Montrail: The end of inovation?

[Jan Unneberg]

Columbia Sportswear buying out Montrail for 15 million dollars, “Say it ain’t so Joe!” Will corporate mentality stiffle the inovative style of Montrail. Stay tuned! Those of us who live and die by Montrail will be praying.

http://www.runners.wordpress.com/2006/01/28/montrail-bought-by-columbia-sportswear-for-15m/

[larry savage]

The North Face company is owned by vf ind. which also owns Jansport,Eastpak,Wrangler,Lee,Brittania…at one time TNF owned La Sportiva and A5 but they shed La Sportiva and A5 has been reinvented as travel clothing.
If you search you will find Mountain Hardware is also owned by Columbia. At one time TNF owned Sierra Designs and Holubar, if anyone knows that name. Mountain Hardware is still an innovator and with Columbias attempts at footwear[which you may not see outside of the northwest] I would think Montrail is in a good position to continue innovation and growth.
I would be more concerned if it was similar to General Mills buying Eddie Bauer and is now on the edge of going away.

[EndoftheTrail]

I know that tons of people love their Montrail shoes.

Speaking only of my own experience, it was one big disappointment. I wore my Montrail TRS Comp Cross-Training shoes for months before they stopped giving me blisters… except by then, the treads on both outsoles were worn practically flat! I’ve never before experienced treads wearig out after mere months of on-trail hikes!

[Anonymous]

LOL Buy shoes by fit, not reputation. You get fewer blisters that way.

[EndoftheTrail]

Don’t know what’s so funny, anon. — the shoes fit, they took longer than expected to break in (esp. for what’s supposed to be cross trainers and not full-fledge boots).

My dissatisfaction was more with how quickly the outsoles wore out.

[Author]

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