Harbor Freight Tools - Company History & Lore

In this episode we cover the history of Harbor Freight tools.
From the beginning in 1968 as "Underwriter's Purchasing & Supply"
selling hardware that had been written off by insurance companies,
to Harbor Freight Salvage in 1977, and the present day lawsuits.

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Moar history:

California Business Lookup (type in business name to search):

Trademark Assignments:

Buy Now & Save Corp:

1980's Ads:

1990's Ads:

1997 Harbor Freight Website:

2010 Alan v Eric lawsuit:

2011 3M Blue Tape Lawsuit:

2016 "Fake Sales" Lawsuit:

2017 Snap-On Jack Lawsuit

2021 SATA Black Widow paint gun lawsuit:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:16 Underwriters Purchasing & Supply
01:03 Harbor Freight Salvage
01:10 The Internet Era
02:50 Every Single Harbor Freight Trademark
04:15 Harbor Freight House Brands
05:10 Father Sues Son
06:22 SATA Lawsuit
06:54 3M Lawsuit
07:14 Price Settlement
08:26 Snap-On Lawsuit
09:18 Present Day
09:46 Outro

[brianlittle]

Thanks for the videos. The growth of Harbor Freight was helped by the corporate suicide of Sears (Craftsman).

[kevinkoepke]

I remember getting their envelopes with several ads in the mail.
There was an ad for a Delta Unisaw for $1699. It was Deltas' best model with 220v 3hp motor. I called Harbor freight to verify, then purchased it. A couple months after receiving it, Delta called and told me the purchase came with a $150 rebate, so it ended up costing only $1449.00. Thanks for this history.

[TomHollis-yo]

You got me with, "Hercules! Hercules!" Lol Also the depiction of 1977. Great video!

[davidmiller]

Nice. I started buying from Harbor Freight in the 80's, when it was Harbor Freight Salvage.

[michaellindsay]

I'm a fan of Harbor Fright it's now my go to for anything tool related it's successfully replaced Sears in my opinion. You can't beat their warranty. Thanks for the history lesson

[PaRoughandTumble]

Sounds like the boy got a little revenge for being set too a orphanage.

[ern]

Great video! I started an autobody shop in 1977, Allen and later Eric called me about once a month for 2-3 years selling tools and sending me catalogs. I bought only a few things back then due to not having much $$ but did buy more tools later on that I did not use daily. Recently I moved back to the states and outfitted 90% of my shop with HF tools and couldn't be happier.

[artbennett]

Interesting, thanks. They have picked up their quality game quite a bit with ICON hand tools and other top of line products

[d.powers]

I still use a drill press and a box of bits bought 46 years ago in downtown Los Angeles.

[thenkgarage]

Another great video! I love all the tool history!

[earl]

I still have a number of HF tools from the early 90's. They had a large supply of refurbished major brand power tools, particularly DeWalt. I purchased my first cordless drill kit, a 14v refurb Dewalt and some other corded tools there for about half the cost. The refurbs had a 'R' melted into the chassis. The drill is still going to this day on 18v lithium. I think my oldest HF tools are a set of long needle nose pliers, they were actually made quite well and still use them all the time

[markmark]

As an old timer, I well remember their early small ads in the many magazines I subscribed to back in those great days, their stores are the replacements for the long gone Wards and Sears hardware departments...

[markjohnson]

Dude, you are a classic character. From the first time I watched you I felt like I knew you. I'm guessing somebody told you you were funny and that you should make videos, right? Well they were right! Good luck and I hope you keep growing!

[P_RO_]

In the late 80's a mechanic friend of mine told me I had to have the deep-well sockets he'd mail-ordered as they were cheap and very good. I'd gotten burned on a cheap set I'd bought recently from JC Whitney so I was hesitant but finally he said he'd buy them from me if I didn't like them. I'm still using some of them today and of course they came from Harbor Freight. Buying more from them I learned how variable their quality was. Nobody here in the eastern US knew anything about them until years later.

[Traderjoe]

I have not had many lemons from Harbor freight, so I’m pretty pleased with them. They have nice bathrooms too.

[matthetubecrowley]

I discovered the paper catalogs in the late 80's. I'd fill out the paper form from the paper catalog and mail it to Camarillo, California. At that time Harbor Freight was a great example of "you get what you pay for." I bought a box of a HUNDRED hacksaw blades. The metal was so soft that I was able to bend one into an overhand knot.

Today I have several Icon and Quinn ratchet wrenches which are actually fairly good.

[petepeeff]

Fun fact the Lexington Ky. store is an old Western Auto the logo is still on the sidewalk.

[louisriverin]

We don’t know each other but we clearly share a love of tools, an interest in history and we have the same « special » sense of humor!

Meilleures salutations du Québec
Merci beaucoup ☀️😎 🛠️

[beltwesty]

In the early 90s The corporate retail store in the Corner of the giant Camarillo warehouse once sold Milwaukee tools. New and refurbished ie returns from Home Depot and Lowes ; Lumber City etc.

I bought a new in the box Milwaukee Sawzall there.

That store had monthly sales of odd closeout items not worth shipping to other stores too.

They had a new Russian tractor on display outside they sold.

They had oddball stuff like Russian monoculars bought after the ussr got broken up and goods got bought from there to be re sold in the usa.. so that monocular I bought was 5 dollars

The drill presses at Ventura County dinky businesses I worked at often were Central Machinery etc ..many had usa motors after awhile since the stock ones burned up. Lol

[dalecomer]

There used to be any number of alleged "unclaimed freight" places in L.A. Some were fly-by-night and a few lasted awhile. When I saw a Harbor Freight ad for the first time it seemed probable that the business grew from one of those old locations but no doubt was inspired by them. I've had poor results from two HF power tools and would only go there now if I needed something in a hurry to finish a job which won't wait.

HF Corp HQ is just down the street. They moved to a different building and seemed to have significantly downsized the staff just before and during the COVID pandemic. Their employees used to take up a lot of spaces in a nearby supermarket parking lot and another business nearby. Parking isn't an issue now.