Vampire Tools, a Skyline Capital Management company that primarily sells pliers and tools made by Engineer Inc, sent out an email newsletter, saying they “Just Ranked World’s Best!!!”
They have not responded to our emails asking for clarification.
Shown at the top of this page is a screenshot of the pop-up message users are shown when visiting Vampire Tools’ website. They have been making similar claims on social media, that Vampliers were “rated best pliers in the US.”
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In their announcements and posts, Vampire Tools says:
The results are in!!! The entire Vampire Tools’ Team is humbled and thrilled that our VAMPLIERS® were rated as the BEST PLIERS in the US!
Here’s what their social media post looks like, with similar claims about Vampliers being “rated best in the US.”
Vampire Tools’ Vampliers can be found on Amazon, with “Vampliers World’s Best Pliers” advertised in the product titles.
Vampire Tools advertised their pliers with similar “Vampliers World’s Best Pliers” marketing language for at least several years now. Shown here is an image from their 2018 SEMA newsletter.
Here’s a screenshot of the “review” site’s “ranking,” which Vampire Tools points to as the source of their “just ranked world’s best” announcement and “rated best in the US” claims.
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From this, I would say that the “Just Ranked World’s Best” claim is unfounded, and that the “ranking” website simply copied Vampire Tools’ own marketing claims from their Amazon listings.
That website says their “rankings are cleverly generated from the algorithmic analysis of thousands of customer reviews.”
Their “rankings” look to be auto-generated lists of Amazon products, with no added content or opinions, expert or otherwise. I’m sure you’ve encountered websites like that anytime you research products or services via Google or other search engines.
It’s likely that the “rankings” website considered “Vampliers World’s Best Pliers” as the brand name.
Even if we ignore the low authority of the source and their “algorithmic analysis” rankings, and that the “World’s Best Pliers” phrasing referenced in the rankings seem to stem directly from Vampire Tools’ own product marketing language, the “ranking” site exclusively features Vampire Tools’ Vampliers products in their list of “10 Best Vampliers Worlds Best Pliers in the US.”
From all this, it seems that Vampliers are “rated as best pliers in the US,” only in the context of Vampliers pliers.
Basically, according to the “rankings,” Vampliers pliers seem to be rated as the best Vampliers pliers. That’s very different from what is conveyed by the statement “rated best in the US.”
If we give Vampire Tools the benefit of the doubt, they should have looked more closely at the source material to see that i) the “rankings” are algorithmically generated rather than an expert rating, ii) the rankings where Vampliers “just ranked world’s best” simply used Vampire Tools’ “Vampliers World’s Best Pliers” marketing language exactly, and iii) the rankings they based their “rated best pliers in the US” claims on is a list of 10 Vampliers products exclusively.
In my opinion, “World’s Best Pliers,” is acceptable hyperbole, whereas a claim of “rated best pliers in the US” should be substantiated or put into accurate context. “Vampliers rated best pliers in the US” is a very different statement from “Vampliers rated best pliers in the US in a list of Vampliers pliers.”
I first shared my confusion and concern with Vampire Tools 2 weeks ago, and they have not yet responded to requests for clarification.
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Jared
HA! That’s funny. It seems dubious even before the research into the claim. I bet 95% of people shopping for pliers have never heard of the “Vampliers” brand, so hard to see how they would be rated as the best pliers in the USA.
The “world’s best pliers” claim in the product listing title seems like an attempt to show up in search results if someone searches for “best pliers”.
Stuart
That could be, but “world’s best pliers” can be construed a matter of opinion, whereas “ranked worlds best” or “rated best in US” can be construed as factual and backed by actual rankings or ratings.
Dustin
It reminds me of these billboards we used to see in the Detroit Metro area for a dentist office that said RATED BEST DENTIST OFFICE IN MICHIGAN!* And then in the corner in super tiny font it said *by our dental staff. Lmao!
Joe E.
I dunno man.. my China made MAC pliers are pretty good quality.
Larry
Rated best in the US by the owner and his mother.
Jason
Congratulations, you did it!
I believe them, in the same way that Buddy found the worlds best cup of coffee at a crappy diner in NYC (Elf – 2013)
Mike
awesome reference
Analyst
Jared wrote: The “world’s best pliers” claim in the product listing title seems like an attempt to show up in search results if someone searches for “best pliers”.
Jared hit the nail on the head… spot on!
Stuart
Sure, but that’s not the issue.
What I’m bringing up is that this seems to be the basis for their “ranked worlds best” announcement.
