Short Report: Fly Creek UL1 Platinum

[Dena Kelley]

Will stated, "In a dream world you'd be able to, for a small surcharge, be able to select the platform (FC/CS/SH), specify fabric weights, all mesh, half-height or full-coverage inner, and pick a fly color."
—
I agree with this statement. I currently have the Fly Creek UL2 but would rather have a Copper Spur UL2 design but in the same materials and color as the platinum series Fly Creek tents. I much prefer a side entry over a front entry, but right now I just can't justify the extra weight of the Copper Spur. I'd be more than willing to wait a few weeks for a special order.

[Max Dilthey]

Not to be a negative nancy, but I think the answer to custom BA tents is "Keep Dreaming."

For one, the amount of options they already have is nearly unrivaled in modern tent manufacturers. No tent is perfect for everyone.

Good thing there's cottage manufacturers :)

[Will Newton]

I am most definitely not a business person, but — I'm not asking for *custom*, per se, just a matrix of options constructed from existing stock of patterns and supplies. They already make these polesets, right? And they already likely have back stock of flys, etc to replace warranty claims. Would it cost that much to do short runs of every fly style in every color? I know there's all sorts of overhead here I'm not accounting for — having to do custom packing of orders, etc.

So… why couldn't the website work like the configurable options you get when buying a computer online? You'd have to go *to Big Agnes' site* to get this done; retailers could still sell the vanilla builds of all these tents.

Step 1: Choose size
($ 1P /$$ 2P / $$$ 3P)

Step 2: Choose platform (poleset & fabric pattern)
($ Seedhouse / $$ Fly Creek / $$$ Copper Spur)

Step 2: Choose inner
($ Mesh/ $$ Solid / $$$ Half-n-half)

Step 2: Choose fly
($ SL Green / $$ UL Brown / $$$ Platinum Grey)

…and a wait, and a premium. But worth it. If HMG is any indication, they'd sell like hotcakes.

[Max Dilthey]

Any way you spin it, you're literally tripling the manufacturing. 1 type of fly becomes 3 types of flys (flies?). One inner becomes 3 inners. That's a big increase in overhead, which is probably feasible. In fact, i'm sure that's covered in the cost of the tent and they'll still make a profit. The problem is, it's less profit, and less profit = no motivation to undertake the idea.

Couple that with trying to account for how much of each type of fly will sell (you don't want a warehouse full of Platinum because everyone bought UL brown). The stocking logistics would be a nightmare. Average consumers don't like wait times; the narrow margin of people waiting 2 months for their tent may not be enough to justify cost. BPL-style adventurers are like 5% of the tent market; weekenders and car campers make up the rest. We're honestly lucky BA has the selection they do in the UL range.

Then you have warranty issues. What if your SUL rain fly wears before the rest of the tent does? Different materials have different lifespans. Can you tell someone they can't return a complete tent because they only wore out the UL sections? You can probably handle parts separately, but it's a confusing policy like that that turns uninitiated customers away. They want a concrete guarantee on the whole purchase.

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