If you ever find yourself in Minnesota, and you’re able to get a tour of the 3M innovation lab, I highly recommend it. I only wish I could have had more time there…
from the core77 front page today: Great, Classic, Long-Lived Design: The Unsung Brannock Device - Core77
I guess put this one in the “if it aint broke, don’t fix it” category? 
I have (of course) a Brannock device (bought new) and also the vintage Ritz stick (garage sale find) in that article. I don’t know if I’ve ever used it more than once. Too bad kinda useless since every brand sizes/grades/fits differently. It’s a super hefty piece of kit though and I always remember being fit for shoes in it when I was a kid. Something tells me they don’t have those at most foot lockers today. With online shopping most likely it will be extinct soon enough.
R
How about instruments? The iconic Les Paul comes to mind. Started in 1952 and still going today. Les really nailed the shape from the beginning. ( Guitarist will probably bark at this saying the new ones are not even close to the models in the 50s 60s)
2018 vs 1952
The Bialetti coffee maker was invented in 1933 by Alfonso Bialetti. Story has it, he sold them here and there at markets but people didn’t really pick up on it, almost making the product a flop. His young nephew preached the importance of branding, drawing his uncle up a little a cartoon Italian guy, which is still the logo they use today.
The Weber Kettle Grill, invented in 1952, has stayed true to the original mass produced shape pretty well. They still sell a series devoted to this architecture. It’s interesting to note that it was inspired by buoys. He actually made the first out of one. That just shows the value of re-purposing.
Not only have they been making these since 1963, they have to still play nice with each other year after year. I can grab my legos from childhood and they will connect right up to my nephews.
In my view, the old Tupperware from flexible polyethylene is still the best. They still sell the Wonderlier series which started in 1954. I wonder if they still use the same molds. But the products definitely last. I have seen 50 year old Tupperware being used and still in good condition today. Another favorite is the Servalier series with the star lids. They seemingly discontinued it, I suspect because of BPA contents.
Tupperware does have an unbelievably long life for a plastic product. We (designers) should use it more often as an example of a plastic product, sold at a premium, that is durable.
I don’t think many of their products would have a BPA concern. I don’t think they ever used PC, which is the main resin that used BPA as a release agent.
This struck me this morning, the Venetian blind. It’s been around for at least 300 years from what I can tell, and probably longer. The remarkable thing is how versatile it is and how robust. Lots of people have tried to replace them, but they always seem to win out.
They do, I used to work in-house at the NPD/Design Centre in Aalst, Belgium. If you want to know how old the mold is on your Tupperware, look at the base. There will be a sequence of numbers such as XXX-X. The lower that number, the older the tool so if you have something that’s 56-1, it’s a very early mold compared to something today that could be 3765-2.
There’s actually quite a few interesting reason why the products are sold at such a premium compared to competition which explains why you still need the home party model even in today’s world but I don’t think I can disclose that information on a forum
How about Bean Boots, which came out in 1912? I had a pair that served me well for 5 or 6 years, sent them to LL Bean for a repair, but they got lost in the mail.
that is a long run!