Finding GoLite gear after they’ve close their doors…(How-To)

[M F]

Hey everyone! So I don't know about all of you but I was super surprised with the collapse of GoLite. I was just in one of their retail shops last christmas buying gifts for family and thinking/hoping that the company was really taking off.

Turns out, I was wrong. (Not the first time!)

I've written a blog post that outlines a very easy and cost effective way to source GoLite gear for years after their shutdown thanks to the volume of gear they sold in the time they WERE in business!

http://blog.lwhiker.com/where-to-find-golite-gear-after-closing/

TL;DR –

Check out the used gear search @ https:.//lwhiker.com/used-gear-search/golite to find current and past GoLite gear for sale from BPL, Mountain Project and more.

If what you're looking for isn't currently for sale, setup a notification @ https://lwhiker.com/notifications to get an email literally the minute that something matching your notification rule is posted.

More interested in browsing than searching for specifics?The latest threads are always available @ https://lwhiker.com/used-gear-search/recent

Have a specific interest in a brand? I've got a database of over 200 gear manufacturers, including the cottage companies with their websites and twitter accounts available @ https://lwhiker.com/brands and you can view all threads that match a manufacturer by going to their manufacturer page (https://lwhiker.com/brands/golite) and clicking on the threads link… https://lwhiker.com/brands/golite/threads

There's also an automated twitter account that posts for each new thread @ https://twitter.com/lwhiker if that's your thing.

---

I hope this helps anyone who is looking for GoLite or any other brand of gear find what they need/want!

(I'm very open to feedback and ideas about the site!)

[Ken Thompson]

Don't care. Their stuff was too mainstream and heavy by the end.

We have other search options already as well.

Good Luck.

[M F]

> Don't care. Their stuff was too mainstream and heavy by the end.

Thankfully this is a very broad community of people with diverse needs! For some the latest mainstream stuff you don't care about is a great and comfortable introduction to a more lightweight future. They may care!

> We have other search options already as well.

That's great! It's always good to have a wide array of tools to choose from.

> Good Luck.

Thank you, have a great new year!

[Will Faison]

^ Is this guy always so curt? Sheesh.

Thank you for the post. As someone who has sucked it up and lugged 40-70lb packs in the past (and frankly, had a blast), I am welcoming my transition to going a lot lighter, but I am not exactly making it rain when it comes to budget.

Sites like yours are an absolute godsend. I found it on a whim, and now use it all the time.. especially to snag some "super heavy mainstream" end of the GoLite gear

[Jeff LaVista]

Maybe we can make a thread just dedicated to exchanging or selling new/used golite equipment. I have an SL3 canopy, pole, and custom inner mesh tent (bearpaw) I would sell to a hiker that intends to use it!

[Michael Driscoll]

Mike nice search engine… I like it…

[Will Faison]

Hey Jeff,

I am interested in your tarp/inner combination. I tried to send you a PM, but it looks like you don't have it set up yet — perhaps you could shoot me an e-mail at wafaison at gmail? Also — I'm sorry to threadjack, but I didn't know how else to do this.

[jimmer ultralight]

I know the OP meant well, but IMHO tracling down Golite gear from tbis point forward is a waste of both time and money. Mediocre Asian made goods with no warranty. Nothing worth "tracking down",in my eyes.

It would be more beneficial for the future of our sport and the US ecomomy for folks instead to buy gear from CURRENT US makers of backpacking gear.By supporting existing cottage makers you are helping to ensure they stay around.

Last year I was seriously looking at buying several peices of Golite gear,However, afterlearning about their unpaid debts, dumb management decisions like teh expensive retaul locations and lomg ago selling their name to Timberland, I am darn glad I did not spend ONE DIME of my $$ on their gear,

[Ken Thompson]

Is this guy always so curt?
Pretty much.
With a half dozen or so search aids available what's going to be special about this one?
No need to start heavy at all these days. Can go lightweight with all the comforts. Heavy, bombproof gear is for kids and dopes who can't take care of things.

When the OP asked for feedback I think it's fair to give both sides. Harsh world.

[David Ure]

When Golite was a going concern, no one bought their stuff…hence why they are bankrupt. Why all the love now? Where were you when they needed you?

; )

[M F]

> With a half dozen or so search aids available what's going to be special about this one?

If you took the time to read my post and/or took a look at the website you would find there's actually quite a bit unique and interesting about the site. But that's really not important, I'm glad you've found solutions that work for you! (Both in physical gear and gear search).

Just as a fun exercise…how many of the other gear search engines will email you when new threads are found containing what you're looking for? Go ahead…I'll wait.

> No need to start heavy at all these days. Can go lightweight with all the comforts. Heavy, bombproof gear is for kids and dopes who can't take care of things.

You know, some of us are just bound to be dopes.

> When the OP asked for feedback I think it's fair to give both sides. Harsh world.

