Sitka vs Kuiu by the Numbers

[avodude]

Is it "bashing" to point out the inarguable truth? Jason may know clothing but his business acumen is virtually nill.

You know I figured out Where's Bruce must actually be working for Kuiu, except not getting paid. He is free advertisement. Crazy enough statements so that people reading them feel like they have to check out Kuiu. What is that statement? "Even bad press is good press." Haha

I've seen so many positive comments on their gear (outerwear only) and when it is sprinkled with statements from people like Where's Bruce, it actually adds a layer of legitimacy. Funny thing.

Me, I think Jason Hairston is a moron but not in a business-sense way. Throwing packs down a mountainside to prove their durability? What? I've tried some of Kuiu's gear and I love it! Great stuff! And their comments ARE outlandish. So they are a troll magnet.

Problem I have with this post is that Outwest is trying to create an unbiased comparison of MSRP and weight and then BAM! the trolls appear. I would like it if Outwest could continue his unbiased, unarguable work without getting the post yanked.

 

[Browtine]

Is it "bashing" to point out the inarguable truth?

I think it becomes bashing when someone doesn't know when to let it go. We've got a search engine, people can figure out you hate Kuiu without you telling them every 5 minutes.

 

[IdahoElk]

Is it "bashing" to point out the inarguable truth? Jason may know clothing but his business acumen is virtually nill.

Now I know you're trolling,how many globally recognized brands have you started in 36yrs of being self employed? thanks for starting my day off with a laugh

 

[realunlucky]

Some of you guys are very short sighted. No one walks on water and you don't stay successful if you can't meet your customers needs. We have had very respectable hunters quit posting because of these continual arguments. Please constrain you love/hate and ask yourself if it beneficial to the original thread. Comments should be inline with the op thread period. Roxslide is a place for sharing ideas not arguing who's mom is prettier

 

[Browtinemt]

I sorta understand the I want to support hunting companies mentality, but as of now you can spend less and get gray/brown/black clothes from plain mountain companies and have a system which is lighter, more durable, and more functional. Choices, choices.

^This^...Good point DaveC. I think to include a few nonhunting specific clothing manufactuers would be great for your next "by the numbers" topic Outwest, thanks for taking the time to do this one.

 

[tipsntails7]

Some of you guys are very short sighted. No one walks on water and you don't stay successful if you can't meet your customers needs. We have had very respectable hunters quit posting because of these continual arguments. Please constrain you love/hate and ask yourself if it beneficial to the original thread. Comments should be inline with the op thread period. Roxslide is a place for sharing ideas not arguing who's mom is prettier

This sums it up right here. When I joined this site I was blown away by the amount of knowledge and the willingness to share it. I've been huting the west since I was 12, but I still learned from guys who did it a different way.
This website used to be about your experiences in the field. Not what you've read about on other forums. There used to be about 15-20 guys who I would search out their posts because they spoke from experiance and I had a chance to learn from them. Now about 5 of them still post. Hell Aron barely posts on anything not associated with kifaru because of the exact shit that's going on in this thread, and I don't blame him.

Bruce you blow my mind. Personally I could care less how you feel about Jason and his buisness model. Some of our thoughts line up, some don't. What gets me is you go out of your way to run down something you have one single experiance with, and yet your still looking to pick up more pieces of Kuiu???? If your so set against how Kuiu does things why on earth would you want their gear?? At this point no matter if you actually give kuiu's gear a shot or not your opinion on the matter had been tainted.

Ryan, Aron, Robby and whoever else was involved in creating this site did an amazing job, and just like they have said who knows how many times, gear reviews should not be based off setting your tent up on your carpet, lighting your stove in your backyard, or a couple of trips to the corner store in a new pair of boots.

 

[gobbler1662]

Outwest thanks again for the post and very informative thread. Ryan you need to completely delete this thread, could you imagine if our wives saw this. I thought their clothes and shoes were expensive. Now I have nothing to complain about.

 

[Josh Wright]

KUIU always gets bashed for one reason or another. I have been a customer from day 1 and have 4k worth of equipment/clothing. I use it for mountain hunting in colorado, turkey hunting in kansas, and deer hunting in Arkansas. The clothing line preforms flawlessly for me. I have always had great customer service.

 

[Outwest]

A lot of good points on this topic being posted up. At the end of the day, this is why I use Rokslide over other online forums. For the most part, this site has a wealth of knowledgeable and experienced mountain hunters who are more than willing to share what they know for the good of the lifestyle we live. Kudos to you dudes.

Good stuff Outwest.

What I find remarkable with both, but moreso with Sitka, is how they've marketed the lifestyle aspect of "hardcore" hunting to make what I assume is a lot of money. 150 dollar powerstretch shirts? 100+ dollar gaiters? 200 dollar windshells with a ton of silly pockets? 600 dollar insulated "systems" for whitetail hunting 3/4 of a mile from a house? They've done their job well.

The overwhelming majority of the complaints I've heard about Kuiu seem to come from experienced hunters who never learned much about backpacking before going to AK, and blaming the company for their own failure to understand how WPB technologies work. Kuiu has surely made the problem worse with their hyperbolic, least-common-denominator ad copy (the most advanced ____ EVER DESIGNED).

I sorta understand the I want to support hunting companies mentality, but as of now you can spend less and get gray/brown/black clothes from plain mountain companies and have a system which is lighter, more durable, and more functional. Choices, choices.

DaveC,

Well said for sure. I completely agree with you, especially on the point about how sitka markets hunting style. If you go on and watch Sitka Films on vimeo, you will see just how good of a job they do selling the hardcore hunting lifestyle right along side their products. If watching "Connected" doesn't make you want to jump in a set of Sitka gear and head to the Chugach in AK, then I don't know what will. Go watch it if you haven't. In my opinion, that style of marketing is extremely effective, unfortunately, that is one more aspect of consideration that is difficult to measure without finding the correlation between sitka video/social media views and sales

I like the "by the numbers" type of comparison. Thanks for posting. But, I don't think dollars per pound is really a good way to report results here. Weight is not desireable, but yet something with high weight would lower the $/lb. A better unit would be dollar pounds. Dollars times pounds; $lb. Low cost and low weight are desireable. Divide the result by 1000 or something, if you want, since the number will be really big. Of course this has limitations too. A plastic garbage sack would have a really low $lb. It's lightweight and cheap, but probably not the best choice for mountain hunting gear. Anyway, I like the numbers talk.

Thanks for the insight, I really never thought about it like that but I think you are right. I think i will look into something like that because I agree it would probably be more accurate.
I tried originally to make the $/lb for each item but I had decided that an overall average was a better measure due to the fact that the small lightweight items (facemask @ .8 oz for $25) would have a crazy high $/oz and that can be misleading.

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[Elkfitness]

That's being proactive and not reactive. A key characteristic of successful business. Create a need / trend / problem. Don't wait for it to occur.