A while back I posted pics of a truck I was wavering about taking apart (I did take it apart), but it had some steps that looked like the factory ones but actually were aftermarket which shows up when you put them side by side with factory ones. But they have a set of mounts on them made with angle steel that actually seems much simpler to reproduce than the factory mounts :



Silver is factory, red is aftermarket





The factory brackets bend in so many different directions at once that they seem impossible to reproduce, these are just straight pieces of angle bar with a couple of bends and an extra support tacked on.

I think this simpler design would make it a lot easier for guys to make new brackets and I think they're plenty strong.