I'm very appreciative of your 'feedback'. But, have you even looked at the site? You came into the thread bombing everything about it form the start. The website is far from just a gear search and really isn't comparable to anything else out there. If you read even just the OP of this thread that's pretty clear right off the bat. So I would really love your feedback, but if you just want to dump on what appears to be not only the website but anyone who would even think about using GoLite gear (did they ask for feedback too?) I doubt I or anyone else should be all that excited about it.

If gear search engines are a sore subject and I missed the memo feel free to let me know.

I really do hope you have a great holiday and new year season!

[jimmer ultralight]

Answering Daves comment above…

I have been an avid shooter/hunter for 35 years..

You see the same silly crap in the gun market. A company makes an unpopular model and it gets disciontinued..THEN it becones an instant classic worthy of it's own wing in a museum..lol.

And to the OP..

Mike, thats a usefull site.
Maybe you could make the rounds contacting some of the smaller Cottage makers to also post sale/Closeout alerts on new gear. That might help the smaller cottage guys get on a more equal playing feild with REI, Campsaver etc with regards to email alerts on special deals.
Good luck and thanks for the posts here!

[Ken Thompson]

I did poke around some. Updates are behind on items from Hammock Forums. Three items I looked at were already sold.

And how are my no comments about your site bombing?

Just the six sources huh?

Other searchers

http://www.litwiller.us/search.php

http://www.getawaygear.com/

So I just did a search for a MLD Solomid XL. Shows me a whole list of stuff from MLD with one Solomid XL halfway down the first page. It's sold.

I'll keep doing what I've been doing thanks.

And my initial comments were about GoLite, not your site. There's plenty of reasons they are no longer in business. What was the coveted piece of gear from them? That Jam Pack, please. So many better options out there now.

[M F]

> Mike, thats a usefull site.

Thank you!

> Maybe you could make the rounds contacting some of the smaller Cottage makers to also post sale/Closeout alerts on new gear. That might help the smaller cottage guys get on a more equal playing feild with REI, Campsaver etc with regards to email alerts on special deals.

I really welcome feedback of this nature! The biggest reason I started the brand side of the site was to find a way to highlight some of these smaller manufacturers, especially those who are failing horribly in the 'online presence' column. My hope was to put together some sort of central area people could find the basic info on these manufacturers (website, twitter, product catalog). I'm hopefully (slowly) working in a direction similar to that you're talking about. I may in the future look to do something like allowing users to subscribe to specific manufacturer's for alerts and then allow those manufacturers to syndicate special deals if they choose to do so. (My plan is to stay 100% ad free and I have a feeling the farther I go down this rabbit hole the harder that plan will be to maintain)

I've done a little bit of preliminary digging into the site's data (both search volume by users as well as # of phrase mentions in posted threads) on GoLite in preparation for the blog post in the OP and it's definitely clear that GL had been losing ground in popularity to companies like Zpacks, Tarptent and HMG over the last year. (I'm hoping to include some visuals and #'s for things like this in upcoming blog posts). Thankfully, I think on this community and others like it, the cottage guys really aren't at much of a disadvantage to the big box'ers. In other words, there's not a lot of people using lwhiker and searching for REI gear.

> Good luck and thanks for the posts here!

Thanks! Have a happy new year!

[Ken Thompson]

Oh BTW this should have been posted in On The Web. Putting things in the right place helps with searches, don't you think?

On the Web

Post your surf slop here – personal websites or other Web resources that will be informative to lightweight backpackers.

[Ken Thompson]

So in fairness I've been using your site to run a few searches. If I can find what I am looking for the item has already been sold some time ago. How long do dead ads stay up?

10 for 10. Every item I look at has been sold. So your searches are completely useless.

[M F]

> I did poke around some. Updates are behind on items from Hammock Forums. Three items I looked at were already sold.

I'm going to tread carefully here… I think you're misunderstanding how it works. There are no 'updates', it indexes threads as they're found the first time they're seen. I didn't want to put undue stress on the servers of the communities by continually updating posts. So yes, many of the posts on the site are 'stale' and you'll find by actually visiting the community pages they represent you'll find the most up to date information. It's not perfect.

> Just the six sources huh?

Right. Just 6. I'm always open to recommendations for other active communities where related gear is being traded! (/r/geartrade is on the to-do list, I have some exciting stuff in the works with some of the related subreddit mods!)

> Other searchers

> http://www.litwiller.us/search.php

> http://www.getawaygear.com/

These are great! Especially the design on getawaygear! I wish I had design chops like that! I follow the other search engines diligently, I love to see alternate takes on ideas in the wild. Must be a half decent idea with all the other options that have popped up!

> So I just did a search for a MLD Solomid XL. Shows me a whole list of stuff from MLD with one Solomid XL halfway down the first page. It's sold.

Right, half way down the MLD Solomid XL search page is roughly the end of November. Those posts are nearly a month old, behing MLD products it doesn't surprise me at all that they've sold that quickly. As I said above, the posts aren't updated so they may very well lead you on a wild goose chase here or there. Sadly these are just forum posts with no standardized structure or really rules…I have no way to know in any automated fashion if an item has sold, what it's price is, etc. All I can do is my best to present the threads to people in the easiest to consume manner I know how. It's far from perfect.

