Amazon’s Denali tool brand goes way back, but it fizzled out over the years, seemingly replaced by their AmazonBasics brand of value-priced tools. It looks like Amazon has reversed course and has launched several new Denali tool products.
Amazon is targeting a broad audience with this brand, saying it is ideal for professional builders, weekend warriors, and serious do-it-yourselfers.
They also say that Denali tools provide exceptional craftsmanship and professional-grade features.
Advertisement
At this time, there are just 3 categories of tools and accessories – tool storage, work gloves, and saw blades.
Here’s what they have so far:
Tool Storage – tool bag, tool boxes, wheeled work center tool boxes.
Work Gloves – impact-protected, anti-vibration, cowhide leather.
Saw Blades – circular saw blades, miter saw blades, table saw blades, jig saw blade sets, reciprocating saw blade sets.
Circular saw blades are available in 4-1/2″, 6-1/2″, 7-1/4″, 10″, and 12″ sizes. There are circular saw blades, metal-cutting blades, miter saw blades, and table saw blades.
Advertisement
To be frank, I’m surprised at how broad the selection is, especially the saw blades.
“Amazon Brand Denali” vs. Amazon Basics
With Amazon Basics, the idea is simple – highly rated products at low prices. The Amazon Basics brand includes all kinds of products – tools, batteries, pet supplies, fitness equipment, kitchen gear, electronics cables, office supplies, bedding, and other types of everyday items.
Amazon looks to be taking a very different approach with the Denali brand, seemingly treating it as a private label tool brand.
The Denali tools and accessories are also priced higher than Amazon Basics offerings. For example, an Amazon Basics 21pc reciprocating saw blade set is priced at $18.19, and a Denali 15pc blade set is priced at $19.99.
Amazon Denali has two taglines – ready when you are and Denali can help get it done. There’s also no mention of relative pricing or value in the marketing language.
The two brands are marketed very differently. Amazon Basics is about value, Denali looks to be about solutions.
Amazon also has an “Amazon Commercial” brand that includes products such as electrical testers and multimeters, and hose reels.
It’s curious that Amazon revived their Denali brand, rather than going with an Amazon-DIY type of branding. I suppose that the Denali brand can span multiple segments and target multiple audiences, such as “serious DIYers” and “professional builders” without introducing any preconceptions or bias.
It will be interesting to see where this goes.
Steve
There’s a typo at the end of your first paragraph, “prudtcs”.
Anyway, these are rebrands from some OEM(s) somewhere. It would be interesting to know who. It will be interesting to see how these tools hold up and what they expand in to if it takes off.
Stuart
Thank you – *fixed*!
Even if rebrands, they seem to be well thought out.
Back when Sears still owned the Craftsman brand, and before they started changing things for the worst, many of their tools and accessories were simply rebrands. Tools made by Bosch, Vaughan, Nupla, Wilde, Stride, Danaher/Armstrong, Knipex, and others were found under the Craftsman brand.
Steve
It seems like they want to start their own Craftsman which is why knowing who is behind what they are selling is interesting.
Anson
Not really sure who their target is(It’s not me). When I’m out of blades I typically replace same day via brick and mortar. If I can wait a few days I’m typically ordering a bulk pack of name brand blades, especially for the circular blades.
For bags I’ve been converted to buckle bags, was packing up in rain/snow and a blade caught the zipper and damaged the zipper. The buckles are more forgiving if you didn’t get everything back in the exact same place or you’re using your bag for trash to control cleanup. I still have zipper bags, but the new ones are all buckles.
For the impact gloves, where is someone putting their hand that a blow to the back of the hand is expected, that’s a place I don’t want to put my hand. Though I have seen paintballers use gloves like them.
As for electrical testers it’s a you get what you pay for scenario, we had someone use their personal Klein branded meter versus running back. Sparked measuring voltage off an isolated power supply, opened it up and found they used too small of a resistor (10Mohm and 100Mohm are in the better meters).
Koko The Talking Ape
Hah! As it happens, I’ve found impact gloves handy for pulling up puncturevine. Even if I use a tool like pliers to pull up the vine, the spines can easily pierce the knuckles of regular gloves, even leather. The impact cushions give me a little more space that the spines have to penetrate before they reach my precious fingers.
