was through being his gopher—getting him tools and really just observing what he was doing. Over the years I just sort of picked things up.
What feature of your workshop do you love the most?
That’s a great question. I have three “workshops”—which may need some explaining. Much of what I do involves renovation work in the inner city. We even helped plant a church in one of the most economically depressed, diverse neighborhoods close to where I live. As such, I’ve partnered with a local nonprofit (Parker Street Ministries) to help out in whatever capacity I can. Since I happen to review tools for a living, that usually includes using the tools we review on local neighborhood projects. Almost everything we do has a story to it—which is a neat angle and a fun way to review a tool. It also puts me in a position where I often need to get to tools quickly—to address a break-in, for example, or to repair a window or a leaking roof.
To solve this issue, I have several staging areas for my tools. There’s one right in the neighborhood, a second large storage shed where I live, and a third about 10 minutes away on some acreage owned by a member of my family (where I stage a lot of our outdoor power equipment reviews). Utilizing all three I’m able to do what I do more efficiently and get a lot of work accomplished.
What tool(s) always stay in your toolbox and never go in storage?
I’ve actually started using various “trade-focused” tool kits that I’ve assembled. For example, I’ll have one bag that will handle general construction tasks, an electrical bag, and even one for plumbing. That way I can just grab the right kit and go where I’m needed without having to repack so many tools.
With that said, some of my favorite tools that seem to show up everywhere I go are my Milwaukee M12 Brushless 1/4″ impact driver which I use for just about everything, a Stanley-Bostitch 16′ tape measure (the really fat one!), a set of Klein cushion-grip screwdrivers, a pair of Milwaukee 6-in-1 combination pliers, a standard Swanson SpeedSquare, and a pair of 9” Kleins (side-cutting lineman’s pliers). I also really like to use Bosch insert bits and Irwin Speedbor drill bits.
I could go on, but I don’t think you want me to mentally empty out my tool bags!
In a fire, what tool(s) would you save above all others?
I would grab every Milwaukee M18 Fuel tool I could get my hands on, toss them in my truck and attempt to run back for my Ryobi AirStrike nailers. The Milwaukee tools are incredibly powerful (as well as worth a lot of money—I mean, we’re being practical here, right?), and the Ryobi Airstrike tools have proven to be worth their weight in gold in that they have allowed me to do a tremendous amount of renovation work without having to drag along a compressor or hose. I’d also probably try and grab my ready-to-go tool kits which have all of my hand tools, measures, etc.
What task do you enjoy the most in your workshop?
I do most of my work in the field, so I think the most fun I have in my workshop is planning. I tend to use the tools I own as inspiration for how I can best accomplish a particular project. I’m very visual, so after looking at the job site I’ll come up with some ideas, but it’s often back at the shop that I look around at what I have on-hand and come up with either improvements that can save more money or perhaps a way to get an even better result. It’s almost therapeutic!
What tool do you covet that you currently do not have?
A Ford F150 Super Cab. That was easy! With all the work I do, plus having a family, that’s the one “tool” I’ve had my eye on for years but have yet to pull the trigger on. Perhaps someday soon I’ll be able to add it to my arsenal.
Read the full transcript of this podcast episode.
Timothy
Today I’m chatting with Clint DeBoer. He runs Pro Tool reviews, which is the leading authority on tools for professionals and trades. We go deep on the state of the tool industry How Cordless has taken over And what brands air. Really innovative. All right, clint. Hello.
Clint
Hey. How are you doing? I’m good. How are you? I’m doing great. Good. Good. You’re doing good to be on the show.
Timothy
Yeah, thank you for Finally, huh? I know it’s my fault, but for finally getting getting back on here.
Clint
Oh, my goodness. We don’t have tech problems our lives to be so much easier without it. That’s you know what will happen.
Timothy
And I think to for I mean, we’re kind of ah tech guys. So So Yeah, it’s Ah. But we will figure it out. And you’re here, and ah, you know, I really don’t ever get a chance to really sit down and talk to you? We kind of past each other and some of these eventual quickly. I I saw you for five minutes in Vegas at the hardware show. And, you know, I can’t feel like I connect with him or just, you know, following protocol, reviews and everything you do there. But why don’t you kind of give us a background on on? Ah, like what you do. And you’re websites.
