Stanley Black and Decker 2013 New Product Media Event
Stanley Black and Decker 2013 New Product Media Event
This year’s New Product Media Event, held at the Westin New York at Times Square, featured Stanley Black and Decker’s professional and prosumer tool lines from your classic Stanley products to the premier DEWALT tools. Spanning two days, construction and woodworking professionals from writers and editors to contractors and professional users were presented with each brands vision, new product lines, and were able to demo these tools in a hands on environment.
What you’ll find in this Article:
New Stanley Logo
Bostitch Power Tool Expansion
Porter-Cable Prosumer Niche
Stanley FatMax Updates
DEWALT New Product Overview
Media Event Overview
New Stanley Logo
To kick off the flood of new tools, positioning of brands, and innovations Stanley described the recent changes to their familiar corner notched rectangle logo. As the Stanley brand has grown and acquisitions have widened the scope of the company, a unifying logo was created to display the company’s breadth and high-tech modern feel.
The new logo is unrestrained by an outline and features a trade-mark “N” that maintains the look of the font from the last logo. A change like this may seem inconsequential, but for a brand that caters to a population where reputation means everything, a logo change can mean a lot.
Bostitch Power Tool Expansion
Some of the biggest news out of the Stanley Black and Decker 2013 New Product Media Event was that the professional Bostitch tool line, famous for it’s pneumatic tools, is expanding!
The Bostitch Power Tool expansion would begin with a cordless drill and driver (BTC400LB) complemented by a myriad of must have corded tools for any job-site. Corded tools include circular saw, reciprocating saw, jig saw, angle grinder, drill, and hammer drill.
This Bostitch Power Tool expansion is geared toward the professional contractor providing quality, durable, no frill tools that are built to last. Each tool is set to come with a heavy duty case and a price point that will make you do a double take.
Bostitch isn’t the only Stanley Black and Decker brand to be repositioning itself this next year. Another well known power tool brand is focusing on an elusive target audience.
Porter-Cable Prosumer Niche
Porter-Cable has struggled to break out of it’s Woodworker Tool reputation and despite making professional grade contractor tools at competitive prices, like their 10″ table saw with a built in stand for under $300, they just don’t get the clout of the big professional brands like their Bostitch and DEWALT brethren. So it appears they are creating a Porter-Cable Prosumer niche.
Porter-Cable is focusing on the key features professionals expect in their tools at a price point that a consumer NOT making a living with their tools can appreciate. This is the prosumer realm.
Wil Granger, Porter-Cable group product manager, highlighted the research that many Porter-Cable consumers identify themselves as professionals in the trades, but you sparingly see Porter-Cable tools on the job-site. The reason, for the men and women in the trades, we are probably the most DIY capable demographic in the country, so when we buy tools we look for quality but ultimately price is our biggest influence. Porter-Cable fits nicely in this niche, professional quality tools at DIY community friendly prices, aka the Porter-Cable Prosumer Niche.
Stanley FatMax Update
Stanley hand tools have been a staple in shops, garages, and on professional job-sites since the Stanley Rule and Level Company started in 1857. And recently the FatMax brand has made itself well known in the professional community providing job-site solutions and industry standard tools necessary to get the job done.
The Anti-Vibe hammer is part of ongoing Stanley FatMax updates and at the event we got to see each component of the hammer to appreciate the effort and technology that went into the new FatMax Anti-Vibe hammer. The hammer is comfortable, effective, and will definitely find itself where Stanley Tools fit best, tool boxes and tool belts across the country.
In addition to the FatMax hammer, the Stanley FatMax tape measure is emerging with some key upgrades that will ensure it continues to dominate the tape measure landscape on job-sites across the U.S.
The Stanley FatMax tape will include on board storage for two accessories, an oversized framing hook and a magnetic attachment. The tape will feature the popular Stanley auto lock with the ability to turn on or off the auto lock capability. And finally a tether slot is included on the tape to allow the tape to attach to the user in anticipation of OSHA regulations governing tethered tools at high elevations.
