Shopsmith Forums

RFGuy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:05 am Lowes just launched the FLEX line of cordless tools yesterday. I believe they sent free tools to certain social media influencers with the caveat that they don't give their opinion until after it launched yesterday. I don't know the channel linked below, but this is the first review that I could find on one of their new cordless drills. It looks like it didn't do too well in this video so I guess I would caution anyone considering this new product line to maybe wait and see how other reviews come in on them. At this price point, that drill should have performed much better than it did in this video (IMHO).

Interesting because from everything I have seen and heard everyone is raving about the new flex tools.
Flex is not a new brand it was in Europe for years, Chervon ( maker of EGO, Craftsman, Masterforce, Skill, Skillsaw, Kobalt and others) bought the company and is expanding the product line here in America. EGO is admittedly a leader in cordless battery technology so it should be an interesting tool product line.

The thing I find every interesting is Dewalt Black and Decker and TTI makers of Milwaukee,Ridgid Ryobi all have a mix of different brands within them. Some line up and seem to make sense others seem to be just a mix of different tool names. I wonder where this is all going???

Ed in Tampa wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:44 am Interesting because from everything I have seen and heard everyone is raving about the new flex tools.
Flex is not a new brand it was in Europe for years, Chervon ( maker of EGO, Craftsman, Masterforce, Skill, Skillsaw, Kobalt and others) bought the company and is expanding the product line here in America. EGO is admittedly a leader in cordless battery technology so it should be an interesting tool product line.

The thing I find every interesting is Dewalt Black and Decker and TTI makers of Milwaukee,Ridgid Ryobi all have a mix of different brands within them. Some line up and seem to make sense others seem to be just a mix of different tool names. I wonder where this is all going???

Yeah, I didn't know this brand before all of this. So, from what I have read Chervon had been in business for quite some time and started their power tool business back in 1993 and launched their outdoor power EGO line in 2013. They acquired Skil and rebranded it with a new logo in 2018 announcing new 12V and 20V power tools. Before the Skil purchase did they sell cordless power tools? That is what I don't know. I don't get why they would purchase Skil if they already had their own cordless tools, so I suspect it was corded power tools from them before that purchase. I think this new FLEX product line is brand new, i.e. not sold before, but of course they may have reused IP from the Skil purchase.

I don't have any interest one way or another with FLEX. There does seem to be A LOT of marketing online for them right now as they launched this thing this week so I am just following along. I do think the market is getting saturated. I mean it makes sense, I guess some of it...TTI owns both Milwaukee and Ryobi. My understanding is that Milwaukee is more of the pro level tool for contractors and prosumers and Ryobi is the more budget friendly tool (low tier and high tier products). DeWalt is under the Stanley Black & Decker umbrella and is similar, e.g. Black & Decker is the more budget friendly tool and DeWalt is sold to contractors & prosumers, but they also own Porter Cable now as well so how do they fit in? Having choices is great as a consumer, unless there are too many choices that is !!!

P.S. Guess I forgot about Ridgid also being under the TTI umbrella. Perhaps Milwaukee, Ryobi and Ridgid are meant to be low, mid and high tier product lines, not necessarily in that order though.

I wonder if they will carry the same type of warranty as Ridgid to compete with Home Depot?
BPR

ryanbp01 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:13 pm I wonder if they will carry the same type of warranty as Ridgid to compete with Home Depot?
BPR

Some more details on their limited lifetime warranty in the video below for anyone interested (only applies to cordless tools purchased in 2021):