There are two discrepancies in the claims. The first is that the “just ranked worlds best” seems to be based on “rankings” that simply copy/paste Vampire Tools’ exact phrasing used to advertise the pliers, and that the “rated best pliers in US” is meaningless as the “rankings” is a list of 10 Vampliers products.
Advertising something as “worlds best” and “just ranked as worlds best” are very different.
Jared
I agree. I wasn’t intending to suggest that “World’s Best Pliers” in the product description was linked to the claim that Vampliers was rated best in the US – but I do think it is an attempt to manipulate search results.
Much like how the plethora of Chinese-manufactured tool rebrands often have paragraph-style run-on sentence product titles:
“DASBET 14PCS Bearing Separator Puller Set 2″ and 3″ Splitters Remove Bearings Kit, Heavy Duty 4.7 Out of 5 Stars 4 Customer Reviews”
“ROGTZ Electric Car Floor Jack Set 3 Ton All-in-one Automatic 12V Scissor Lift Jack with Impact Wrench for Tire Change Replacement”
“LIANG High Power Blue Flashlight, Adjustable Focal Length Blue Tactical Flashlight, Suitable for Hiking, Camping, Outdoor Adventure”
Those aren’t even the worst-offenders, just some random examples I could find with some Amazon searching. I presume they have such silly names to try to increase the odds that they’ll pop up in a search for related terms.
Stuart
Oh, definitely, but how else would they gain visibility?
Amazon is a cutthroat marketplace. If a brand doesn’t stand out, they fall to the bottom of the page.
I receive emails all the time, promoting “such and such tool, best for grads, dads, boys, girls, holiday gifts.”
JR Ramos
I’ve always thought the Vamplier marketing was somewhat farcical, as great as the tools are. Such a contrast to what Engineer has done over the years (generally very minimal but some rather awesome fantasy video productions and a few good product demonstration videos).
I think it points to our market qualities as much as it does the leadership of Vamplier. I wonder if they actually manufactured anything rather than just rebadging a brand, if their marketing would be different. It certainly seems to have worked in the amazon-centric e-commerce world and the consumers there. Good thing they are selling high quality items and not typical junk or mediocre products with inflated or dishonest claims.
I am particularly sensitive to this whole “best” phenomenon. It exploded a decade ago with bloggers looking to make penny-click revenue and the vast (vast) majority of that content is undereducated/inexperienced BS, and now it’s primarily based on amazon ratings or sales quantities rather than anything concrete. “Best” being so subjective to begin with but now I just ignore most articles or posts that use the word in the title. Extensive reviews/”best” shootouts like what The Concord Carpenter (Toolbox Buzz?) does get a hall pass, though, as they are actually quality content created by experienced people.
Stuart
Most of today’s search results-cluttering “best” reviews are written by AI or otherwise automatically generated from Amazon bestsellers lists. The least offensive ones seem to be written by interns and “product experts” that add in generic Wikipedia content alongside Amazon lists.
How any brand can promote such “content” – and it’s not just Vampire Tools that has done this – is beyond my comprehension.
In this case, the source material for the “rated best in US” claim, regardless as to how it was compiled or whether it’s of any authority, is an “algorithmically generated” list that is limited to Vampliers products. That context completely nullifies the “rated best…” claim.
JR Ramos
True. It’s just been a disturbing trend and it was odd to watch it explode the way it did and become so irritatingly ubiquitous. It does seem a little more odd for an actual product company to do this, I agree, and it’s good that you’re calling them out about it.
Odd, but inside (which will come outside in commentary) I feel less bothered by this than I do about a lot of the BS that Milwaukee spouts via their marketing and CSR employees (sales guys can be as bad but they’re often more grounded).
Side observation, it’s also interesting to see how consumers have become quite jaded and apathetic to marketing claims, generally, as this kind of thing and marketing has…evolved…in the e-commerce world for a couple decades. In response, marketing and such seems to only get worse, trying harder to grab attention or snag a sale. When the products don’t deliver, the consumer attitudes are enforced or get worse. I don’t think Vamplier will have that problem here, but still.
Semantics or methodology aside, I just wish this crap would go away. Get real or get out, y’know?
Stuart
Milwaukee and Dewalt will back up their claims with data, and will usually go so far to provide their testing processes . They also pass all advertising claims through legal review.
