Patagonia/Northface vs Kuiu/FL

[ba5592]

What are your thoughts concerning the performance, durability, and cost differences between Patagonia/North Face & Kuiu/First Lite?

 

[First Lite]

Not intending to turn this into an infomercial. But the biggest design differences between conventional outdoor brands and hunting brands are durability, noise, and lastly, camouflage. When designing hunting clothes you have to take into consideration that the end user will be off trail all day and spend a fair bit of time crawling through bushes and sliding over rocks. This is probably the most difficult thing to balance as it would be easy to make our products much lighter for the sake of advertising at the expense of durability. Hunting is a very different activity than backpacking. the second major difference is hunting clothes are designed to be as quiet as possible while still taking into consideration weight and waterproofness. The third major factor is color/camo, hunting clothes are designed to blend in best as possible whether you choose earth tone solids or camo. Also realize that a lot of hunting companies support hunting and hunters while many outdoor brands support the opposite.

 

[Poser]

I haven't bought any Patagonia stuff in so long that I can't really accurately compare it. I did have a Patagonia base layer that was my go to base layers for years and years, but my shoulders have gotten too big to fit into it.

TNF gear is heavy and over featured. I do have some TNF stuff from the early 90s that I still use sometimes, but they really got feature heavy once they became popular as casual wear. For example, most of their fleece jackets have protected shoulders, which is entirely unnecessary and heavy. I have a -15 degree TNF bag that I occasionally use and will probably never get rid of, but I definitely would not buy the same bag now. They still sell that same bag and it retails for almost $800! I don't recall what I paid but it was nothing like that. I rock climbed for years and have some A5 series TNF gear. A5 was a small business that TNF acquired and then shelved after just a handful of years of production.
I suppose that TNF would beat most high end UL hunting gear in terms of durAbility, but compare the weight and and quiet fabric of that same hunting gear.

Of the non hunting brands, I think that Black Diamond probably makes some practical and transferable clothes and accessories for hunting that come at a high standard of functionality that we expect for backcountry hunting.

 

[zeroforhire]

Coming from a mountaineering background, I can say that the material tech, and fit that you get from a high end brand (arcteryx) was unmatched in the hunting world until relatively recently. I'm so happy to see companies taking these aspects more seriously.
FL is right. Hunters contribute far more to conservation than most other groups combined.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WyoBowhunter21]

I have a newer (bought last year) sleeping bag that is rated for 30 degrees. I bought it due to getting it for like 80% off or something ridiculous. I am sure glad I got it at a discounted price because I was freezing last year in 40 degree weather. But on the bright side it is really light. Ha ha. Long story short I am adding some down to it to make it warmer.