Ford vs. Chevy
The point of this piece was that the brand argument is mostly noise: the gear out there is good, and unless you are buying from a supermarket or a market stall, most of it works. That has aged extremely well, and it has become more true rather than less.
Why the brand tribalism persists anyway: gear is expensive, the decision feels consequential, and people defend what they bought. Meanwhile the actual manufacturing is concentrated in a smaller number of factories than the logos suggest, and the fabrics come from the same handful of mills.
What genuinely distinguishes brands, and it is not performance:
- Fit. Different makers cut for different bodies, and this is the only difference that will ruin a trip. It is also the one you can only settle by trying things on.
- Warranty and repair. A brand that will fix a fifteen-year-old pack is worth more than one with a better spec sheet. Several of the serious ones now do this as a matter of course.
- Availability of spares. A replaceable buckle, tip or lock is the difference between a repair and a landfill.
The one place to spend up, unchanged since this was written: boots and a pack, because they touch you and carry weight. Everything else can be the cheap version until it annoys you, and quite often it never does.
And the thing that decides whether gear is good: whether you use it. The finest jacket in the world is worse than a mediocre one you actually take.