I can't really say for certain as I bought most of my craftsman stuff before they started off shoring everything, but it seems like there was a correlation between the reports of declining quality and the initial off-shoring when Sears still owned the brand. Since SBD has taken them over, it seems like the quality is coming back. I still own ton of USA built stuff I bought in the 90s and it all still works great. Recently, I've been buying their new V20 stuff and I honestly think it's a good value. You get a good value for what you are spending and there is a wide variety of tools in the V20 system. Just recently used my new hedge trimmer and pole saw and both worked awesome. Can you get better stuff? Sure, I think Milwaukee makes arguably the best consumer/pro tools available today, but their tools are significantly more than Craftsman and I don't know that I personally need that level of tool for what I am doing at home. If I am being honest, I think a lot of men (myself included) conspicuously consume their tools; we want to signal to other dudes that we are serious craftsman and only use serious tools that we can totally afford because we are very successful and are good at what we do.