Standards Watch: Dan Durston Chats About Standards and Testing

Dan has always struck me as down to earth and very thoughtful about any number of the subjects I’ve seen him comment on. I have never sensed he holds onto any dogmatic viewpoint, always explaining his rationale for any opinion he has given here. Super supportive even on big Reddit threads. I agree with him, standards used to evaluate certain aspects of a product should reflect real world use cases. I also appreciate the transparency when discussing his products, I wish more companies were like that.

One of the cool things about finding Dan’s tent was getting a little educated on tent standards and design in general.

Very informative at just the right time (looking at a new shelter set up myself).  Figured waterproofing slips over time, but a good reminder.

“And they sent some tents out, too. That was their call. I didn’t think it was that helpful because [the testers] weren’t really the target audience, not lightweight backpackers. I think it’s only helpful to the extent that your testers are really knowledgeable.”

Dan, are you referring to the tents & packs mailed out summer 2019 for product reviews?  Or was there an earlier batch of tents mailed out for testing?

In summer 2019 they sent some tents and packs to a private testing company that arranges a group of testers and then submits a report back with the testers comments. That was the main thing I was referring to. Kind of a neat report but most of the testers they found weren’t lightweight backpackers. In summer 2019 they also sent some gear to individuals in the Drop community and to some 3rd party review outlets, which was fine except the pack wasn’t finished yet so I’d rather not have public reviews on unfinished gear.