> I'll keep doing what I've been doing thanks.

Whatever works for you is what you should be doing! I really do appreciate your feedback. It appears you're looking for a more constantly updated index of posts with more importance on getting rid of sold/stale products and posts…that's just not a 'problem' I have a solution for at the present time. If someone else has solved that problem kudos to them!

> And my initial comments were about GoLite, not your site. There's plenty of reasons they are no longer in business. What was the coveted piece of gear from them? That Jam Pack, please. So many better options out there now.

You and I aren't on different islands here. I don't own a piece of GoLite gear…but you can't argue their popularity. It seems based on what people search my site for…the Jam and Shangri La were the popular bits. Like you…I always looked at the numbers and saw that there were lighter options available (I have been running an MLD Exodus until my very recently purchased new GG pack).

The reason I highlighted GoLite and this whole fiasco with the blog post and this forum post isn't so much to promote GoLite (especially considering their situation). I've just seen a trend across some of these communities that people very actively looking for GoLite gear right now and I figured it would be a great way to explain to people in context how some of the features of the site outside of just searching work. (Like the automatic brand tagging, email alerts, etc)

> Oh BTW this should have been posted in On The Web. Putting things in the right place helps with searches, don't you think?

Ahh, you're right! Probably should be moved there.

> So in fairness I've been using your site to run a few searches. If I can find what I am looking for the item has already been sold some time ago.

Right…so there's the date the thread/posting was made for each entry. If everything that's currently indexed is already sold the next step is to setup an email alert so that you're alerted as soon as a new thread is discovered.

> How long do dead ads stay up?

They're indexed for the foreseeable future at this point. I'll be working in some pruning of the system at some point…but I've found items for sale from 6+ month old posts…so it's not an easy problem to address.

> 10 for 10. Every item I look at has been sold. So your searches are completely useless.

My searches are completely useless…or you're searching for items that are in high demand and my searches are reflecting that? I guess we'll just have to chalk that up to a difference in perspective. You can run a search for mld exodus full suspension or a bearikade and if the post is more than a few HOURS old it'll be stale.

[Sam Farrington]

"waste of both time and money. Mediocre Asian made goods with no warranty. Nothing worth "tracking down",in my eyes"

Harumph and Bah Humbug.

Those poncho tarps went pretty fast for junky gear. Try and find one now – 15 denier at under 1.1 oz/sq/yd, min 1200mmHH, and even breathable to some degree. Seem to remember that when Richard N began WP testing on BPL, one of the first tests was on a Golite shelter product that did extremely well, far better for its weight than any of the fabrics that were then available on the DIY market for MYOG.

There are myriad reasons why a small business can go putz. In this brave new IT world, where nothing is real, it might even be because they just didn't lie well enough. Though IMO it could be because they just weren't creative and responsive enough to what hikers wanted, as was already mentioned. Too bad. It happens. But at least it would show that the system on which our survival depends is still working, at least in the gear market.

First thing I saw on the gear forum tonight was a for sale OP, plain and simple. And some harp at this guy just for sharing a gear search tool. I agree – Yeesh! Even I, a wily predator (see avatar), have to say: Lighten Up.

[Ken Thompson]

"My searches are completely useless…or you're searching for items that are in high demand and my searches are reflecting that?"

Yes and yes. Why would I be looking for gear that is not in demand? I can go to Wal Mart and buy cheap crap that doesn't work all day long.

Cottage guys can only produce so much.

If you in all your years here would have participated in any forum discussions might have learned this all already, But you are just another GearSwap only member in the dark.

Best wishes for a turn around in 2015.

[Franco Darioli]

Here is an article with a better insight on just what happened at Golite :
http://bizwest.com/despite-retail-failure-golite-founder-hoping-for-comeback/

[Justin Baker]

I use Mike's site for the notification feature. You can set a search term and get an email when something is posted. This feature let me snag a used mirage right when it was posted for sale. It also notified me of a ula catalyst (not my size tho) being posted on a forum that I never go on.

[David Ure]

"Best wishes for a turn around in 2015."

LOL.

Maybe we can get a gear list.

[Ken Thompson]

"Maybe we can get a gear list."

And that would get posted here…

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/display_forum.html?forum=37

Gear Lists

Post your gear list here, get some feedback, debate the choices. Trying to cut down from 35 pounds? 6 pounds? It doesn't matter where you're at with your ultralight journey… we're here to help!

Don't forget we are a community!

[David Ure]

Thanks for the link, Franco.

I like this quote:

"The other misstep, he said, was expanding too rapidly into casual apparel like sweaters and corduroys, products that the company’s client base wasn’t ready for despite the popularity of its technical gear."

I think what Coup meant was that their technical gear wasn't popular anymore because of a lack of innovation and the discontinuance of products that were actually appealing, so they expanded into luggage and $20 fleece jackets and blew their brains out. Did I mention the stand alone stores, many of which where located at Outlet Malls?

Anyway, does this search engine locate cheap scotch?

[Author]

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