Clint
Yeah. So we, uh you know, we started pro two reviews back in 2008 and it was really a response to a couple things. Number one, my history. I had grown up helping my dad, you know, rehab houses. Ah, and particularly the house we lived in. We also you know what would help other people would do, do re models and things like that. But, you know, we just never had the right tools. I mean, it was like we rebuilt the house. I think this is a thing. In the eighties, everybody would rebuild their house three or four times. You get rid of a garage, you put the garage back, you put a bar in you do You know all the weird things that kind of came out of the late seventies and then into the eighties, and we never had the right tools. And so I did all this work with, like, 1/4 drill and a table saw really, really old table saw that wasn’t calibrated. And this kind of rusty and on the tools are really well made, but they just weren’t You didn’t have what you have today. And so, uh, coming from a background of of ah, just seeing that need, uh I looked around and I had a, uh you know, more recently experienced with doing multimedia and doing website design and doing a lot of marketing. And I was running ah ah, different type of website at the time, and I just kind of looked around said, There’s really no pro targeted online Resource is for reviews released back in 2008. Now there’s there’s quite a bit more options, and, uh and so that’s kind of how it at birth. And we just started the site and I grabbed some, surround myself with some smart people. One of those was Tom Gage. He he was kind of my subject matter expert. He was a professional contractor, and, um, he’s actually working with us. Ah, today. So But we started that site back then. It’s Ah, the rest is history. I guess
Timothy
that was Oh, wait. I was back in 2008. Okay? And where does pro to? What’s the current status of pro true of you? Is what other? What other things are you doing there?
Clint
Pro. So it’s grown quite a bit. We, uh we have, um Ah, four full time staff, three part time staff. And we’re based out of Central Florida. And we do, um, man, we just We just do a lot of stuff. I think what we do more now than what we did then I would be like, comparative reviews. So we do a lot of shoot outs where we will literally go out and get every tool I mean, every tool in a category and and come up with more scientific testing and try to do a head to head sort of shoot out to get people an idea of just really how do their favorite tools fit into into in the scheme of things with everybody That’s out there,
Timothy
right? I mean, I think I just got the email for what was it like, a 50 Cordless thrill things. So, you know, I don’t think anybody does, Adam, and you’re definitely way past. What kind of mainstream media outlets do they make? Pick five, or maybe 10. But, you know, you guys do a lot and you’re doing video on top of it. I mean, everybody can they go there? They can kind of you dive really deep and get a lot of information on every single piece and that you said the comparative pieces, those air What kind of you know, a standout. At least in my opinion,
Clint
it’s fun. It’s It’s what we really enjoy doing. I mean, of all the different things that we do we love, we love the way they go down is really we kind of set up a ah cycle where we’re gonna sit down and we’re gonna say, How many of these tools are we going to dio? How are we gonna test them? What type of categories we’re gonna cover. And so we’ll sit around, literally figure out, like, how do we scientifically test these things but also How do we present the information In a way that people can help? We just we What we tried to do is be helpful. I don’t want people Thio to come away. Go on While those guys are amazing, I want them to come away. Going here really got a sense for how these tools were gonna perform. You know, I’m I’m a walking. You know, you could say I’m a marquee guy, and I know how my tool fits into the scheme of things. I know I’m a Makita guy. Know how my tools are gonna fit in or I’ma do, Walt Guy or Hey, there’s a brand I never even heard of. Or, you know, there’s a brand that I thought wasn’t any good. And look at where performed. You know, I gotta rethink what you know. My my predispositions are my thoughts on those those kind of tools, you know, that happens a lot. So you were just a lot of fun.
Timothy
Yeah, And when you’re talking about these reviews as well, is it do you know, kind of at the French? Say, hey, this is for we’re talking about professionals. There’s a price point of a drill. You’re not gonna throw in like a you know, uh, Rio be or Black and Decker, or will you kind of give a mix and say, Okay, here’s all of them. Here’s what they’re good at. And this is what’s right for the pro. Just great for the d I wired. You break it down like that.
Clint
Absolutely. So we have you know, for example, that this drill shoot out that we did. We have a heavy duty category. We’ve got a medium duty category. We’ve got a compact tool category and and then we even broke out 12 all. Ah, and so we went ahead. And all of those categories are split between hammer girls and drills, which is which was really fun. So everybody, of course. You know, hammer drills are included in the drill category, but obviously drills are not including Hammer Joe category. So we really do try to break it down for people because, honestly, a lot of times you know, there it’s a very clear delineation. People wanted there are there in the d o d I Y market are there in the heavy duty professional market. They’ve absolutely are only interested in stuff of the most torque. You know, maybe they already have a mid torque and they want to go get shot for something big. And so we try to break all that down and make it very accessible. So people are looking in the right place. But one thing we don’t want to do is, you know, do a shoot out with 50 different tools and just say, Here’s the Here they are ranked in, you know, from 1 to 50 and it’s you know you can You can get that information. It’s it’s there but you There is nothing in common with a 12 volt D I Y drill and a heavy duty, you know, 12 1300 inch pound machine, you know, from the Walter Hilty. So you have to kind of keep that in mind when you create these tests,
Timothy
right? Andy, are you finding that a lot of your readers they kind of want the They like the needy, greedy on the stats, do they want? Like you said, they want to know the torque. They want to know all the outfit output, but then, as opposed to somebody who’s talking more about the the the party. How big the platform is things like that. Is there a specific? Um, with that? You’re fine with readers that they’re looking for.
