>>2855627Arcteryx is super overpriced, and if you hadn't noticed they literally started a line of super expensive urban street wear, like Balenciaga-level bizarre fashion shit.
Most of the legit stuff is little cottage brands you might find on Garage Grown Gear or even Etsy.
Mountain Hardwear is still pretty legit, they never sold out and switched to street wear like half the other major brands, and aren't stupid expensive. Like, North Face petty much just sells to college girls now. Arc'teryx is trying to go the other way to maintain a "premium" imprint by chasing fashion fags and crazy rich asians. Ultimately the actual outdoor climbing and trekking scene is a limited market and to keep growing you have to start selling to domestic normies eventually or you'll reach market saturation. Marmot is owned by a private equity firm now and their quality has since been trashed. Patagonia is hit or miss: the quality is the same as the other major brands but you pay extra to say it's "fair trade" or something. The REI and MEC store-brands are actually pretty good value for money. I hear Mountain Hardwear dodged a bullet by getting acquired by Columbia, which is an outdoor clothing brand which already catered to normies - so they left Mountain Hardware alone to focus on the premium "alpine athlete" market. Black Diamond and Mammut are pretty good. Outdoor Research is hit or miss but can be good value.
