Like REI for independent gear – Boilerwerks, Suluk46, Enlightened Equipment

[Devin Montgomery]

Last month, a developer friend of mine and I went live with a beta site for an independent outdoor gear marketplace. So far it has the Backcountry Boiler (that I make), Suluk46's TiCa Ice Tool, a couple of Enlightened Equipment's quilts, and some other great products by a couple guys I met on Kickstarter.

We tried to do some maker-friendly things, like give them control of their listings, have fees much lower than retail markup, and provide a clean design that even allows for Kickstarter-style videos. It's also peer-reviewed, so new makers are chosen by existing makers on the site.

We also tried to do some customer-friendly things, like make browsing easy, have prices at least as low as anywhere else, and not charge until their order ships.

What else would you guys like to see on a marketplace like this? Specifically, what could we do with a marketplace that it would be hard for any one of us (independent gear manufacturers) to do alone? Since most of us started here, I'd really like to know what you all think.

Here's the site, by the way: SparkMade

[Jerry Adams]

How much does the Bosavi headlamp weigh?

[Devin Montgomery]

It's 2.21 oz, including the usb-rechargeable battery. What I like about it is that you can keep it charged by the computer for household stuff, and the charge last long enough for most normal trips (everything but night hikes and obviously thru-hiking). It could be the only light you owned and you'd never need to buy another battery.

It was also designed and prototyped, from the injection mold to the printed circuitboard to packaging by one guy – my friend Dan.

[Jerry Adams]

That's good. Probably lower weight than any other LED headlamp that has decent light.

flashlights with replaceable batteries have this problem, that after you use them, the batteries are partially depleted. I don't want to just throw the batteries away so I'll continue using. But then I sort of have to carry a spare set of batteries.

Or I can use rechargeable batteries, but it's sort of a pain to remove them and recharge after every trip. The battery cover on LED headlamps I've used is sort of flimsy and tends to break after a while.

[Jerry Adams]

How many hours does the light last at what Lumen level?

(of course, these are criticisms of your website that it doesn't have these basic specs – people will look at site, not see specs, and move on…)

[Devin Montgomery]

Cool, I know Dan would love an order. :)

Edit: We must have been writing at the same time. You may have just seen the overview page, here's the item page for Bosavi with the specs: http://www.sparkmade.com/product/bosavi-headlamp/9468

[Jerry Adams]

ahhh… I found something to click on to get specs – I thought that was the "order" link

maybe it should say "specs" to be more obvious?

[Jerry Adams]

one other thing as long as I'm complaining about LED headlamps

one thing I hate is the "low" setting isn't low enough. For inside my tent, I need little light. A "low" that used 1/4 of the power and increased duration by 4X would be useful

I wonder how bright the Bosavi "low" is?

[Devin Montgomery]

I'm not sure how "low" low is, in terms of lumens – I just shot Dan an email to see if he can get back to you on that.

Any thoughts about what a marketplace like this could do for hikers that it would be hard for any of us (the gear makers) to do on our own?

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