I care about brands. For one, it’s easier to distinguish quality items because certain brands make it easy. For example if I see LL Bean branded boots on sale I know they’ll likely be of higher quality than no name Walmart ones.

I don’t care about it having specific labels on it. In fact I would like to not have those for the most part. But knowing that you are buying genuine Converse shoes might be nice vs knock offs.

I used to think this but my experiences have not backed that up. Bought my first $1k jacket (Paul Smith). It took me a while to work up to that but I had mental list of features I wanted (belt, pockets for hands, flip up collar, certain style) and this one had them so a friend pointed out it would last years so $1k not really that much divided by years of use. It developed a whole in the pocket within 4 weeks of purchase as well as the hanger loop in the collar broke in the same amount of time. I've never owned a jacket that broke that fast.

Similarly I talked myself into Rimowa Air Salsa suitcase $699 vs the < $150 stuff I'd always bought previously. It was lighter than other so can fit more loot. Two flights later a wheel came off. Took it in for repair at Rimowa, next flight it came off again. Took it in again. Worked for a few flights but next time it came off Rimowa couldn't fix it in time for my return flight so they forwarded me to a local fix it shop at my expense. They fixed that particular wheel better than Rimowa (screw instead of glue) but a few more flights and a different wheel came off.

Similar issues with Schott jackets.

So at least for me, expensive brand != quality. It just equals expensive and possibly in a style I like.

It certainly depends on the brand but I’ll give you two counter examples. First, I have two charcoal Weber grills. One of them had rusted and lost one of the moving pieces. Bad news. Good news: I was able to cheaply source replacement parts. A no name grill in that situation would get tossed and a whole new grill would need to be bought to replace it.

Second, motorcycle gear. I know that TCX is going to have better boots than TourMaster. I know that a Shoei helmet is going to be better than a Walmart helmet. Is everything they put out perfect? No. But I can trust the brand overall.

And as a bonus, rock climbing equipment. I would much rather buy a Black Diamond or a Perzl carabiner than a Chinese knock off.

Clothing is somewhat harder this way but still, I am very happy with my Smart Wool socks and LL Bean insulated jeans vs something from Old Navy or similar.