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I suspect market saturation with the bust of covid $timmy checks. Less personal cash flow & a silent recession combined with enormous inflation make Sitka lower profit margins to maintain competitiveness within their market. Their margins before were just nuts, maybe the competition moves them to be more cost friendly.
This is why we live in a great time for options. We have options for everyone. The ambient is definitely not niche. After using it a couple times I do not even use my fleeces anymore. The ambient is better in everyway. I guess it loses in cost category unless you get it on sale.I agree. This is what I'm saying - I like them personally but it's niche. The ambient, evo and especially the 120 merino was niche and overpriced IMHO. At $83 bucks and free ship I might pick one up though.
I agree that it's awesome. It's just primarily a western specific piece. Whereas their heavyweight, midweight, jetstream and other options are more appealing to wider group of people. That's what I mean by niche.This is why we live in a great time for options. We have options for everyone. The ambient is definitely not niche. After using it a couple times I do not even use my fleeces anymore. The ambient is better in everyway. I guess it loses in cost category unless you get it on sale.
You may not view it as niche, but it is definitely niche within the broader hunting community. I guess in that regard, so is Sitka as a whole but the Ambient Hoody is twice the cost of a HW Hoody, half as durable, and just as warm. Yes, the Ambient is a great piece, I love mine, but I can still admit it’s niche as is the EVO jacket, range pants and wearable sleeping bags, etc. It serves a very specific purpose and isn’t practical for the overwhelming majority of hunters in all climates and terrain, like a HW hoody is for example.This is why we live in a great time for options. We have options for everyone. The ambient is definitely not niche. After using it a couple times I do not even use my fleeces anymore. The ambient is better in everyway. I guess it loses in cost category unless you get it on sale.
Exactly, you make great products and therefore they last. without real advancements in tech they have to market "primaloft" like its something different from a brand new synthetic fleece..... I'm onto them -_-I know I haven't been buying much since I got $1400 four years ago.
Well, yeah. Cuz how you gonna be the most fantastic hunter that you can be, unless you have just the perfect ensemble for every possible situation. Don't forget to overthink the footwear choices...My opinion has largely been that they make too many over specialized pieces.
I have an old 90% jacket and it's great. Windstopper, taped seams, grid fleece inside, soft shell outside. I wear it for almost every day trip.
They discontinued it so that they can sell you three different pieces instead of that one.
Having been wearing Sitka in some form since somewhere around 2014, I’ve gotten used to their marketing, advertisements, sales tactics, more recent “influencing”, etc. I can’t help but notice something is very different this year.
The first thing that I noticed was the huge abnormal sales like most folks were pointing out, I chalked that up to overstocking and a win for folks to get cheap high quality Sitka gear.
Second was their summer product releases. There has been almost ZERO marketing for anything they’ve released. They appear to have new shooter gloves, a new bino harness, and more notably brand new very expensive down gear tops and bottoms. I have yet to see a single email, IG post, influencer, etc promoting these pieces. Very very strange.
I’ve also heard from folks in the industry that they’ve had some serious changes in staff, with only one or two folks left from the recent years. I’m guessing one of those is barklow cuz I still see him here and there discussing Sitka.
And lastly, I just saw today John Dudley saying he’s leaving Sitka (and PSE) and will be getting new sponsors. He more or less discussed the staffing issue above and also change in senior leadership.
Maybe I have a tin foil hat on, but something seems off. Is Sitka changing? Are they going out of business? Is it still the Sitka we have all always known and loved?
Let’s see what folks know, think or hear. I’m super curious, because as a long time Sitka fan, I hope they aren’t going anywhere or changing too drastically.
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I guess only time will tell if there is any truth to staffing changes or any degradation of the product and or customer service. Personally I think they are still the top dawg in the industry for now. As for deals, seasonal sales, etc.. I feel it’s been on par with previous years.
As for the whole “Dudley” leaving. I think this had zero to do with Sitka. I think Dudley can pick out a winning race horse when he sees one. I think he is just following Jocko and his entourage to another opportunity to grow his brand. Personally I don’t see the flare with Origin Camo minus its ownership and “made in America” selling points. I think it’s gonna have some seriously hard time selling past the knee jerk crowd. I think they will be able to get away with selling to the general crowd just looking to spend money. The diehard hunters who actually use and abuse their stuff to the extreme are gonna discover the fail points of their gear. Leading them to continue utilizing brands that have a substantial amount of time in the game, invested serious capital into R&D and have been well tested time and time again. Brands such as Sitka, Kuiu and some of First Lites stuff.
I’ve been a little disappointed with Sitkas durability lately but the performance is still absolutely on point. Granted I am a Kuiu guy but I can appreciate what Sitka is and has done for performance hunting apparel.
I think it has been mentioned though, it does seem Sitka is so maxed out on accomplishing just about every hunting endeavor that they are doing a lot of “speciality” pieces that just are not appealing to everyone. For example the Mountain Evo jacket, I just didn’t see a use for it. The few times I needed to use I was also stopping to glass and felt the air cut right through to my back. Personally I thought the mountain jacket was much more of a straight forward piece for such an application.
All good questions you have asked but I guess time will only tell if there is any truth to Sitka kind of being in a slump.
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