Clint
So, yeah, this is This is fascinating. You know, we used to think we used to think that our job, um, as, uh, as content providers was to, you know, convince people beat them overhead and force them to read our content all the way through all the way to the bottom. You know, they’ve got to stay on the page. I gotta, you know where by golly, we put, you know, you know, 350 hours into this, and they’re gonna they’re gonna read it. What we realized later is we just in trying to be If we really do want to be helpful, we want to provide the information quickly to people. So what we’re finding is that we just want to give them the answers. So when they come, they’re gonna find right off the bat who won right at the top of the ark. And if they want more information, the further they read, they will find out how we tested, how we kind of made our choices. Why we tested the way we tested, there’s gonna be graft. So they’re gonna get to see how all the all of the tools did against each other. You know, we’re not going to sit there and anymore and say, You know, hey, this guy came in 13th. I mean, nobody cares. So But if they look at the grafts, they will see the lineup on and see how the the tools all did it against each other and in the various categories that we’ve broken them down. So that’s kind of our approach. And we’ve done that in every tactical way to try to just be the most helpful that we can be for people. So
Timothy
and how often are you performing these tools? As you know this, there’s constant refreshes on a lot of these tools. Are you doing it every once a year with some things, bigger categories.
Clint
So the big change happened about a year ago, and and that change was that we realized we needed an absolute standard internally for how we measured products. Uh, and for a lot of these products, there are some standards that you can adhere to that that’s definitely the case for blowers There’s some ANSI standards that we’ve reproduced here. We can kind of get really close to what they’re doing in the anti labs for things like impact drivers and drills. We actually weren’t really terribly happy with how some of the specs were laid out in all of that. So you asked about how often we we do new tests every two months. So every other month we’re doing a category test. Those tests are now standardized internally, so we can actually add new models and update those results accordingly. And we know that when we run a test a year, 23 years down the line, we’re running the exact same test on the exact same materials that we did when we first ran the first batch. And that’s a big deal for us. We weren’t always doing that, certainly not back in 2008. You know, we would just find a way to test and we test the tools and, uh and then we get out there. You know, four years later, when the tools were all different, we’d have to go figure out how to test it again. We do some of the same test we come up with new ones, so that’s kind of the biggest change. I would say as far as how we’re doing that,
Timothy
that makes a lot of sense to me. It sounds like the how kind of consumer reports goes about it, and they can kind of maintain consistency in that. Like you said, when somebody comes back, it’s it’s it’s not comparing apples and oranges. It’s like you got the same same environment. So
Clint
and and some of its some of it is Ah, is self preservation. We just don’t want to do it all over again, right? So wait, we got together, we will. Hey, how do we figure this out? In a way that makes sense. We don’t Well, you know, we could add 12234 tools. And then, as far as updating the articles will try to do that like once a year, get those new tools in rejigger the the, uh uh, the graphs and all that sort of thing. But but that’s it just takes a lot of work when you do that. So we don’t want to do that. Every we’re gonna lost people on staff who would rather put out new content. Make sure we’re not spending all of our time kind of redoing everything we’ve done every every month or anything like that. So, of course do you touched courted tools at all? We do. A lot of a lot of the courted tools will do on and clearly manufacturers some manufacturers are still excited about courted. A lot of them aren’t s. So what we do is we kind of gauge that off of what’s new, What’s coming out? What’s hot? You’ll see a lot more court and tools in the woodworking area. You’re going to see some miter saws. You’re gonna see table saws. You see that kind of stuff? Um, obviously planers and things those air kind of where those fall, you know, you’re not gonna see a corded drill anymore. You might see accorded Mixer stuff like that, But, um, so definitely, I would say a high level of what we do is gonna be Cordless and handles. But, you know, we definitely are still getting our hands wet with, you know, doing doing courting tools when they’re new and when they come out
Timothy
so right, and that kind of leads me into your other your other site there? One Is that
Clint
absolutely So we wait. We hit a point a few years ago where he realized, You know, um, a lot of these outdoor power equipment manufacturers are making these great landscaping tools in battery format. Now they’re coming out, you know, everybody’s doing it, you know, you got ego and you got Nikita and you got Milwaukee and you got steel on Echo. And, you know, everybody’s coming out with all these, um, Cordless tools for doing hedge trimming for doing string trimming, you know, lawnmowers all that Well, there’s not a ton in common with that and the construction history. And so traditionally, you know, from from when we started, we were heavy into the residential commercial construction industries, and that just started to be this crossover and which I think is still valid. But we really decided we really kind of realized we need to focus just on that Opie market. So we started Opie reviews, and ah, and that has been, ah, really neat because it’s been an opportunity for us to kind of really focus our content in that market onto a new site. It looks very similar approach reviews. Reason the same same kind of design style. Just it’s green instead of orange, you know, for accent colors and all that different logo, obviously, but But it is a separate company. We started completely different company to do that. We get different people allocated toe directing the content over there. And it’s a place where, you know, landscaping professionals can go. And not only do they get the latest product news and all that, but we do our category testing over there. So when we’re testing blowers and tremors and lawnmowers, which we’re about to start up long hours next, uh, for the second time, But now under our standardized method of test thing, you know, that’s a place where they could go get all that and they’re not inundated by, like, rotary hammers. And you know, things that they have nothing to do with what they do for a living.
