I grew up on a farm, and my dad would send in 5-10 pairs a year, and all my uncles and cousins that also lived on farms did the same.
Pretty sure Levi's stopped a decade or two ago. But it was when they were still holding onto "we were made for miners" so they were 100% cool with people doing manual labor exchanging pants every year.
I never had nice things because I grew up poor. So to follow the Comes Boot Theory and spend hundreds of dollars on a really good coat is a luxury that's I finally have access to. It made it a lot easier when it's a lifetime guarantee.
But now I'm finding all the companies that used to do that no longer offer it. Or they offer it but hidden in the language is that they'll only repair it if it has never been used.
L. L. Bean significantly restricted/removed their lifetime warranty after they realized people were buying up used product at yard sales and auctions and then requesting they provide new replacements.
Supposedly you can still get them to honor it if you have proof of original purchase, but it sucks that it got to that point.
I've worked for one of Costco's suppliers. We would get returns well over 5 years old on a regular basis. This is after Costco has already taken it back. We've had to refuse a couple returns that were over 10 years old. The oldest product that was sent back to us was a bit over 12 years old.
I had a friend whose mom worked the Costco returns counter back in the early 2000s and there were some wild stories. For example: a customer brought back a washing machine they had painted green, because they didn’t like how the paint job turned out.