Sears Craftsman Era - When Every American Toolbox Was Red

In 1927, Sears bought a trademark from a Pennsylvania saw company for around five hundred dollars and put it on a line of hand tools. For the next ninety years, that name sat on the wrenches, the sockets, the screwdrivers, and the red toolboxes in every American garage that knew the difference between a tool and a thing that broke. This is the story of Craftsman. The 1927 acquisition. The lifetime warranty that turned a tool purchase into a relationship. The wall of red at the back of every Sears in America. The three-piece toolbox in the corner of the garage. The socket set under the Christmas tree at fourteen, and the canvas wrench roll that stayed in the trunk of the car for forty years. The plants that built the tools, with names most American workers under fifty have never heard. Western Forge in Colorado Springs. New Britain Machine in Connecticut. Easco in Maryland. The slow shift overseas through the 1990s. The 2009 Ace Hardware deal. The 2017 sale to Stanley Black and Decker for around nine hundred million dollars. And the wrench, still in the drawer.