How do you shop for hiking gear?
June 24th, 2009
I’ve decided it’s time to stop annoying y’all with stuff I wish you’d buy so I could afford some new gear and start producing useful information about what’s on the market and help you make up your mind if you’re in a shopping mood.
Useful has proven profitable.
Look at Trailspace.com: Dave and Alicia MacLeay built a site full of regular hikers’ reviews of their gear. Dave added some scripting wizardry that finds and compares the best prices on individual pieces of gear. It helps people sort through the consumer maze; they buy, he gets a little commission, without selling out to the Man or anything. Similar cases: the LifeHacker and Consumerist blogs.
Your interests and my needs intersect here: if I’m lucky enough to keep my job at the paper mill for the next year, my pay is going down 9 to 20 percent, depending on the breaks. There is precious little chance of the cost of living in the Bay Area falling by similar amounts over that time.
I could work myself blind doing free-lance copy editing to pick up the slack, but I’d much prefer investing my time in helping out other hikers. The math is there: If I spend an hour on a post about, say, REI customers’ favorite backpacking tents, and it generates $25 in revenue, that’s about as much as I’d make free-lancing anyway.
For this to work, though, I have to have some ideas about how people shop for hiking gear. Say you need a new pack:
- Do you really care where you buy it? I sense that REI members feel a genuine bond with the company that they don’t get anywhere else online — the trick is picking up stuff on sale because REI’s full retail prices gravitate toward the stratosphere. I have no issues with Backcountry.com or Altrec.com, but I’m not sure saying “check out these great deals from Retailer X” move people all that much.
- How big a deal is price? How large must the discount need to be to get you in a buying mood? I figure 20 percent off is meaningless for most stuff; 30 percent is better but the numbers don’t really get sexy till we stray into half-off territory. Unfortunately, the selection gets pretty scant in that neighborhood, but saving 50 bucks is the same as earning it: you’ve got it to spend on other things.
- Which is more critical, price or selection? I can set up scans of specific retailers saying “show me everything marked down 50 percent of more.” I get a lot more product if I set the scan at 30 percent.
- How attached to brands are you? Do you have different rules if it’s, say, Gregory vs. Granite Gear? Do you like brands enough to pay full retail? I know discounts motivate buyers, but I don’t want to my blog to become a bargain basement.
So, these are a few things I’d like to hear from you. Remember, if you don’t reply, somebody else is going to speak for you.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I tend to shop REI fairly exclusively simply because they give me money back at the beginning of the year. I’m aware that they’re likely not giving me as much back as I could save going somewhere else (most of the time), but the extra couple hundred dollars to blow on outdoor toys in February is a powerful aphrodisiac.
Price is less of a concern for me (obviously, given what I just wrote above) but big-sale numbers always catch my eye. “Hey, this kayak is 60% off! I don’t have anywhere to store it… and no way to get it home… but I’d love to take my daughter out on the water sometime!”
Having said that, when I’m not just browsing, I’m often looking for a specific piece of gear: a couple of months ago, I didn’t go out looking for “an ultralight solo tent”; I went out looking for “a Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1″. At that point, a steep discount on a different ultralight solo tent probably wouldn’t've swayed me. To that end, product reviews are often more important to my process than selection — it’s a binary state: either there’s a deal available on the piece of gear I want, or there’s not. If I’ve convinced myself I need it, deals are nice but only a very, very small part of my decision-making process.
I suppose that probably addresses your fourth point as well — if I’m browsing, brands don’t impact my decision. If I’m on a mission, brand *and product* are pretty much the only considerations.
Somehow I doubt this was very helpful. Sorry
June 24th, 2009 at 10:20 am
My loyalty is to REI, but if they don’t carry a lot of the lightest gear. Our focus is on gear weight. We are always looking for a way to significantly decrease our pack weight without increasing our risk. Price is important, but only after we have narrowed the search to an exact item. For example, our backpacking shoes of choice have been Asics Gel Nimbus for about the last five years. We go thru one or two pairs a year, so are always checking. Prices range from $125 to $79 depending on time of year, & sizes available. At the moment I’ve got three new pair in the closet because I got them at a good price.
Another example – we always carry fleece pants, which we wear for a few cold morning hours on a few days a year, and more frequently sleep in them on cold nights. My REI fleece pants weigh 7.5 ounces, and every once in a while I search for something as warm, but lighter, which I just did earlier today. Well my alternatives were Montbell Thermawrap pants or Patagonia Micropuff pants. Both weighed in at well over the weight of my REI fleece, so no change for now.
A few months ago I searched for a replacement for my Golite Coal jacket, but didn’t find anything lighter with same warmth.