I can’t imagine any actual impact that could hurt my hands that the gloves would protect me from.
Gordon
Impact resistant gloves are more to protect the bone in the knuckles when doing stuff like wrenching. Nothing like cranking on an end wrench only to have the nut come loose and you smash your knuckles into something hard.
Joatman
Back when I was an autoworker, we used impact gloves to absorb the vibration of the repetitious use of air tools to prolong the development of carpal tunnel and tendinitis. Didn’t really do anything to eliminate the need for a kung fu grip that was needed on some of the tools to control the recoil. They started phasing out of pneumatic for electric towards my last few years there. Huge difference. Guess they were getting tired of paying for countless surgeries. Squeezing the trigger of air tools a few thousand times a day will get you one way or another……sooner or later.
Carl
I saw this stuff start popping up on Amazon Vine over the past couple weeks. Figured news about it would make its way here before long.
Rog
They haven’t released a lineup of stackable tool boxes yet, do they even take this seriously??
Steve
Umm, I hate burst your bubble, but:
Amazon Brand – Denali Wheeled Work Center and Tool Box https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M13WQ2X/
I think it’s even more amusing that they already have these. There must be tremendous margins in them.
Rog
Hah, look at that! I spoke too soon…
Brian
You’re spot on. I work in injection molding. There are absolutely fantastic margins in these.
its_jake
ITS GOT @#$%ING DRAWERS
COME ON EVERYONE ELSE!
Saulac
And a till out drawer! Look like it belong to the “wheel tool box” class than the “pack out” class, though. I recently got into Husky Connect, more of “pack out” than “wheel box”, for its’ shallow drawers. I think till out drawers are very practical, more so than sliding drawers in certain cases. As competition is heating up though, I bet that more solutions than just “flip top boxes” will come out.
Jammer
I wonder what “highly rated” means…
Jared
I’m not sure how much tomfoolery is going on with Amazon reviews, lots I’m sure. My suspicion though is that if a product garners to many negative reviews, Amazon just discontinues it and launches a new one.
Hon Cho
Why does it surprise anyone that a big company has multiple brands at both similar and different quality / price points? A product for every customer at every price level, presumably against every competitor. Thinking small, the costs of managing multiple brands and many SKUs is intimidating and expensive. At Amazon scale, it’s just another daily task.
As for quality, what you get in your first order may not be the same product you get in future orders. Non-captive brands are, in my mind, a bit more incentivized to be consistent and make sure changes are are perceived by their customers as improvements. My experience with Amazon basics is limited, but in the case of their rechargeable batteries, over the years they’ve changed suppliers several times with quality changing along with the manufacturer change.
Anson
^This, so much this^
When our relatives started migrating to NiMH batteries they went with the Amazon Basics, and at first that was okay. Batteries purchased 2-3 years later exhibited problems such as rapidly decreasing lifetime or inability to charge to previous voltage levels. (Individual cell charger which shows battery voltage is okay but measuring it after it’s removed it drops 0.1 to 0.2 volts immediately).
We only have eneloops and have yet to retire a single battery. Some are ten years old and show ~5-10%mah below stated capacity. This includes use by toys.
Rick
Project Farm has a good vid up doing testing on all the brands. Informative.
Anson
Thanks!
Didn’t realized the channel did those battery videos. Those Ikea and Duracell did pretty decent.
Nathan
lots of fake amazon reviews of course.
without more detail in the product I see it as new paint color or markings same part but more expensive. and I wouldn’t buy them anyway when I can get all the diablo, bosch, dewalt, and other brand name reviewed and used product all day.
similar pricing.
Badger 12345
I’ll second Nathan’s comment. Labor time and safety are important to me, so I prefer to buy blades that are high quality with a good reputation.
I purchased some Amazon Basics products in the past (e.g. batteries, USB cables, chargers) and they always failed sooner than their branded equivalent. I thought they were a good “deal,” but then realized they are just cheap. If I just want cheap I can go to my local Walmart or HF.