Timothy
And when did you launch that? Say
Clint
that site launched in 2015.
Timothy
Okay, so it was right around the time when I guess the pro, uh, proto manufacturers Milwaukee to all kind of launch there, their lines. And you kind of maybe saw that that trend.
Clint
Yeah, I think the site had already kind of came up before Milwaukee’s line came out, But it’s just summer. Yeah, you’re right. That’s about the vicinity of the time it was came up. So yeah, it was Ah, it was neat. It made a lot of sense when we did. It is interesting that we had before even that we have launched a site called Shop Two reviews and that was geared towards mechanics, tools and and automotive kind of stuff that you’d see in a mechanic shop. And so we were At one point we were running three sites, and it became very clear after a while doing that, that that was just we were kind of dividing ourselves way too far into that. And we had a ah, guy on board. Uh, Tim Johnson, who has a huge background in automotive. Ah, his, You know, his dad raced cars, they worked on him, worked on cars his whole life. I mean, everybody knows is ah, car guy was great and he’s he’s here locally with us. And so he actually we worked it out. He actually now owns and operates shop tour views. We went ahead and split that back out. And so now it’s pro. Two reviews and Opie reviews that we run, and then Tim Johnson runs shop tortillas and it’s has been neat and he’s very video focused on social media focused, and he’s really just kind of getting into that. So that’s a fun site.
Timothy
Yeah, I like that side as well. It’s when you guys kind of came up with that, too. It was, you know, I don’t think of, you know, automotive is a whole another culture subset of tools and and tell you everything’s different. Everything’s, you know, as you know you can just gay. There’s the superstores for the home stuff, but for the auto stuff, you’re there’s a super super stores, but they’re not. You know, I can really picking up great tools from the from the right pat boys of the world,
Clint
AutoZone and all these guys And yeah, they’re not, they’re not. It’s not a big deal. Still, I think that’s still you’re still buying stuff off a truck or your You know, more and more of these guys are buying stuff online. They’re starting to realize that maybe financing a you know, a $300 tool for, you know, decade isn’t isn’t a good idea, right? Right. We’re kind of getting there, but, uh, who knows? But yeah, that’s
Timothy
fantastic on Lee going into the O p E r. Do you guys cover gas tools at all?
Clint
We do, we d’oh, you’re gonna see zero turns on. They’re gonna see gas, you know, backpack blowers, anything from from that to Tiller’s toe, all sorts of stuff. So that really is. Even though it started as a because of the crossover with the battery power products, it really is a site dedicated to everything landscaping and in that industry, I mean, those guys are still very much using gas products. All right, there, they’re starting to make that transition. There’s certainly municipalities and very much areas where that makes you mean. Think about cutting in a cemetery or or municipality or early in the morning. You know what places Amir’s places where battery makes a lot of sense? You want a quieter tool, But but for sure, these guys are not rolling up and doing the majority their work yet with those tools are still used
Timothy
gas. And do you attend G III, which is, I believe the Yeah, so you know, you know a little about that show and and you know what? What you’ve seen there the last couple years.
