Originally Posted by
lnanek
Where was it proven that brand name stuff has less defects? If the companies were non-profit we'd be guaranteed the extra money was going into things like research, higher sampling QC, employee wages, etc.. - but they aren't.
It's entirely possible the entire portion of the higher price tag is being used for profit, not paying the factory to do more QC and trash more defective product without shipping it out. The factory is often even the same, like how Giant makes bikes for big brands. So the non-big brand actually has less overhead since there's one less layer of bloat to pay for (execs, managers, marketing and branding, etc.). Entirely possible cutting out the middleman also allows spending more on QC in the same way it's entirely possible a higher price tag does.
As someone who worked for a popular brand manufacturing a popular product once, I have to say, a lot of the decisions did not lead to higher quality at all. Management would make crazy decisions like force us to use a decade old, out of production, out of support Texas Instruments chip instead of some modern option, and we'd spend month after month struggling with it - all because using it improved the bottom line.
Do you really think a larger company that specializes in high quality bicycle components is really just using the higher price tag for profit? ENVE for instance sponsors pro-teams you think they aren't doing R+D on their product because a lot of the cheap rando companies don't do it? You must be crazy.
Yes there are certainly products that have high price tags and don't justify it but there is very little from Cane Creek that is not high quality, long lasting stuff. Having used it for well over a decade and continuing to use it I haven't had issues but have seen cheaper headsets fail. That is why I use Cane Creek even at the 40 series they are super reliable and long lasting. The eeBrakes which aren't their design but they are making and selling them now and updating for modern times, are some of the finest rim brakes EVER! (and lightest as well)
Many of these companies in the cycling space who make quality products also put a lot of R+D time into their products to make them faster and more aerodynamic or lighterweight or better in some way. Sometimes yes they have some poor ideas and sometimes they make ideas with profit in mind but they aren't just purely greedy individuals most of them are cyclists who enjoy the sport and want to do better.