Who owns what: the American brands and the companies behind them

36 brands · 10 owners · updated with every episode

The name on the box almost never belongs to the company that makes the thing. This page lists every brand we have taken apart on the channel, who owns it today, and where the work is actually done. Every line comes from an episode and carries the source we used. It is not finished — it never will be — and if we have missed an owner, tell us in the comments under any episode and it gets added.

Stanley Black & Decker

New Britain, Connecticut — from The death of Craftsman: how a $900M deal ended a lifetime guarantee

In 2025 the company told investors it would put fewer resources behind some of its brands, including Irwin and Lenox.

• Craftsman — Bought from Sears in 2017 for about $900 million.
• DeWalt
• Stanley
• Black & Decker
• Irwin — Named in the 2025 investor note as a brand getting fewer resources.
• Porter-Cable
• Lenox — Same 2025 investor note.
• Proto
• Mac Tools

Techtronic Industries (TTI)

Hong Kong — from Tool brands: who owns the wall, and the four still worth buying

Revenue in 2025 was about $15.3 billion. It owns Milwaukee outright and makes Ryobi and Ridgid power tools under licence — the names belong to other companies.

• Milwaukee — Owned outright.
• Ryobi (power tools, North America) — Made under licence. The Ryobi name belongs to Ryobi Limited of Japan.
• Ridgid (power tools) — Made under licence. The Ridgid name belongs to Emerson Electric.

Apex Tool Group

Sparks, Maryland — from Tool brands: who owns the wall, and the four still worth buying

Bain Capital, the private equity firm, owned Apex for more than ten years. The company is now run for its creditors.

• GearWrench
• Crescent

Chervon

China — from Tool brands: who owns the wall, and the four still worth buying

Makes the cordless tools sold under Lowe's own name. ⭐ This is one of the owners the best-known video on this subject leaves out.

• Kobalt (cordless) — Kobalt is Lowe's house name; Chervon builds the cordless line.

Emerson Electric

St. Louis, Missouri — from Tool brands: who owns the wall, and the four still worth buying

• Ridgid (the name) — Emerson owns the name; TTI makes the power tools under licence.

Whirlpool

Benton Harbor, Michigan — from The death of Maytag: the Dependability Square was an advertising set

Bought Maytag in 2006 for about $1.7 billion. The last washer left the Newton, Iowa plant in October 2007.

• Maytag — Bought 2006. Newton, Iowa closed October 2007.
• Amana — Came with Maytag, which had bought it earlier.
• Jenn-Air — Bought by Maytag before Whirlpool bought Maytag.
• Magic Chef — Same route: Maytag first, then Whirlpool.

Transformco (Edward Lampert)

Hoffman Estates, Illinois — from What happened to Kenmore: the Sears brand that never had a factory

Bought Sears out of bankruptcy through Transform Holdco, controlled by the same Edward Lampert who ran it before. Kenmore is sold today through Amazon and a shrinking number of stores.

• Kenmore — A badge, not a factory: Sears never built one. For decades a Kenmore washer was very often a Whirlpool with a different badge.
• Sears

Alliance Laundry Systems

Ripon, Wisconsin — from Speed Queen: the washer repair technicians buy, and why nobody sells it to you

Sells commercial laundry machines in more than a hundred countries. Ownership has passed through Raytheon, then a $358 million sale of the laundry business, then a buyout for about $450 million, then a majority stake at an undisclosed price.

• Speed Queen
• UniMac
• Huebsch
• IPSO
• Primus

Corning

Corning, New York

Sold control of its consumer products business in March 1998 — the one holding Corelle, CorningWare, Pyrex, Revere Ware and Visions — to an affiliate of Borden, with a condition: the buyer had to drop the Corning name within three years. It became World Kitchen in 2000. ⛔ Corning kept the trademark and still owns it worldwide.

• PYREX (the trademark, worldwide) — Corning still owns the name. The laboratory glass under it is still borosilicate.

Instant Brands

Downers Grove, Illinois

The line of succession for American Pyrex: World Kitchen → Corelle Brands → bought by Cornell Capital (private equity) in 2017 → merged with the maker of the Instant Pot in 2019 to become Instant Brands. Filed for Chapter 11 in 2023.

• pyrex (US consumer bakeware) — Lower-case logo. Tempered soda-lime glass, not borosilicate.
• Corelle
• CorningWare
• Instant Pot

Still independent, still making their own

— from Tool brands: who owns the wall, and the four still worth buying

Four names on the American tool wall still belong to the company that forges the steel, and still run their own plants in the United States.

• Channellock — Meadville, Pennsylvania, since 1886. Fifth-generation family ownership, forging its own carbon steel.
• Klein Tools — Chicago, since 1857. Still run by the Klein family, seven US factories.
• Estwing — Rockford, Illinois, since 1923. Head and handle forged from one piece of steel.
• Wright Tool — Barberton, Ohio, since 1927. Owned since 2007 by its own managers, not a conglomerate or a fund.