Companies will occasionally sue each other over competitive advertising claims. For instance: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energizer-duracell-lawsuit/warren-buffetts-duracell-sues-energizer-over-battery-life-claims-idUSKBN25Z3CU
JR Ramos
They (both of them) are so full of BS marketing, though…can’t deny that, can you? Stats are one thing but I’m talking about the rest of the fluff. DeWalt has *always* been that way since day #1 (I was there for it) but Milwaukee shifted that direction twice – once in the early 2000s when they started falling way behind with DeWalt’s rise and then as Porter Cable started to get a bigger piece of the pie ; and then again after they sold and put so much more effort into cordless, then hand tools, etc. etc. I’m quite invested in Milwaukee because their tools are great (speaking cordless here) but their marketing irks me because they didn’t used to be that way. You knew you could buy one of their products – any of them – and it was 100% usable and dependable and would serve industrial/professional needs. Not always the case now but you get the “retail” level marketing mumbo jumbo along with it.
On those stats/data, I mean clearly we have seen a LOT of it that is fluffed up substantially. Torque across various tools being the biggest offender. This was always DeWalt’s wheelhouse but then others piled on to compete with the yellow steamroller. It is what it is, now.
Mike Foley
They appear to have actually filed for a registered trademark on the phrase! It’s times like these I miss all my Nail Jack “nail pulling pliers” (yes, shameless promote), which actually were the Number one seller for “nail pullers” because of the use of a relevant sub-category! These nice folks just decided to use the new 21st-century version of marketing, which is to just “put it out there” and facts be darned.
You remember the good old days Stuart.
Stuart
I saw the R symbol, but couldn’t find any related trademark status or application for that phrases.
I’d consider the phrase too general to make it through the review process.
Steve
They’re definitely nice pliers. I think Knipex is probably the gold standard (my opinion) but they’re German.
Chris
I have both as well. The Knipex are hands down better in every way. If they made a smaller pair (to match the vampliers size) like they do with their other tools, I would buy it again.
JohnD
When Project Farm labels it the best, I pay attention… otherwise I file it at marketing speak. Jokes aside YouTube channels like PF are the antidote to this nonsense.
Steve
Shady claim at best. Can’t be “worlds best” until Harbor Freight says it’s so.
Robert
“cleverly generated“ tells it all.
Jack S
Backfired tagline. Swiss cheese has fewer holes in it than “World’s Best Pliers In the US”. If the tagline intends to get attention, well, it does in a negative way which then categorizes Vampliers as “cheesy” along with the other thousands of products claiming they’re the “best”.
Soup
I truly hate these types of marketing BS claims, but I do like the Vamplier Screw Pliers that I bought on your recommendation.
Stuart
They’re decent pliers, albeit a bit specialized.
The Engineer-branded one is less expensive on Amazon right now – $20 vs $30 for the red Engineer-made Vampliers, but the Vampliers come with a cap that’s a separate $8 (or less) optional purchase for the Engineer.
928'er
This caused me to (briefly) consider paying $7.99 for the cap before realizing I could accomplish the same thing with a (free) rubber band around the handles.
DC
I have a pair and the fit, finish and attention to detail on these pliers are impeccable. I used it a bunch of times on a rounded screw/bolt and sometimes it works but most times I just grab a pair of Vise-Grips and that does a better job. Based on that these rebranded Engineer pliers are just a novelty.
JR Ramos
Probably depends on the application but they’re certainly more than a novelty. They aren’t what you’d consider an industrial or mechanic company so most of their stuff is geared toward smaller applications. I don’t own any vise grips that will get a bite on low profile heads like pan head screws or a carriage bolt, etc, and that’s where the various screw pliers like this really shine (and even on micro screws if you get the small pairs). They won’t do every stuck screw or bolt of course…vise grips often fail, too, and out comes the drill or the torch.
They do have 3 or 4 vise grip models with the added screw grooving, and their will actually get down on the surface to grab low profile heads. If I’m not mistaken their vise grips are made in Taiwan rather than Japan but they are excellent quality in steel, rivets, and grinding. Vamplier only does one version of the vise grips but Engineer offers them all if you can find them (Bridge Tool being the primary distributor in the US…amazon or direct on their site). I find their slip joint model to be the go-to for me and it’s been quite handy in holding screws at the bench grinder as a bonus. (I should probably say that I only own the original Engineer green and black handled models…already had those before Vamplier turned them red…)
New Owners?
I thought Vampliers was a small business owned by a person who was first to bring these style pliers to the US. I didn’t know they are owned by an investor group. Was that a recent change, or did I makeup the idea they were owned by an individual?
Stuart
I am under the impression it’s still a small company. The founder of the management company has also been described as the founder/owner of Vampire Tools.
I don’t believe they were the first to bring Engineer-made pliers to the USA, but they’ve made them much more visible and accessible.
If I have an issue with an Engineer Inc tool, there’s probably little chance of warranty support. If I have an issue with an Engineer-made Vampire Tools tool, there’s a much higher likelihood of repair or replacement.
