New Golite website

I have a Seraph also! Love it! So Ben had sent me the link to the new panel loader by Go Lite and I was all excited till I found the torso sizes on Backcountrygear.com :-(

Donna and Sarah:

BackcountryGear.com seems to have only the men's version. My understanding is that the women's version comes in two sizes: Small and Medium. I can't find the torso range these two sizes correspond to, but you can email GoLite and find out for sure if you are interested. The cutoff may not be at 16 inches???

I emailed GoLite a while back with a suggestion for kids packs, since many of the packs I was able to find for my son were significantly heavier than my own Jam. I received an email back thanking me for the suggestion and letting me know it was being forwarded to the R&D folks. While it might have been a blow-off, it was at least a polite one.

Email away. Even if they don't do anything about it now, they will at least understand that there's a demand for lightweight gear for 15" torsos. I can actually relate, since I've got a 21" torso myself, and a lot of bags I found that I liked stopped at 20" :(

Tom

Ben, the link you gave me for BCGear showed it to be the women's version of the pack. It just seems so weird that GoLite's website doesn't state torso sizes right on the pages! (When that seems to be an industry standard!)

Which pack is it? Like, I really need (want) another pack!

http://www.golite.com/product/productdetail.aspx?p=PA5955&s=2
There you go!It is the Lite-Speed.

Hey all –

I'm writing this from GoLite's office, within shouting distance of no less than 7 other people who are working on the website to varying degrees (me, our IT guy, a developer; and our CEO, CFO, PR mgr, photo mgr, and production guy). We are aware of many of the problems and are working to correct them. We apologize for the inconvenience — just please be patient as we identify and work out the kinks.

This was a HUGE and total overhaul of website, which had not seen a comparable update since early-2004. The new site was built from scratch; all the content was re-written, and we added a LOT of new stuff; and we have had to rewrite the code for our mail-order system. MAJOR project.

Those of you who may be familiar with website launches know that no website goes up perfectly, especially when it's a huge launch. This launch may have went a little less smoothly than we had hoped, but it's now up and running and we're committed to perfecting it.

Andy

Thanks for the heads up Andrew! While I still feel that all the problems are still way more than for an initial launch, I'm going to tell my paranoia to shut up and give one of my favorite companies a chance :D

Tom

Thomas – Regrading your earlier post about kids packs, it's something we're looking at but not yet ready to devote lots of resources to. I would have to imagine that once we're more settled in the adult markets then we'll offer something that segment, which is hugely important because kids' experiences as kids often determine what they do as adults.

Agreed! That's why I emailed GoLite about it a month or so back. I understand that it might not help my son now, but maybe in the future, and help tons of kids down the road! However, if GoLite DOES do a kids pack, I'm first in line to get one for my son :D

Tom

Hi, Kim Coupounas from GoLite here. I'm a regular reader of the BPL site and forums, so thanks to everyone for your important feedback on our website launch.

We know that the site was not completely ready for launch when it went live last week. We also know that there are many errors (including, unfortunately, weight and specification errors), broken links, etc.

The only reason we went live at all is because we have many new Spring 2007 products, including an entirely new pack line, arriving at our dealers and no information about the products on our website. Many customers and dealers have been contacting us to get the information. We had a major staff transition in our i.t. department in the past month, and this is what caused this rather major website hiccup.

The intent of our website upgrade was to make it far more simple to navigate, informative at deeper levels than our previous site, and chock full of extra information and details not before seen on our site, including a whole section dedicated to how to go lite in different sports as well as GoLite's sustainability efforts, etc.

Long story short, we know there are many errors on the site as of today (Jan 31). While there is no excuse for the errors, please know that our entire team here in Boulder, including Coup and me as well as Andy Skurka, is working hard as I type this to fix all of them, one by one, until the site is completely reflective of the quality of our products. When it's finished, I think you will find it a very informative, well designed, and easy-to-navigate site.

Thanks to all of you for your valuable feedback. We are a small team here in Boulder who is deeply committed to making quality products that help people lighten up to get outdoors more, so all I can ask is for your patience with us while the golite.com site is finished in the next week.

If you have a specific question about a product or spec from the website that seems off or doesn't make sense, it's likely that it's an error that will be fixed in the next few days. I encourage you to call our customer service line Mon-Fri 8am-6pm MST if you have questions about a product. 888-5-GOLITE or 303.546.6000 or email us at info@golite.com.

Kim Coupounas
GoLite, Boulder, Colorado

Ok, that makes sense. It changes, a complete relaunch, that'll definately throw a wrench into the works. I'll just sit in the corner and shut up now :)

Tom

Hi,
All of GoLite's new women's packs have a spine length of 15 1/2 in to 17 1/2 for small and 17 1/2 to 19 1/2 in for medium. You can seen details on size, volume, etc on our site at:

http://www.golite.com/Footer/sizing.aspx?e=0

If the link doesn't work, you can find the information on our site footer under "Product Info," "Sizing & Specs," "Pack description." Thanks also for the good feedback on putting spine length on the product page: we will do that in the next week as part of our finishing of the new website.

The vast majority of adult women fall within that spine lenght range. There is not anyone anywhere that we wouldn't like to help lighten up and get on the trail, so please know that we didn't intentionally leave anyone out in terms of spine length. We're trying to make products that serve as many customers as possible while staying a healthy, viable business. We are the only dual-gender company that we know of that makes all of its packs in women's and men's specific models (except the Ion, which is so simple that it doesn't really make sense to make it gender-specific). As the pack introduction gains momentum, we will absolutely consider adding an extra small size that is under 15 1/2 inches.

I'm personally a size small women's pack in our new packs (I have a 16 1/2 inch spine length), and I have to say that the packs fit me like a glove. It's like a breath of fresh air to use packs that were actually designed to fit an outdoor woman's body so well as ours do.

Anyway, thanks again for your feedback!
Kim Coupounas
GoLite, Boulder, Colorado

Thanks for posting, Andrew and Kim! Very helpful to read GoLite's perspective.

Kim and Andrew,

We appreciate you taking time out of your crazy day at Golite to update us. That is very important, and it shows the respect you have for those that use your products and participate in this site. Thank you for explaining the issues to us. That shows true responsibility to your customers. Thanks again!