Clint
Yeah, it’s a It’s a great show. It’s in Kentucky every year. Um, and it is. Ah, it’s a It is the biggest one of the biggest places where you’re just going to see every single type of outdoor equipment and you can, and what’s great about it is it’s open. It’s a public show that you have seen, Guy, You said your family’s entire family show up at that thing with their kids, as well as dealers and media and all of that. But But it’s a very, very big show where you can ride and operate the products they will let you get on. You know, as long as you’re Elia’s, as long as it’s legal to do so, you can get on a lot of these products and try them out in terms of trends. I mean, that is where you’re definitely seeing all of the battery products explode onto the market, even to the extent of ah, you know, that’s something we hadn’t seen before. A couple of years ago a battery powered zero turn Mellors, which is crazy. Oh, who has this happened? S so it kind of started with mean green. They were kind of the first to market that we saw, followed up by Green works, who kind of teased it for about three years and then finally came out with him. Oh, and there’s this very refined and I would say, even more so than mean green Ah, the green works zt They have They have a stand. Ah, stand on a, uh a riding ziti. They’re actually very much like driving a regular zero term. Our mandate feel that controls air. They’re not over torqued. You don’t have to really rethink how you drive the tool. But even companies like TT I are coming out with, like, Rio be Has they introduced a battery powered? I kind of like a better power go kart looking long tractor Ah, a couple of years ago And now this this year they just put out a Z t. We actually have it in her shop right now for review. So
Timothy
long time talking about Look what we have. I must have my You must have a pretty sizable shop to bring in all of these tools. Especially when you talk about outdoor power equipment.
Clint
We do it. We’re starting a lawnmower shootout. Watching them stack up, we knew there would be trouble. But we have, Ah, 65 by 43. Shop in. Actually, the back half of that, not back half were about that seven teen feet of that of that is our air conditioned office space where we work. So
Timothy
and is that that nearby your house is a kind of the same same area?
Clint
Yes. Yep. Same area. So we got everybody kind of shows up here, and we got, uh, we’re a Mac house. We’ll work on our I, maxim and all that and get in here and do our works out.
Timothy
Perfect. Do you think you know, uh, Milwaukee? You think I’m gonna have a lawn mower this year?
Clint
You know, we have tried really hard to get them to confess on that, And as near as we can tell what we’re getting out of them, is it? Not yet.
Timothy
Okay, They keep things kind of close to the vest and like to do a big clash. If it is
Clint
dio it would almost be if they came out with it. It would be very, very surprising this year. I just don’t feel like they’re ready to show it if they do have it. So
Timothy
right And Walt has one. Correct.
Clint
They dio Dio Walt’s going through an interesting change because they’ve kind of dumped their 40 vault, Um, which is which is a big deal because that was their pro line and what ended up. I mean, from our perspective, what we’re telling them, and not that Not that they’re listening to us, but, you know, we can’t say that you’re 60 vault flexible system is performing better than your 40 volt and your prejudice *** 40 volt is the pro line. Well, about a year later, that pro line is kind of done. Um, and so now our we’re kind of looking at them. They had that, you know, they have the 20 vault in the Duel 20 vault for development or whatever. So now we’re kind of waiting to see you know what’s next for them and and how are they gonna expand that? That flex ball 60 vote line. Ah, and and we’ll just have to wait and see what they do with it,
Timothy
right? I remember it was a bit last year, but confusing when you kind of stalled on the market and it all seemed pro like you said, Is it the 40? Is that the flex Volts? Very pro. Like, what’s what’s happening here? So
Clint
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it was It wasn’t, You know what wasn’t great? Because it was It was. Ah, you could kind of tell that they’re They’re just too too much stuff going on. So But as you covered, you know, there they they’ve entered the flex vault market. Now with the mowers. Ah, more or less so we’ll see if they’ve got the 20 volt and down. So basically, if they’re running it on 20 running it on 60 is not far behind. So right.
Timothy
Have you heard talk about Ah, Stanley, back in Decker, if you heard anything, or did you Have you seen all the new craftsman tools that have come out?
Clint
Yeah. So I I didn’t make that event, but But a couple of our guys did, and that was man, that was actually they came back and says one of the more, more fun events they’ve been to all year, and they were amazed by how much they released. I was not prepared for how many tools uh, SPD was gonna put our Stanley black. Nick was gonna put out under the Craftsman brand. Very surprising and impressive,
Timothy
right? And that’s all. They just I think they they kind of hunkered down for a year or so. And then Boom was out there and talking about I guess there was one of the questions was kind of the positioning, and you’re compared to the other lines. Where do you see it fitting in?