JR Ramos
Bridge Tool will take care of warranty issues whether you bought it from them or not. They have served as the primary brick and mortar distributor for Engineer for a long time. I don’t even know what kind of warranty they offer on most of their tools but since most are simple and/or robust I wouldn’t expect too much to occur (or to be covered, I guess). On something like their fantastic little solder sucker, they have made good for many people that had issues with those (usually self-created) but that’s just reading on forums and amazon customer reviews a couple times. I would suppose that since Vamplier hiked the prices and makes a point about their warranty coverage, they’ll probably take care of people quickly, too…doubtful that they’d do Engineer branded items but it’s possible.
Doresoom
Kind of reminds me of the movie Elf, where Buddy sees a sign on a diner promoting the “World’s Best Cup of Coffee.”
“Congratulations! World’s best cup of coffee! Great job, everybody! It’s great to be here.”
Alex Peel
When I visited Italy there was a ice cream shop on every corner. On all of them there was a sign or banner that proclaimed that they had been voted best in the world.
Many scoops of ice cream later I came to the conclusion that they were all correct.
Lyle
I have a pair of Vampliers, they’re good for the purpose that I bought them for (specifically gripping the heads of rounded out fasteners). Every pair of Knipex pliers I have feel better made and feels like better materials.
I read this article this morning when I woke up at like 2:30am and thought it was a joke or something. Like, why even write an article about this and give it oxygen?
Ron
As expensive as Knipex are they are the best I have ever owned.
JoeM
Uh… Okay… I don’t like Marketing BS for these reasons.
Don’t get me wrong, the original brand these are all based on, Engineer, I have a definite love affair with (thanks STUART) on most of their products. I just don’t believe any of their tools meet the needs of enough people to make that claim. They have their perfect niche, and I’m part of that niche. But I’m doubting, heavily, that an Electrician, a Lineman, or a Woodworker, are reaching for Vampliers, or Engineer, when they have Klien, Proto, Ridgid, DeWALT, and Milwaukee all making the vast majority of the tools they need.
Trust Experts, not Hype. It’s the only way to survive failed investments. Stuart? Expert. Marketing People? Not. At All. “Influencers”… if you’re following them? You’ve lost your right to call yourself a professional, or an expert, in anything at all. But that last part is just personal opinion.
Rx9
Congratulations to Vampliers! In similar news, I’ve been voted world’s best person by my two dogs!
OldDominionDIYer
I own a pair and I like them but “best pliers in US” no, sorry they’re decent and have some features that can be handy in certain situations but no not even close to the best.
John Blair
In advertising the word “Best” is meaningless. Strangely you can say you’re the best in any category as the courts have found “Best” to be subjective and is in fact meaningless. It turns out if you say you are better, you have to prove it. Which has lead to the strange situation where better is actually harder to achieve than best.
Stuart made a good point, by using “rated” they moved from a subjective definition to a concrete definition. But unfortunately you can make a box labeled “The US” put your pliers in it and say you have the highest rated pliers in the US. You could also get 10 people to fill out a rating sheet with a single rating “Rate these plier based on the occurrence of the letters in the word Vampliers” in them. In head to head rates with 10 master plumbers ours were first, with 9 points, Wera was second with 3 points, etc.”
I worked for a company that all of our products were “Award winning”… we awarded it ourselves in internal poling. All of these are meaningless. What actually matters is the trust brands build with the customer. Lie to a customer in an ad and the customer will never believe your ads again.
Franco
No such thing as the “best” of anything, without qualification.
Everyone at some point claims something to be “best”. Best can be many things but best pliers in the US is a claim that really no one can make, or best “whatever” in the US can not be substantiated.
Unless if on the next Federal election, way down on the ballot, there was the question “what are the best pliers”…which I don’t see happening, it is an invalid claim.
Even if there were a question on a ballot, what is the best “XXXX”, it would be a subjective opinion and would need to be qualified as “best “XXXX” in the US as recently voted on by the US general public”.
Otherwise best can be, best selling, best quality, best materials, to lesser extent, best material for the grips or best color….point is just about every advertisement seems to state being best at something, even without using the word best.
Stuart
That’s my point – you can say your products are best, but saying “rated as…” or “just ranked…” implies 3rd party validation, in which case there is the expectations of multiple contenders.
For instance “I finished first in the race” means absolutely nothing if nobody else was racing. “Rated best…” and “just ranked best…” are completely unsubstantiated in a one party contest.
Such marketing has a high likelihood of misleading customers, whether intentional or not.
At least Engineer-made pliers are good tools.
Brian M
I purposely buy from Engineer based on how Vampliers advertises.