I always have one in my car and work truck. Idk how hard they are to find now, but there was a period around 2019/20 when they were impossible to find or no one wanted to part ways with one.

Try a sample first. You will probably lose the benefits of the auto close feature. The steel can be really stiff. So once a dog pushes it open it’s unlikely it will fall back closed. You might have to experiment a little.

Patagonia puts some (all?) of their items through a "killer wash" test, where they repeatedly wash it to check durability. Their website only talks about it for waterproof fabric, but I'm pretty sure they used to say they do it for other items as well. One of their goals is to make durable products, to reduce the environmental impact, and because it's part of their brand reputation. No one is going to keep paying a premium for their stuff if it falls apart in a year. With cheap alternatives, the priority is making it as cheap as possible.

Depends 99% on how they're taken care of. Or not taken care of.

Yes

did a quick google search and found this: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/01/cheap-clothes-last-long-designer-items-new-study-finds/

Higher quality fabric 100% makes a difference, everything from the quality of the threads to the density of the weave will have an impact. Higher quality clothes are often easier to alter to your body shape which can cut down on wear. Being able to alter easily also helps accommodate your body changing shape, which is a common reason people get rid of clothes. Then again no piece of clothing will last forever and keeping up with mending small holes as they form is necessary to stop them from becoming big holes.

The problem with clothes is that unless you maintain exactly the same weight over your whole life typically you will need different sizing. Also you have to understand your use compared to others. There is no mileage on a shirt or pants. So you have no idea how it was used. I know with my cheap clothes I don't really care and will just throw them in the washer and dryer. Where as with a something more expensive I will hang it to dry or hand wash it. Typically, you will take care of something more if you paid more for it. And then there is how much you wear that thing. Your work pants might get more use then a pair of expensive dress pants so they just wear faster. That doesn't mean that they are better just that you didn't wear them as much.

Use patterns matter massively. And not everyone is the same. I run so I go through running shoes every 6-12 months. There is no running shoe I can buy that will really last longer than that. If instead I wore them only once every couple weeks they will last far longer in time. So when you see someone who wants running shoes to last for life I understand that isn't possible for me regardless of what I buy.

I doubt there is any proper research available, because it seems doomed from the start to me.

The first problem is how fast fashion nowadays is. We often have multiple collections per year.
The moment you‘ve collected the required data, drawn conclusions, peer reviewed and published it, said data is already outdated because the companies have produced a new collection.
It‘s just not repeatable that way.

Another problem is that said brands produce the same item in many locations, to sell in yet another different location, but sometimes production quality can differ between those individual factories.

You also have a problem with sample size and how to choose companies.
There is a lot of competition in clothing companies, which means a vast sample size is needed to adequately represent „high quality“ vs „cheap“.
You also need to choose whether to include one or multiple items per company.

For example: do I choose only one pair of jeans from company X to represent the quality of that company? And what if they produce multiple different jeans?

Since you want to compare „high quality“ vs „cheap“, that also means your little study is gonna cost you a lot of money just to aquire the sample items.

Another problem that I imagine could arise is that wear and tear on clothes can be simulated by different mashines, but that must not translate perfectly into real life.

For example, let’s say item X has better seams in general than item Y and only a few seams of Y are better on average. Now imagine that particular place that tends to rip more often for customers is the one that‘s better in item Y, just because said customers tend to do certain motions more often. They will notice that item X is less reliable than Y, even though it has better seams for the most part.

That‘s a problem that you could fix by handing out clothes to groups of people (aka participants) and interviewing them over a long period of time. Which would bloat the study even more and require much more money, because now you‘re looking for participants in a longitudinal study.

Another problem is not only the different ways people use the same item of clothing (for example I tend to sit in the so called lotus position a lot in my jeans, because it‘s comfy. This means the seam at my crotch needs to hold under more tension than when I sit straight at a table), but also the different ways people wash and store their clothes.
Tumble drier? Hanged for drying? Folded in the closet? Not folded? Rolled?

For workwear you can find testing videos. Project Farm has done a couple for example.

I mean are you looking for double blind peer reviewed studies on t shirts?

Top comment over there pretty much nails it. Putting my quality management auditor hat on, quality does not mean high end, it means fitness for purpose and meeting customer expectations, take designer dresses for example - some require the wearer to be sewn in, their expected service life may be just one evening, but they are undeniably high quality- they meet the wearer's needs and expectations exactly.

If your definition of low quality clothing is clothing which falls apart after a few uses, then by definition higher quality clothing lasts longer or wears better.

You don't have to pay through the nose for clothing which lasts, and you should never trust a brand or price point as evidence that an item will last. Things like higher thread counts, stronger stitching, higher quality zips, appropriate warp and weft of fabrics for their application will make for longer lasting clothing.

I've bought $2 underwear and $10 underwear. The $10 holds up in ways that justify the 500% price difference.

There’s so much profit margin in clothes that it’s hard to tell if a $100 sweater costs $10 to produce or $2.

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ohhh good point. I mean if it bends enough to let the dog out that's enough, yeah? like i guess it doesn't need to be as flexible as the current version.

Steel mesh would be my best guess but even then in order for it to be easily bendable means it will be easy to rip

oh thats great! i'll check that out

They make stainless steel screen material which I would expect to be more robust than nylon. Sew or glue on a few magnets

https://www.vessel.co.jp/english/download/

Vessel is the screwdriver manufacturer, their catalogue is around 60 pages full of countless types of screwdriver handles and shapes...

> but make sure the cruciform ones are Phillips and not JIS (unless you want JIS)

Vessel does not make JIS screwdrivers for about 20 years now. JIS standard was replaced by the DIN/ISO standard which is fully compatible with JIS fasteners as well as ANSI/SAE Phillips fasteners and all Japanese manufacturers make screwdrivers according to the DIN/ISO standard for PH heads. This also means practically all screwdrivers sold in Europe by reputable brands are fine to use on old JIS phillips fasteners as well.

The only screwdrivers that only fit in phillips, are the ones for the US market that follow old ANSI/SAE standards. Interestingly, a good ISO/DIN screwdriver fits in those just as well. The tapers are compatible, I think the main difference is how far in the fillets in the inner edges go - with the ansi/sae standard, they use larger radiuses which prevent them from fitting in old JIS screws, but the DIN/ISO use a very small radius so it fits into all of them equally...\

Sorry for nerding out a bit about this :) Vessel is the best brand for screwdrivers for sure. The only one I'd put above them is PB Swiss, but they're a lot more pricey and while maybe a bit better - not much. Vessel has a lot more variety too.

Nepros is cool but... you pay a lot for the finishing. I'd say they're as good as Vessel on the limited selection they have, but you pay more than even for pb swiss. Similarly, nepros sockets are really nice and beautiful but not really better than koken and nepros again has a limited selection.

any thought about what could be a pet proof screen? idk what the material would even be for DIY, but i'm definitely open to it if there's a material that would work!

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Not sure of the answer, but I’m definitely interested in the solution.

Maybe DIY it with pet proof screen?

Also, tangentially related, Seki is a Japanese brand that makes BIFL quality grooming tools like nail clippers, etc. i mean, if you’re already in Japan, it’s worth checking out

Vessel is the Japanese specialist for precision screwdrivers but make sure the cruciform ones are Phillips and not JIS (unless you want JIS). Otherwise Wiha and Wera have extensive ranges and master sets. Otherwise Nepros or Anex also make good drivers.