DEWALT New Product Overview
DEWALT prides itself on it’s products and service, DEWALT stands by the tag line; Guaranteed Tough but perhaps the most valuable aspect of this guarantee is the warranty in the event something does fail. So I appreciate Bob Welsh, VP of Industrial Design & Brand Marketing, PPT, taking the time to highlight the 90-day no hassle money back guarantee, 1-year service warranty, and 3-year limited warranty. Coined as the 3-1-90 warranty.
DEWALT New Product Overview:
Lasers & LDMs
TSTAK System
Multi-Tool
Job-Site Table Saws
Lasers & LDMs
Now let’s talk actual tools in this DEWALT new product overview! We saw a lot at this event but I’ll focus on a handful of product lines we are truly excited about. First let’s start with the tools you need BEFORE work ever begins on your job-site.
DEWALT lasers and laser distance measures. DEWALT has three new lasers being released in October 2013, the DW0811, DW0822, and DW0851. The most impressive has to be the DW0811 360-degree laser, which gives you the capability of a rotary laser at fraction of the cost.
Equally impressive are the Laser Distance Measures or LDMs. The DW03101 is a beast, giving you the ability to quickly measure square footage, use the pythagorean theorem function to calculate heights, it has a built in digital level, and a function to calculate distance even when there is an obstruction in the way! We can’t wait to get our hands on this amazing tool!
TSTAK System
Keeping with the theme of tools that are necessary before work begins, let’s talk about storage. Efficient storage and tool transportation is the difference between making money and wasting time.
DEWALT highlighted some expansions of their TSTAK system to include a clear top organizer, a deeper compartment, and a rolling stand. An additional stand will be released in March, but even without it, the new offerings make the TSTAK system even better, which is a challenging task, if you haven’t felt the smooth operation and secure latching of the TSTAK drawers you are missing out.
Multi-Tool
DEWALT recently announced the launch of a corded multi-tool (DWE315K) and now that we’ve gotten a chance to use it we are even more
excited to get one in our tool box. The tool features one of the fastest tool-less blade change we’ve ever seen, a variable speed trigger, and is being released with some innovative blades. We got to demo the tool with a hook blade perfect for cutting shingles and an amazingly fast grout removal blade.
What made us even more excited was a cordless and bushless 20V version of the tool to be released in November 2013 (DCS355D1), it performed just as well as the corded version, and in some applications was FASTER! This will be the perfect Christmas gift for the tradesperson in your life, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they bought it as soon as it became available.
Job-Site Table Saws
Finally we’ll highlight the expanded job-site table saws from DEWALT. The built in stand on the DWE7491RS has a massive 32-1/2″ rip capacity, a innovative no bending required stand, and tool-less removal of guards.
The table is opened up at the base to allow for on-board storage of the guards and riving knife. The saw is integrated with dust collection ports to keep your job-site neat and clean. The rack and pinion fence is really impressive, easy to adjust, and keeps your cuts accurate. These saws will be available in September 2013.
Media Event Overview
We want to thank the Stanley Black and Decker staff and event organizers for hosting us in Times Square. We really enjoyed getting to see the new offerings and asking tough (sometimes annoying) questions to your product managers. The Stanley Black and Decker family of tools and products continues to expand, innovate, and amaze. Look out for more in-depth reviews of these products and more!
About the author
Philip Benevides
Phil is a 28-year old Air Force Veteran who decided to transform his passion for construction and home improvement into a career. Inspired by his Grandfather who built his home from the ground up with his bare hands in Portugal, he received his formal training in Carpentry at the North Bennett Street School in Boston, MA. Phil continues to grow his skills as a lead carpenter, managing job sites in and around Boston, and a Captain in the Air National Guard bettering himself as a leader. He loves exploring new building products and construction methods to solve job-site problems and reviewing tools for the pro-contractor and serious DIYer.
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Id like to know more about the new Dewalt DWE 749 RS tablesaw, tried googling it couldnt find anything out about it?
Bill,
Samples of the new table saws should be available sometime soon. We’ll be reviewing them so stay tuned!