Stio and Red Fox outdoor Equipment???

[Ryan S]

Has anyone ever heard of Red Fox Outdoor Equipment and if so what is your views on their clothing “gear”, and the same with Stio, just curious if anyone knows if its quality gear and have any views on any certain gear. Thanks to all!

[bradmacmt]

Never heard of Red Fox.

Stio is on par with Patagonia (ie, above average, but not the very best either). It is priced higher due to its local association with Jackson, WY.

Stio is a “status brand” in Jackson, where you will see many seemingly un-employed 30-somethings, so clad, surfing the net on their Mac Book, while enjoying a Chai Latte after yoga class at 11:30 in the morning with very little by way of plans for the rest of the day… every day.

[Todd Williams]

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

[bradmacmt]

We’d all like a trust fund…

[Jeffs Eleven]

Or to work nights?

[Bruce Tolley]

@ Ryan
I was looking for a pair of softshell pants with lots of pockets. I bought the Stio Pinedale pant (which appear to be made out of Schoeller cloth) during an end of season sale.
As stated above, the prices are on par with Patagonia or perhaps even Arcteryx but then I only buy those two later brands when they are 25 or 30% off. After about 9 months, the buckle on the Pinedale pants broke. I have some Arcteryx pants I bought in 2008. While they have been patched a few times, the buckles work fine.
Cheers
Bruce

[Link .]

I work a graveyard shift and have my days free, no trust fund for sure. I do get the Stio catalog occasionally in my mail, and have never considered buying anything, I may be wrong but it looks like a lot of high priced fashion to me, but I don’t spend a lot of time looking at it before it ends up in my recycling bin. Oh and I started doing yoga in the 90’s so you might want to steer clear of me:)

[BlackHatGuy]

“I do get the Stio catalog occasionally in my mail, and have never considered buying anything, I may be wrong but it looks like a lot of high priced fashion to me, but I don’t spend a lot of time looking at it before it ends up in my recycling bin.”

Same here. I’ve flipped through the catalog and, IIRC, nothing has a weight attached to it, so no idea how heavy anything is, even rain jackets and such. Missing weights in such catalogs usually makes me think it’s more urban wear than backcountry wear. And, as others have said, the prices are quite high.

“Oh and I started doing yoga in the 90’s so you might want to steer clear of me:)”

LOL!

[bradmacmt]

Wow… what a humorless bunch.

If you’ve spent any time in Jackson (I lived there for two years recently), you’d understand that, as the epicenter of the wealthiest county in the USA (Teton County), the town is literally crawling with trust-funded hipsters.

[Ryan S]

Just wondering cause I saw a Alpha Alpine Hoody obviously made with polartec Alpha 60 grams to be exact and thought it might be a nice midlayer but wasn’t sure. I still can’t find any true reviews about Red Fox outdoor Equipment other than located in Colorado. Thanks all.

[BlackHatGuy]

It’s a Russian company, from what I can gather. Seems it’s only been in the US since 2015.

[Gary Dunckel]

Yesterday, my buddy insisted that he drive me to a new outlet mall in Thornton, CO, which is 25 minutes east of Boulder (it’s pretty scary to venture very far from Boulder County, where one gets caught up in the crazy doings of Denver). We hit the Coleman outlet store, which carries lots of Marmot gear as well, as they are both part of the mother umbrella. Then we went into the Red Fox outlet store, where they dump last season’s gear and clothing.

All in all, I was somewhat impressed, especially with the steeply discounted prices. The winter insulation pieces seems reasonably well made, and they looked like they would be very warm. They had down sleeping bags with temperature ratings from +30* F to -60* F. I looked one of them over, and the construction quality looked competitive. What I found curious was that the bags used 700 fill goose down (I think). I’m thinking that if they harvested the down in cold Siberia, it could well be quality stuff. After all, Canada Goose uses 600-650 fill duck down in the parka model that they supply the U.S. Antarctic program with. I expect that the frigid temperatures of the far north would help bump up the down’s “puffiness” of those poor birds that have to live in such conditions.

Red Fox also had some unique cold weather clothing pieces. I admired a fleece-lined soft shell pant, which seemed pretty bomb-proof, although a bit heavy, and likely warm enough for winter ice climbing and even just snowshoeing on a blustery day.

The mother store is located on Boulder’s Pearl Street mall, and as Doug pointed out, there’s a second store in Lyons. I don’t think that there are any other stores in the U.S. at the present time. Be forewarned however – the sizing sucks (European), and it would be pretty risky to just order things online without actually trying them on in a store. All in all, I think that maybe Red Fox has found a lower priced niche to compete with the usual high price/high quality companies.

[Erik Hagen]

Stio is basically a spin-off of Cloudveil.   https://www.theactivetimes.com/cloudveil-founder-starts-new-apparel-brand

 

[Jeffs Eleven]

” What I found curious was that the bags used 700 fill goose down (I think).”

I like the extra “structure” in 700 fill downs for here in the PNW’s wetter overall climate.  I can forgo a little bit of compress-ability for the added resilience.

Dont worry, I got all the pertinent gauges out to test how much humidity the difference between 700 and 850 can handle.  The gauges were freshly calibrated.

In other words, if it tests to the desired temp, I believe 700fp is just fine.

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