Hyperlite Mountain Gear REpurpose Bottle Review

The HMG web site says the Repurpose bottles hold only 24 ounces / 0.71 liters.

I often carry two 1.5 liter Smart Water bottles, that weigh a total of 4.0 ounces and cost $4.38 including water. They last at least one year, and I can recycle them at the curb.

I would need four Repurpose bottles, that weigh a total of 23.2 ounces and cost $140 to get almost as much water carrying capacity. I cannot recycle them locally. And they don’t attach to any commonly available water filters; even if they did, you can’t squeeze them.

Pass.

— Rex

What Rex said.  Looks like they may be going after the Hipster market.

Just a Liberty bottle, $20 most places.

https://libertybottles.com

What, you don’t think a screen-printed HMG logo is worth a $10+ premium?

Has BPL lost its way?

I remember the early days when the drive was to get people away from 5.8 ounce water bottles.  My entire UL cook kit, including fuel for two days, weighs less.

Bet you can get a sticker free. BPL just loves HMG.

$35 for a nearly six ounce bottle doesn’t sound like a good use of funds or resources to me. I have been using 32oz Gatorade bottles for nearly 15 years (since coming from Nalgene) and don’t have any intentions of going back.

You can buy a Liberty bottle with any image you want. Could be reviewing the BPL REpurpose bottle.

https://libertybottles.com/pages/custom-bottle-builder

I can’t see in your article the volume of the bottle?

Look at the first reply.

You know, even the name is dumb. Recycled but not repurposed. That would mean it was being used for a task not originally intended.

Aha – I looked through the article several times, and thought I had read the comments.  But I guess I wasn’t looking hard enough at the comments – I didn’t expect to see the information in the replies.  Thanks for pointing that out.

Seriously?  $35 for the exact same bottle that costs $19 from the manufacturer???  Who thinks the HMG logo is worth a $16 premium?

Can’t believe BPL wasted the time and energy to hype this product.  At the very least the article should have been about Liberty.

Hmm.  I like the idea, but probably not the best fit for this audience.  As much as I’d like to reduce my carbon footprint with this hobby, it’s pretty much not going to happen with materials, as 92.5% of the weight of all my gear is fossil fuel based (I just looked through my gear list and did a quick calculation).  Unfortunately, that’s what has made this whole movement possible:  huge improvements to SYNTHETIC materials!  Remember “cotton kills”?  Maybe a better alternative for reducing your carbon footprint is to stop eating animal products, the production of which is responsible for about 20% of the worlds greenhouse gasses.

This review has me concerned. Some time ago BPL had what they called a “documentary” praising the material that HMG uses in their shelters. It was essentially a commercial for HMG. Now they have HMG bottles, which anyone can buy from Liberty and have personalized, reviewed as if they are truly HMG products. I’m thinking BPL has some a financial deal with HMG to promote their products. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but it certainly makes me question the validity of their reviews and whether BPL is impartial when it comes to their reviews.

Roger, Ryan or Kristina – can one of you please help me to understand what’s going on please.

Well, I guess no one read the disclosure at the bottom of the page.

The manufacturer provided complimentary samples of the products in this review with no obligation required to publish a review. Some links in this review may be affiliate links: if you click on a link and place an order with one of our affiliate merchant partners, Backpacking Light receives a small commission on the sale, at no extra cost to you. These commissions help support our website and create new content – and we’re grateful for your support.

It says there “may be affiliate links”

That isn’t correct. There are affiliate links. Afilliate links mean if you click on a product link and purchase the product or any other product with 30 days BPL will receive an 8% commission on the sale. The average sale through this merchant is $322.84. The conversion rate (percent of sales from affiliate links) is small, 0.84%. Although I would guess BPL would have a higher conversion rate.

Here are the full URL for the two links:

https://www.hyperlitemountaingear.com/repurpose-bottle-black.html?avad=189374_a12ecd251

https://www.hyperlitemountaingear.com/?avad=189374_f12ebd681

In each link link you will see “avad=“ and that indicates the affiliate link is using the affiliate company, AvantLink.

How do I know? Because I use the same affiliate program on my blog. However, on my blog I don’t review anything that is provided to me for free (like this article), nor anything that is loaned to be, nor anything that is sold to me with the expectation of a review. To be honest, I am rarely offered any product anyway, as I am not any kind of expert. One exception was a book I was going to buy anyway. In that case I was offered a free book with the expectation of a review. I declined, but asked if I could buy a pre-release copy at full retail, which was sold to me.

I do ocassionally review backpacking and camping stuff. Normally, unlike most reviews in magazines and websites, I review things I have used over a long period of time. Sometimes I will write a “first impression” of something I have recently purchased and I try to emphasize this.

BPL used to be one of the most objective editorial sites on the web. Now too much content is just “click bait” to sell stuff. I am not against affiliate marketing — I use it.  I try to be upfront about this. I once did a post similar to some of the “recommended gear” articles I see here, except in the opening paragraph I stated that my goal was to make sales and generate income. I probably don’t always do a stellar job informing my readers, but I try.

This phenomenon today is disheartening. I even wrote a post about it, http://popupbackpacker.com/the-business-of-backpacking/

I suppose the moderators will probably delete this post or ban me from BPL.

Oh well, BUYER BEWARE.

This,

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/cuben-fiber-dyneema-and-the-ultralight-cottage-industry-short-film-commentary/#comments

BPL Ban People Less.