ToughBuilt Industries $TBLT May 14, 2024 Shopping at Lowe's
We took a short trip to our local Lowe's in Northbrook, Illinois to see how the ToughBuilt display looked, and because we saw a clearance on the Reload Utility Knife and the 50 piece Carton Utility Blades (refills) in just this store. We bought two of the knives (one for us, and one as a gift, and a box of refill box cutting blades).
In summary, Lowe's has sold out of most of their ToughBuilt inventory and is maintaining a few key items in inventory. Klein has taken a few items over from ToughBuilt, including clippable tool bags and knee pads.
We found a few things, and took a few pictures, which we will share here.
1. Stacktech (TM) has not been fully restocked. I don't see any of the new, Spring 2024 products.
2. The Tools Manager came over to chat. He said he was glad to see the manufacturing delays going away, and he appreciated the ToughBuilt product flow.
3. Klein has taken over the knee pad business from ToughBuilt (they even have knee pad displays where ToughBuilt used to have them.
4. Fewer and fewer tools on display. One screwdriver set, a few small levels and saws. No tape measures or larger items like mitre saw tables, QuickSet tables, whole room laser levels, or saw horses.
5. The knives were either sold out (only two utility scraper / cutter knives, and they were open package) or on clearance. No hand knives.
6. The same hammers on display as from January 2024. Worried they have not sold many.
7. A few Massive Mouth bags and very few (as in 2 or 3) ClipTech tool pouches.
Now, in context, there seemed to be a big pile of clearance items from other vendors.Very inexpensive storage from Craftsman VersaStack (TM) is on bold display.
In summary, Lowe's has sold out of most of their ToughBuilt inventory and is maintaining a few key items in inventory. Klein has taken a few items over from ToughBuilt, including clippable tool bags and knee pads.
We found a few things, and took a few pictures, which we will share here.
1. Stacktech (TM) has not been fully restocked. I don't see any of the new, Spring 2024 products.
2. The Tools Manager came over to chat. He said he was glad to see the manufacturing delays going away, and he appreciated the ToughBuilt product flow.
3. Klein has taken over the knee pad business from ToughBuilt (they even have knee pad displays where ToughBuilt used to have them.
4. Fewer and fewer tools on display. One screwdriver set, a few small levels and saws. No tape measures or larger items like mitre saw tables, QuickSet tables, whole room laser levels, or saw horses.
5. The knives were either sold out (only two utility scraper / cutter knives, and they were open package) or on clearance. No hand knives.
6. The same hammers on display as from January 2024. Worried they have not sold many.
7. A few Massive Mouth bags and very few (as in 2 or 3) ClipTech tool pouches.
Now, in context, there seemed to be a big pile of clearance items from other vendors.Very inexpensive storage from Craftsman VersaStack (TM) is on bold display.
Klein Tools is growing their footprint at Lowe's at the expense of ToughBuilt Industries.
Here is what we saw (sorry, not posting pictures of competitor products):
Here is what we saw (sorry, not posting pictures of competitor products):
- Knee Pads (in two locations)
- Tool Pouches with a clip
FLEX has some accessories that are to be part of StackTech in future releases:
- Radio
- Box Fan
- Standing Light
Finally, in a move to cover the very low cost mobile tool storage market, Lowe's had a $99 Craftsman Versa Stack stack.