The Arc’teryx Business Model

My go-to rain shell on every trip is my Arcteryx Alpha SV—bought in November 2009 and it has saved my life on hundreds of backpacking trips, due mostly to its Pro Shell fabric.  Current price on this model is MORONICALLY  OUTLANDISH.  I appreciate your video link and this is not a review of an Arcteryx product—but my Alpha is a mess as all seam tapes have pulled out and both pit zippers have “delaminated”.  Poor engineering I guess.  Oh and hard use.

That’s expensive stuff all right. I luckily bought a few pieces on end-of-season clearance before they apparently stopped selling through retailers.

REI still sells some Arc’teryx rain jackets and a few at discount, but I never see the Alpha SV marked down.  https://www.rei.com/b/arcteryx/c/mens-rain-jackets?ir=category%3Amens-rain-jackets&r=c%3Bb

Smart strategy. After working in & adjacent to sales for several years, their strategy matches my thesis on sales channels: The closer you are to the end-user customer, the more profitable you will be.

My local REI has some Beta-SL rain jackets still hanging around. After a recent cross-country race, where every spectator’s rain-jackets seemed to be partially wetted-out, I’m curious how the Beta-SL would do.

Socially, I think it’s “cool” to “hate” on more mainstream, successful people/brands/things, etc, and I think that’s where a lot of criticism of Arc’teryx comes from. (Well, and their very high pricing.) That said, I rarely hear anything substantially negative about their rain-gear, or, their gear in general from people who own & use it.

I’m happy to see they re-introduced the Cerium SL, although I feel they missed an opportunity. The old version used 7D material and 850 fill down, making it uniquely light and appropriate for careful use as a mid layer or around camp. Then they discontinued it, now they brought it back using 1000 power down (instead of the previous 850), but slightly heavier overall with a 15D shell, when they could have taken advantage of the higher fill power down to make it even lighter. I guess they got tired of complaints from customers who didn’t understand the use case of the ultralight puffy.

I like to support smaller and newer brands in general, but when something works really well and the fit appears to be a custom-tailored garment, I still find myself looking to Arc’teryx again and again. They really nail the form and function balance as well as durability which makes the price tag more palatable. I’m okay with being a behemoth company and having Chinese ownership if the products remain high quality. I have heard some say that quality has slipped in recent years so we will see if that pans out.

As long as Arc’teryx maintains their quality and style, they can hold up their premium pricing. Dead Bird products are like Western Mountaineering or Hilleberg….supreme outdoor kit that attracts those who are willing to pay for the best.

That’s not to say Rab, Outdoor Research, Mountain Hardwear, Montbell and others don’t make high quality apparel, most of which can be bought for considerably less. Though Montbell still maintains higher pricing through direct order only, yet they do have sales from time to time

$900 for a rain jacket is like the cocaine of rain jackets. As Robin Williams would say, “It’s god’s way of saying you have too much money”.

Dude, it’s rain. You’re not made of sugar. You’re not going to melt. But I admit I have a couple of the lowest priced Arcteryx garments. They are pretty good quality.

At least with Western Mountaineering – you’re paying for a crap ton of high fill power white goose down and for being handmade in the USA by one person who signs their name as a badge of pride and a marker of accountability.

There was a sketch on Portlandia called “Put a bird on it”. It seems Arcteryx took that 90’s kitschy factor and turned it into an image of prehistoric outdoorsiness.

Though Montbell still maintains higher pricing through direct order only, yet they do have sales from time to time

Our Montbell retail store has a clearance section. Unfortunately, I don’t think they have many retail stores in the US.

GoLite use to have amazing clearance events, it’s sad that they shut down.

“I don’t think they have many retail stores in the US”

I’m pretty sure the Montbell Colorado store is the only one in the country and it’s where they ship out all of their US online orders. Used to be that the big online retailers (campsaver, backcountry, etc) carried a lot of Montbell products.