Clint
Interestingly, Um, it’s Ah, it’s a It’s a It’s a conundrum. It’s It’s I’m not sure yet, you know, it’s It’s different than it was, You know, it’s funny. Craftsman’s gone. The full game that they went from there were always like that. Your dad’s pro brand, too. You know, we don’t know what’s going on and you know what’s happened to it and then Sears going out and all that. I think right now the way it sits it is like is what I consider to be a cross between pro Sumer and entry level pro. So in the same way that I see guys pulling up, do h back and do Electra electrical work and plumbing, and they’re pulling out Rio be in rigid tools. I could definitely see those same guys pulling out craftsman. So qualities right there. Quality is right there. If there’s, you know, we have been impressed by what we’ve seen their you know, these tools air coming out the brush list, their powerful, you know, they’ve got a decent warranty. You know, you you can walk in and grab him at Lowe’s, which is nice. So those kind of things that are really impressive um, it’s just, you know, it’s just a little bit of, like, kind of wait and see, you know, to see how the market response
Timothy
right. And they also I mean, they went full bore also into the outdoor power equipment as well. It’s like they have everything.
Clint
Yeah, well, and that it was interesting, because when they bought, uh, when when Stanley Black and Decker bought Craftsman Craftsman, the large part of craftsman was there Opie market. I mean, the value that company was in outdoor power equipment, lawnmowers and all that stuff. They own it. So if people thought this was about Cordless power tools. Well, they’re right. But it was also if they if they had done that and neglected that opium market and just focused on the power tools they have missed, you know, majority what they paid for. Obviously, they’re not done. They know what they’re doing. And so you’re seeing all those tools come out and, ah, they’re looking good. I mean, I I would not be surprised to see, you know, more and more products come out in that in that category. And they’ve got, you know, they’re leveraging the power of of Stanley Black and Decker, which is, you know, the power behind the Walton and some serious brands.
Timothy
So right and that it’s hard to beat that craftsman brand name. Probably deep. I mean, it could be still the premier tool name that people know about.
Clint
You know, we we I mean, I’ll admit around here, we thought they were done. We just thought it what? We thought the brand was done. When, when? When they got bought, we just were like, Wow, what are they going to do? But like you said, they hunkered down and they came out with all these tools, and I think they’ve got a fighting chance to really kind of restore craftsman toe. What? Itwas you were turned into something different that’s equally respected, which
Timothy
right? Any talk about the the top names, any any brands out there that, you know, they might be hard to find you Maybe only dealer or they might just kind of get really overlooked. But you think they’ve got, you know, great, great tools.
Clint
That’s a great question. Um, we’re laughing it, You know, the bittersweet nature of the Hercules brand from Harbor Freight. Yes. It was bittersweet because we had such a great performing impact driver from them that just was just amazed sitting in our testing and we were like, Wow. And then we you know, we took the hammer drill in it. It did. Okay, but it also broke broke. Way went. Okay, so if you go this route, you probably need the extended warranty. You know, it only comes with, like, you know, 30 days, 90 days or something like that. Um, but as far as that goes, I mean, uh, I would have to say you’re, you know, some of the brands that were that we see a lot of the stuff we deal with. This is mainstream, and, um and it’s It’s hard because when you’re dealing with contractors, you’re dealing with pros. A big part of everything is, ah, is that reliability? Is building up your battery platform? It’s building up your, um, your trust in the brand. It’s building up the ability to swap things out and get things serviced. And so I think the biggest surprise over the last several years had to be maybe ego, you know, for outdoor power equipment. You know, they came out of nowhere, and now that company had been around a while. But they were making products for other people. And so when they you know, the parent company is Sir Von. And when they started the ego brand on and of course, started selling that at home be though they started making these outdoor power equipment products, these mowers and these tremors and these ah, chainsaws. It started, like doing really well in competing at a better level than most of the other tools at the same price category. So that was kind of one of the pleasant surprises out
Timothy
there, and they happen pretty quick. I mean, that’s very recently correct.
Clint
Yeah. I mean, I mean, I think they came out in, like, 2013 or even later. I mean, it was It was It was kind of not. Yeah, it wasn’t a wasn’t a terribly long time ago. Did that start? And then they just keep getting better and better. So a lot of companies will come out with something, and it’s kind of a one hit wonder. They come out with a set of tools and then they just disappear. They just don’t really improve or they don’t make second and third generations. That’s not happening with that brand. They keep making new and new products, and you’re seeing the boar’s come out and people say, Oh, no, we want to steal deck That’s a pro products. Okay, here’s a steel deck version. You know we need more runtime. Well, here’s a Here’s a version with two batteries, you know? Well, hey, here’s a power inverter that runs it. 2000 watts, and we’ll take 44 of any of the batteries you happen, have lying around. You know, those kind of things. There are kind of need to see
Timothy
so they’re clearly primed to be a big player in in all of this.
