Walmart

Good for starter gear. Maybe this is needed for our sport IF it is well made.

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They bought into Moosejaw…

Interesting article.  There are already UL item I procure from Walmart – dry bags, butane-mix fuel canister, beater trekking poles, FD food, $1 pasta and rice sides, etc.

The article seemed out of touch in stating that “European outdoor retail giant Decathlon  . . . manufactures its own gear, (and) offers a 6.8-pound backpacking tent.”

In what decade was a 6.8-pound tent a “backpacking tent”?!?  Spoiler alert: the 1970s.  Nick and Roger and I were all backpacking in the 1970s, but most of the world’s population wasn’t even born until after 1990 when a 3-kg tent was laughable as BPing gear.

Ken,

I’m not sure if I agree or disagree with your comment.  Could you elaborate?

:

hope that is clear

•

*>.

I understand the arguments against shopping at Walmart.   I think this fills an important niche in the market where this can help reduce the financial barrier for some people to get outdoors.

I think we all take for granted the time we’ve invested into the pursuit of refining our gear where it becomes easy to forget that many people are looking at the learning curve with some trepidation, and having budget friendly easy to source options like this will hopefully bridge the gap between a curiosity and their first step on the trail.

I don’t see this as direct competition with MLD, Z packs, Enlightened Equipment, etc but I could be wrong

That’s weird.   I didn’t try to add a link to EE, but alas, there it is.   That’s some next level marketing

Wow!  EE automatically linked to their website too lol!

Ian,

I have noticed that if you type a product name and BPL has an affiliate marketing agreement with the company, it will link to that company automatically. In the URL you only see the company’s web address. But if you go to the actual URL and click it, as to edit it, the “real” URL shows.
So in the one you just did, the whole URL is this:

https://enlightenedequipment.com/?avad=189374_d1ad0564d

This means it is linked to BPL’s AvantLink’s account, where EE is a affiliate merchant. If you you buy something, usually within the next 30 days, BPL gets a commission, typically 5-10%

When you go to that site, a cookie is inserted in your computer to remember you.

I have nothing against affiliate marketing, I use it on my blog. But I think what is happening here is kind of sneaky, and I don’t remember this feature being disclosed, especially since we pay to post on BPL.

I’m happy when I turn on the computer and it doesn’t catch on fire so it doesn’t take much to impress me.

I’m pretty dialed in on gear and don’t think or talk about it too much these days, so it’s little surprise that I’m just discovering this

“But I think what is happening here is kind of sneaky”

Personally, I’d say it’s pretty sleazy.

I make sure now to include the link I wish to promote and misspell on purpose to avoid BPL making money off us this way

I think people get turned off of backpacking using lousy cheap equipment that fails

Ken,

As I said, good for starter gear… IF it is well made. Surely some will show up in various Gear Swap forums in a year or so.

About 10 years ago I bought Eddie Bauer hiking poles from Walmart and their internal “locking” ferrule lasted just about as long as my LEKI poles’ locking ferrule. So not too bad.

Hey, I bought carbon fiber Cascade Mountain Tech hiking poles at COSTCO in 2014 and they are still going strong. It’s always “Caveat Emptor”.

I took a look on the Walmart site and ran a search for Lithic.

As an example, the 40l backpack is made with 200d fabric, has multiple compartments, and weighs in at about 3.5 lbs.

They have a stove that appears to compete against Jetboil and MSR windburner type stoves for $50.

Another canister stove weighs in at 3.1 Oz and seems to have a concave design that may improve performance in breezy conditions.  Maybe not.

The lunatic fringe on BPL are already making plans to use the 4.2 oz 21l bag to run the JMT with.

Down bag has already sold out since yesterday

An interesting story (back story) about:

Walmart and Moosejaw launch two potentially groundbreaking mid-market brands

I try to never go into a Walmart story because I don’t like their method of doing business or how they treat employees, customers, and vendors. For many people though, Walmart is one of their few low-price options, especially if they don’t shop online.

“In what decade was a 6.8-pound tent a “backpacking tent”?!? Spoiler alert: the 1970s. ”
In the mid 60s during Scouts, my buddies and Ised Korean War surplus ponchoes. During the 70s, the tents were heavy and too expensive so we just used hardware store blue polyester tarps (and Svea stoves).

My Svea stove still works great.

The synthetic bag is 56ozs.   Yikes.   No thanks.

One person tent claims 80” x 37” x 42” of space.   Relatively heavy at 3.8 lbs but it’s otherwise palatial if the interior dimensions are true.  They also include a footprint which is usually an option for an REI tent.  It may be possible to get it down to under 3lbs if you leave the footprint at home.

I normally recommend the Protrail or Motrail as budget friendly options for people who aren’t ready to make the leap to tarp camping, but this is 1/3 the cost.

I’ve managed so far not to have purchased anything from Sam Wall’s stores