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BigCarry1978 t1_iqm7urg wrote

Agree with most of these comments that LL Bean started falling in quality.

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guethlema t1_iqml7e1 wrote

It's not so much that the quality of the boot went down.

It's that LL Bean made the decision to become much more focused on retail clothing and much less focused on outdoor gear. The result is a limited selection of outdoor gear compared to their competition, and a great selection of fashionable clothes if you want to enjoy the woods from a public park or some form of apple orchard.

They built a brand and are banking on it, good for them, but the boots and most of their products in general are not the top-line outdoor gear that the company was founded on. Not saying you can't buy outdoor gear there or anything, I routinely do, but noting they're more of a fashion brand than an outdoors store now, and the boots are a key symbol of a top product that never evolved but looks cute.

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[deleted] t1_iqnj93w wrote

[deleted]

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BigCarry1978 t1_iqowedx wrote

There's no reason fashion gear can't be functionally well built. This is just an excuse for cheaping out on production cost which happens to every company. It's nothing new, you guys are acting like LL Bean is rebranding itself when it is simply reducing quality to cut costs.

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