Clint
I think so. And the And the reason I say that is just because they’ve been, you know, they make the manufacturer skill saw products. They own that company now, they manu. But they’ve been making miter saws for Bosch and other companies for a long time. Um, they have some some products that were branded rigid, which is odd that couple one or two products that weren’t t. T I based were made by the company that normally makes rigid power tools. They make a lot of power tools, Cordless power tools for other other companies. And so this is a company that this large large history And then now, of course, you’re seeing skill come out so that that would be my other brand I’d bring up, and I don’t. I’m not tryingto push. Sure, Vonage is. They’ve done some weird stuff that normal companies don’t do. And the and the reason I say that is because they’re coming out with so many products at once. So, um, we talked about their outdoor power cut in line to the other One would be skill So they brought. They bought skill saw and skill from Bosch. And so this this company servant has put out these 12 all brush lists and 12 and 20 volt brush less tools. And they’ve got, you know, Cirque saws impact driver’s right angle impacts, you know, drills, hammer drills, multi tools, you know, coming out with jigsaws. Eso you instantly. You have this, like very, very large array of tools made by manufacturer that it seems like they came out of nowhere. But in reality, they just been making these things for everybody else. And now they’re making him for a brand that day on.
Timothy
So that’s that’s producing. One of the my favorite kind of graphics out there is the one that shows kind of the family of, of of powerful brands and how it seems like there’s five or six ruli sizable ones that cover 90% of the market. Yeah, and they think they’ve got something for every every that’s right, every market, every category and, um, so when we’re on that when you’re in there shopping, you’re comparing and they’re still getting a big piece of the pie because their own both brands, that’s interesting
Clint
right, Right. It’s been fun to watch what’s going out
Timothy
there, so right. And you still do. You have the pro tools awards?
Clint
Yeah. So that we started. Um wow. When did that start? I think we’re going into its sixth year. The Pro tool Innovation Award. Yes. Yeah, we, um we started that program, and the reason we started it was because we had initially done some editorial awards. And I love editorial words. I love I love sites that do editorial wards. And But what we realized is, even though we do a lot of hands on reviews, we do over 350 hands on reviews a year. That’s still only 350 tools. So what about all these other tools that are out there that are innovative that have, um I have some really neat characteristics that need to be recognized. You know what? How do you talk about this? How do you How do you properly recognize those or whatever? And so we started looking at, um, what was out there to recognize tools like that? There really wasn’t anything that that did that. And so we started approachable innovation awards for the purpose of casting a wider net and making sure that people could get these new and innovative tools recognized. And so it’s a It’s a need awards program. People have to submit their products. It is it is open to anybody in the ah, that basically makes hand tools, power tools, bench top tools, you know, courted Cordless covers. The construction industry covers automotive coverage, woodworking. Um, you know, outdoor power equipment and all That’s very wide net. And it’s ah, it’s a neat program of the winners actually come away with an acrylic award we have the voting is done by professionals about 20 to 24 of them. Ah, that agonized over the submitted products and have to pore over all of the details and the specs, the information and, you know, comparing all of the the entries. And it’s really a neat a neat projects the labour love because it takes a lot of our time throughout the year to do it. So
Timothy
I mean, congratulations on it, because I’ve I see it mentioned by, uh by brands that touting it in their releases, saying, Hey, this this tool want these 21 had award and and it’s great to see Ah, yeah. And even when you go to some of these events to seeing seeing you guys is like, Hey, portrait of you says this about it’s it’s really cool to see.
Clint
That’s awesome. Well, we love it. Were just, you know, we don’t we if you’ll notice we don’t really try to make it about us. We try to make it about the tool, but we appreciate that is a lot of work does go into it. But, man, we just enjoy we D’oh! We got a great group of people here and we just, uh it’s just fun now, A lot of people when they when you’re out out and people ask you what you do for a living and you start kind of talking to him, they just kind of look at you go. That’s a job. You can do that right?
Timothy
And talking to some other people saying, Oh, that sounds like a great when you get to get free tools. You know, there’s a
Clint
lot more to that. No. Yeah. No, you can’t. I don’t know if I can figure out how to eat tools. That would be
Timothy
great. If you have to make a go towards your mortgage or something like that? Yes.
Clint
Yeah, we’ve had people like you, and that’s a great question, you know? Aren’t you biased if somebody is going to send you to a well number one, we give away our tools s so we just we just give him away. We get married or nonprofits. We give away two contractors in the area and all sorts of stuff. And, um but you know that when when it really comes down to it is how many drills can I use? How does that benefit? Getting another drill, like when I could do it? You know, we’re not. We’re not really building houses. Nowhere. We’re not running crews of people where we’re saving money with. So yes, so the for us, it’s It’s the volume that keeps us unbiased. It’s just the fact that we do so much content and we try to make what we do as objective as possible. So and then we just give a whole bunch of stuff away and have fun with it. So
Timothy
All right, so what’s on tap for you guys this year? I know you’ll be in Milwaukee, and you need What? Any other travel? Any other things happening?