Same thing on sleeping bags. We have REI subkilos which can be a little cool for early and late season hiking, but we can always layer up and sleep in our clothes. The warmer bag for less weight options are big bucks, so not likely to make a change soon.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I favor REI, unless there’s a extraordinary deal elsewhere or I’m searching for specific high end gear (REI doesn’t carry TarpTents, Ursacks, Bearikades, etc)
I usually wait for the bi-yearly 20% coupons for my big ticket items.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
I’m another loyal REI shopper, but I rarely buy at retail price. My dividends usually ran about $15-$25 a year until I got a REI Visa card. Last years dividend was $500. I have found the REI online outlet store is my friend. I don’t need the newest or greatest so price is more important to me. I still am particular on what I’m looking for so if it’s not there, I just wait and use what I have until I find the deal I’m looking for. There are two other bargain times for REI, the twice a year super clearance sales and the periodic used gear sales. It is amazing what I have found there ($25 Marmot Sawtooth, $19 MSR Sweetwater, etc). You can’t beat the return policy too.
I buy a lot of gear because I work with a boys group I take backpacking a lot. The parents (or in most cased parent) of these boys don’t have the money to fork over on gear so I really utilize these bargain times to provide gear to the boys. I’m up to 15 sleeping bags and 9 tents and about two dozen backpacks of all types. I’m doing a Pt. Reyes trip with the boys this weekend an almost all my gear is being used.
For my personal needs, I do have some affinities to brands, but do cross over every once in a while. I started mostly with MSR tents, but have migrated to Big Agnes. I’m not too particular on Sleeping bags. Because of my shopping patterns, I have had the opportunity to try out a lot of different manufacturers and have found most of the main ones produce high quality products.
I still look and shop elsewhere and do price comparisons on-line. Steep and Cheap, backcountry, campmor & amazon are some of the others I peruse. There are some items I’m looking for, mostly ultra light sleeping bags from MontBell or Western Mountaineering sleeping bags, but I know those are more specialties and will probably end up getting one when the time is right!
Not sure if this answered your questions, but it what I do.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Although I’m in the UK, I actually tend to buy most of my gear from the US nowadays as there just aren’t the cottage industries in the UK (yet). As such I’ll but from places like MLD, ZPacks and Jacks R Better no matter the price (within reason), it’s all about the product/brand (weight and quality) rather than the price. I’ve bought specific items from Backcountry and the like before but only if it’s heavily discounted and the international postage price is sensible. I’ll therefore spend a lot of time doing price comparisons (including postage) to determine the best deal. Incidentally, if I have to sign up or register in order to get a final price I generally walk away.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
1. I find REI to usually be way too overpriced, except for sale items. I try to avoid REI but end up there if I need something “this weekend” because, let’s face it, they are really the only brick & mortar store that carries higher end gear. Given the choice, I would rather buy online direct from the producer (i.e. buy Tom Harrison maps from Tom’s website, rather than from a retailer like REI.com or Amazon). I like that the net can cut out the middleman and give smaller operations some extra capital/traffic.
2. Is price a factor? For big ticket items absolutely. If I can do a ten second google product search and see that the identical item is 30% lower at one site then I am going to buy it there. Good deals also get me to try out items that I am on the fence about or that are on my “waiting until next season” list.
3. 30% off is a good deal and will offset the wait angst-shipping penalty for buying online. 40% off will get my wallet out. The only thing that would sway me off a better deal is if the particular retailer has a reputation for poor customer service or if I had a bad experience personally.
4. As long as they are quality brands, I am interested. I like to buy quality gear once that lasts, rather than cheap stuff over and over. I end up doing a lot of online research before buying. That being said, there are clearly tiers of quality brands known to any but the most novice enthusiast: known quality manufacturers (msr, black diamond, marmot, etc.) and cottage industry types (that you have recently profiled) that are far superior to those selling cheaper quality equipment (coleman, kelty, coughlin, etc.).
For me to pay full retail without “shopping around” it is going to have to be an item of exceptional quality (i.e. Western Mountaineering sleeping bag) or a uniquely superior product that has no serious competition (i.e. Tom Harrison maps). The longer I have been an outdoor enthusiast, the more I gravitate toward the cottage industry types that seem to be the most innovative.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Thanks for all the excellent comments … it occurred to me later that the one deciding factor has to be “will it do what I need it to do” and everything is functionally secondary to that.
You have to give props to REI: they give a 20 percent discount when they give their dividend, so most people turn around and hand it right back to the company.
June 25th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I don’t buy a lot but REI is where I look first since there’s a store in my town and it helps to see/feel the merchandise. Price is important provided the quality is there. I love REI’s customer service. They’ve been great on returns and credits whenever I needed to replace an item that failed prematurely. Brand is not as important but I avoid the giant logo products (can you hear me THE NORTH FACE?) and I like REI’s lack of pretension in this area. I also buy gear from small online companies based on reviews from websites and Backpacker magazine.