IMO there's really nothing special about cast iron brands, it's a piece of iron that's all so the branding is just that, branding. Lodge is fine, but my friends would buy used ones sometimes decades old, clean it up and they'd be as good as new. They're literally bulletproof. The key is to use them.

Having said that, there are now a number of kickstarter projects making high end cast iron cookware. They look the same but are far more expensive