…

I have the spikecamp gen2 and Timberline 2 packs. Love them and will never get rid of them. For a long time, nothing in their line up has piqued my interest and made me 'upgrade'.
I have their 12man tipi too. It's my palace. My mobile cabin. Love that thing.
Far as I remember the 8 man is the biggest they make now. Gone are the big tipis. I'd love to stand in a 24 man one day.
 
I have drifted away from Kifaru, as well. I've owned 4 different frames and a pile of bags and accessories. Also a few by SG, SO, and Exo along the way.

I was never dissatisfied with Kifaru, but lately other companies are simply out pacing them on innovation, IMO. They have some great designs and make some durable stuff, but it always ends up heavier than necessary for my needs.

To be fair, I haven't looked at their site in some time....there might be a product that speaks to me now. And I do still have a bare frame.....
 
Interesting. I do think their products are very good, yet the appeal isn’t quite the same for me. Frank was an excellent ambassador for the brand. While I’ve never met him he came across as a hard working blue collar guy developing excellent gear. No ego. I’m not a marketing guru, but there is a lot of psychology to brand appeal and they seem to be lacking that at the moment, to me. Their products are a bit stale, but you can still build a truly excellent pack system and other pieces like the woobie or lost park parka are fantastic. With some product refinements (you can always make products better) and some updated branding they will be fine.
 
I think exo moved to the top of the heap with the K4. They nailed the design and release. The amount of informational videos they put out about their frame, bags, and accessories is unmatched. Lead times were reasonable and met. They also gave the prototype iterations of those packs to a bunch of killers to test.

Kifaru had a lot of growing pains moving to Wyoming. From the outside looking in it doesn’t seem like they’ve ironed it all out yet. The bino harness specifically seemed like a cluster.

It does look like they’re working on new bags and at least some updates to the frame based off some pictures Aron put on instagram.

Never been a better time as far as options go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
EXO did the K4 launch very well. The videos, sharing the extensive testing process all contributed to brand appeal. And it’s a good pack. Though I don’t think it‘s necessarily a better pack than what you can build with Kifaru. Depending on use case and personal preferences I think you can make a case for either.
 
Not sure why they did the bino harness,seems he said once they wouldn’t because everyone else had one.
I just bought a new k4,I did look at kifaru but looks pretty much like the same thing I looked at 6 years ago.
As far as Aron’s content,I love it and his attitude and all the advise.
 
Lots of changes with the company. it seems to me they lost momentum because of too many all at once. The move to Wyoming was probably a good business move in the long run to get out of Colorado.The personnel changes with reports of “bad blood” between them does not help. Aron going back to the compound bow from the recurve all of the sudden and the push for a side company Born Primitive for its clothing. Lots of stuff going on!

I’m sure the quality of equipment is still top notch but the overall look of the company itself doesn’t have the luster it once had. However I do wish them luck and success.
 
I’m in the same boat as you OP. Been a die hard for years, since the Patrick smith days.

Nail in the coffin was not having replacement parts, or the want to repair, in the color I have, so now I’m either forced to make a Frankenstein frame with their available parts or buy a new frame. It’s getting tenacious tape and I’m buying a stone glacier terminus. Selling a premium lifetime product then not having the parts to repair or replace them (wear parts) when they wear out is bologna.

Hopefully it changes but I don’t care for the balls to the walls marketing. The value of what you get is no longer competitive imo.
 
I drifted away a few years ago and agree loosing Frank kinda sucked as he was a guy we all related with and liked.

Once the investors came in it was a matter of time before it would change to a cash focused business and not a product focused business.
 
I don't really care about a lot of what you guys have mentioned.

One thing that I think has been a major hit is Kifaru product showing up at Black Ovis and Camo Fire at discounted prices. New stuff selling for less than what used Kifaru goes for here. That hurts their brand image quite a bit, IMO.
 
Was disappointing when they decided to drop all colors except for Ranger green. With the move to Wyoming I would have expected more color offerings. I believe their reasoning was it was the best selling color, which I just interpreted as it was the easiest way to maximize profits
 
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