Clint
Yes, in Milwaukee’s coming up. Um, uh, yeah, you’ll be later in the year. And Ah, boy, what else was coming on? Yeah. If you feel like there’s a few other things happening here, I think we’re gonna miss Hilty this year. Ah, a couple of the media events. I think we’re gonna go up and see Shirvani Avenue. Ah, facility up in Chicago that they want to show us, and they’re doing doing some work up there. And then, um, yeah,
Timothy
you’ve done some international travel is Well, this is a means to manufacturers.
Clint
Yeah, we’ve been We’ve been to Germany to see festival, um, and we have, ah, a couple things we’ve been to China, which was fun, actually walked some facilities. So when when people talk about like, uh, garbage is made in China, I’m sure there’s a ton of garbage made in China, but we’ve actually been in facilities that are extremely clean with people that are well paid and taking care of me. So And, you know, we’re walking the factors and you can see it is you can’t fake that. There’s too many people in its, you know, a 1,000,000 square feet of floor space. I don’t know how you run around and clean up a 1,000,000 square feet of floor space, So we’ve We’ve been pretty impressed by by some of the companies over that we’ve been able to see. We’ve also done some domestic travel and seeing Obviously a lot of people here we’ve seen some DeWalt factories have seen where there were put together tools. We see Milwaukee making blades, hole saws and ah, and the recent saw blades. That’s been very pretty cool. Um, seeing Cambodia, you know, where they manufacturer zero turns and and you TV. So that’s been me.
Timothy
Yeah, that’s to me. One of my favorite parts of this type of work is is going to the to the Heartland some these areas that otherwise probably not gonna check out, And you’re actually you know, you’re seeing what goes on, and to me, that’s that’s fascinating. And meeting a lot of these people that again, I always look for this types of trips, sometimes more so than that. Maybe the flashier types of things.
Clint
Yeah, and they’re great. And the best thing we love is when we run into a product manager who really cares about his product, and he and he’s just excited to show it off. And he’s excited to talk about and he’s been working on something for a year and and here it is. And there’s the media and they get, you know, they get to, like, show it off, have you run it or jar Dr It or, you know, use it or whatever it is. You know, one of the things we try to keep in mind is you know, these Air riel people who make riel decisions and they are designing to a goal and, you know, tools have for purpose. And so these product managers that in the end, these engineers, you know, when they’re designing a tool, not every tool is is gonna be designed to have the most torque at whatever cost it takes. You know, not all tools are gonna be the fastest or the strongest. Some of them are built to be ergonomic. Someone were built to hit a particular price point, and so allowing, you know, allowing that into your thinking and being humble about it. When you see the you know, the people who are behind spending her life’s work, you know, building these products. It’s just an opportunity to kind of come alongside of him and get excited with them about these tools they’re producing. And we try to do that. She’s keeping open mind when you’re when you’re seeing these things, and it was fascinating to see how stuff built and made and designed, and we love it
Timothy
right. There’s so much more than I mean when they cut it open and they talk about how design works with engineers, it’s, Yeah, it’s really fascinating.
Clint
We’ll make something that has no vibration. You know, it’s
Timothy
a lot more than you realize. And they say that it’s not just a marketing term. It’s like, Yes, there’s technology going behind that.
Clint
Yeah, And here it is. So where can people, you know,
Timothy
connect with you kind of mention your sights, but getting over them again?
Clint
Yeah, absolutely. So Pro tour views dot com is our is our website. O p e reviews dot com Distance for outdoor power equipment reviews dot com They could go there. Bacon, Bacon’s. It’s basically pro tour views on Facebook, Twitter, instagram and ah ah, and on YouTube so you do we, uh we have, Ah, we actually just hired someone into his entire job is doing video. And so we’re real excited about what will happen the rest of this year as we as we grow our video channel
Timothy
even further. So yeah, look for to seeing that. It’ll be fun to say we’re excited. Great. Thanks, Clint. I’ll see you in Milwaukee.
Clint
All right, I’ll see you there. Thanks so
Timothy
much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Tool Crave. If you’d like to show, please Rating of us on apple Podcasts over every You’re listening Fall along with us for guests Updates on instagram, Twitter and Facebook at Tool Crate and feel free to email us at podcast at tool crate dot com for guest suggestions or just to say hi. Thanks again and see you soon
