Hart Tools’ parent company, TTI – also owns the Ryobi line at Home Depot, Milwaukee Tool, and others – has announced that they are voluntarily discontinuing the HART business by the end of 2025.
Hart Tools are exclusive to Walmart, and so this is essentially the end of the Hart line – including their cordless power tools.
TTI says that the Hart brand will remain in their portfolio.
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I found this statement interesting:
The discontinuation of the HART business further supports our ability to deliver our medium-term internal profitability objectives with additional potential upside in the following years.
Looking around a bit, it seems that Hart Tools discontinued their social media efforts around 9 months ago. They posted regularly, and then it just stopped.
On YouTube too, Hart’s last video was posted 9 months ago, celebrating the changeover from winter to spring.
What happened? As I see it, there are 2 likely options.
Theory 1: Tariffs destroyed Hart’s profitability.
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Theory 2: The contract expired and Walmart awarded it to other companies.
I did a store walk at Walmart a little over a year ago, and the tool aisles were cleanly divided between Hart and Hyper Tough.
They had a lot of Hart tools accessories across many categories.
In almost every tool-related category you could think of, Hart was there.
Walmart even had Hart pressure washer nozzles.
Hart was everywhere.
That Hart seemed to have ceased their social media activities around 9 months ago is a big clue that their departure from Walmart was long-planned.
It’s possible that Walmart is expanding their Hyper Tough selection, but they really need more brands in there for price point differentiation.
What comes next? It’s very likely that Walmart will clear out all of the tools. But besides that, does Walmart have new brands on deck, or will they have Hyper Tough fill everything in?
Will Walmart stores downsize their tool departments nation-wide?
Which brand(s) has Walmart contracted with to replace Hart Tools in stores?
There are lots of questions. All we know for certain is that Hart Tools is “discontinuing their business” in 2025. It’ll be interesting to see what changes come to Walmart in 2026.
Harrison
Aside from maybe RYOBI, this is why I would commit to store brand power tools.
A W
Wouldn’t?
jm
Many months ago I noticed they put all of the Hart vacuums on clearance and starting bringing in a lot more Skil branded stuff to the tool section. They even had some of the original Skil Worm Drive saws, but they were only $10 off the retail price. They also put on clearance all of the Hart lawn and garden stuff. I have the Carbon Fiber weed eater and it is really good.
Ezzy
Hart’s power tools may be junk but they actually have a few very specific hand tools that are top notch. All are from pre Wallmart days so make of that what you will. They used to sell by Home Depot. I got a hammer, crowbar, and chisel from Hart at Home Depot that are excellent. Much prefer the hammer over anything else Home Depot had at the time 9 years ago. And the crowbar has a unique handle design that makes it stronger. They kept those models on in the switch to Wallmart. The hammer is the same except the color changed from red to blue.
Mizzourob
I there was so much promise of the hart battery platform making it into multiple departments at Walmart. Seems like they only made to the automotive, vacuum and camping sections.
Nathan
As soon as those hart containers and multi bin boxes go on real sale I might pick up a few
Guess they didn’t sell at all. Shame but I’d like to see more made in USA hyper tough stuff.
JMG
Could Walmart become the new home for Chervon’s Skil/Flex/Ego products?
Stuart
Skil? Maybe. Flex? No. Ego? No.
Mizzourob
Maybe Skil, but probably only in a limited way as a premium option for HyperTough cordless since both are Chervon made. I could also see black and Decker make a comeback, and maybe the dark horse for a “premium” option would be Porter Cable?
Bonnie
The marketing-speak definitely sounds like the brand had lost any profitability it had. Otherwise I would expect it to get shopped around to smaller stores or something.
Mark M.
Never had a reason to get into Hart stuff but there are some hidden gems in the HyperTough brand, USA-made pry bars and such.
Scotty.
Theory 2.1 – the contract expired and WM made impossible demands so TTI said we out.
Mizzourob
It was at the very least an interesting experiment of what Ryobi could be with a slide pack battery. Now that I type this, what if Ryobi moves to slide packs, makes a post adapter for all current one+ tools and Hart becomes the next gen Ryobi?