Al
“highly rated” = cheap to stock, and profitable.
The couple of focus groups I’ve been on, the participants are swayed by the free food and cash in an envelope. The product displayed was perfect, the best they’d ever seen.
Some of them had been in several dozen groups as an income source. The ringers spoke and gestured emphatically for the cameras, without ever looking at the one-way mirrors.
They like those kinds of reviews. The experienced people with honest negative opinions…not so much.
Amazon even deletes reviews that complain about bribes for reviews. So, take the ‘highly rated’ with a giant grain of salt.
Ken Weinstein
Highly rated lmao. By whom?
Denali – good name. Harbor Freight had already taken most of the other good ones for their own knock-off tool brands.
Steve
At Harbor Freight HQ right now there is someone who is shaking their fist, cursing Amazon, and removing Denali from the brand naming dart board.
Plain grainy
The tool bag might work for me, i like the shoulder strap. I have a lot of different brands already.
Jared
I think it’s interesting just because Amazon is such a big market force. If they decide this is a profitable niche, I’ve no doubt they could become a player.
I wonder how they will go about it though. Usually if I’m buying consumables like saw blades, I’m going to pick a trusted brand over something marginally cheaper. The other path to get money out of my wallet is to just be cheap – e.g. I don’t look to hard at the brand if it’s a pack of 20 angle grinder wheels for $15.
What’s Amazon’s play? Do they have enough cache for people to buy this over Dewalt, Freud, Bosch, etc if it’s similar in price? Are they going to work at building up a reputation (getting product into the hands of a reputable reviewer perhaps? ;)). Will they try to make a product that outperforms the competition?
I suspect their usual tactic is just to undercut the price a bit and advertise the product on their competitor’s Amazon page.
Gordon
I say this as a millenial, fully entrenched in a tech life.
You would be shocked at the number of people who will just order whatever they need off amazon because they can’t be arsed to get in the car and drive to a store. I thought those Dash buttons amazon had for a while were so dumb. And yet, I knew a shocking number of people that used them, and loved the convenience.
Amazon controlling the marketplace and selling their own brands is a HUGE reason people are calling for the feds to step in. They will almost always win a comparison battle on their own site.
MM
I can see that many people would choose to order online rather than shopping in person, but the question still stands, IMHO. Denali isn’t your only option for ordering online, why pick a no-name brand like that when you could order well known brands instead?
John
I think they’re banking on people choosing the first thing that comes up in the search results. If they put their products first a good portion will choose them because, after all, the reason they’re on amazon in the first place is convenience so they want to spend as little time as possible combing through search results.
IndianaJonesy (Matt J.)
The markings in the recip saw and jigsaw blades seem like a direct Bosch ripoff…
Big Richard
I was thinking that, too. With how the word “for” is written, blade shape, everything: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bosch-7-Pack-Demolition-Reciprocating-Saw-Blade-Set/50063525
Jim Felt
Amazon has skyscrapers full of “product development” people in downtown Seattle. And only one nearby Home Depot for R&D. Hmmm.
Kidding.
Eric
Surely you realize Amazon contracts with existing manufacturers to produce these tools. Consequently, if Amazon’s branded tool appears similar to that of a familiar brand, it’s a good bet that the tool is produced, and relabeled, by the better known manufacturer.
You would be shocked at how many different tool brands are produced by the same manufacturer.
Mikevango
The gloves look ok. I like how they have the double layers on the finger tips. That’s where mine wear out. I may order a pair to try out. The price ok.
Munklepunk
The rolling box is identical to the stalwart.
https://www.amazon.com/Rolling-Toolbox-Foldable-Removable-Organizer/dp/B005E6MX7S?ref_=ast_sto_dp
Frank D
Not quite identical but certainly related.
I have two copies (sitting idle, but they were used for a number of years for DIY) of a preceding model from about 15 years ago that has the same bottom and upper and just mates the two together. Iirc Keter made.
Chris Shelton
$30 off today!
https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-5-Tool-20-Volt-Max-Brushless-Power-Tool-Combo-Kit-with-Soft-Case-Charger-Included-and-2-Batteries-Included/1002680808