Australian Gear

[TerraMer]

What is your best Australian branded equipment?
What gear can we buy locally that is as good or better quality as any import?
It would be better if it's made in Australia but I think supporting and promoting Australian business is part of ethical and sustainable consumerism. After all, we like to think of our walking and trekking as sustainable recreation.
Or am I being too idealistic and missing a bigger picture?
What are your views on the subject?

[Strider]

Australian branded? Or Australian manufactured? For example, Kathmandu is the former but not necessarily the latter.

I dont own any Australian made equipment.

[Ent]

Hi

One Plant makes some gear in Australia and other stuff off shore with some being a combination of bits. But I love their packs. They are the best in the world for their intended market, that being people looking for a solid pack with an excellent load carrying harness. The gaiters are outstanding compared to any other brand.

As for clothing my favorite brands are hard to find but Wilderness Wear stuff has never let me down and is well sized for me.

Sadly most other stuff I can not find but always on the prowl for Australian made stuff by people interested in bushwalking rather than profit alone.

Now we need to be aware that Australian made label can be abused by low marketing. At least one brand buys the clothing in pre cut form and gets it stitched together locally so the labour component meets the rules. This means the raw material is ultra cheap and poor quality as if was not then the imported materials would be too expensive compared to the labour component so not be able to be sold as Australian made. In this case it is better to buy overseas made.

Actually I prefer specialist manufacturers over mass brands and find say with Tonka bags, even if made offshore are superior to the me-to made in other factories for the mass market inhouse brands.

At the end of the day "quality is long remembered after price is forgotten".

Cheers

[Moondog55]

I own lots of Australian made gear and clothing. All of it "OLD" Even my favourite maker WE has sent all of its manufacture off shore.
There are boutique manufacturers here ( Evan "hitch hiker" is one ) but outdoor clothing is such a small market that there is too little profit in it to attract any really talented people to making and sewing clothing.
A commercial quantity of fabric ( let's say a particular Goretex; W H Gore have huge minimums ) may be full rolls of fabric at 1,000 metres per roll and minimum purchases of 10 rolls; this being of each weight and colour. A boutique manufacturer may need to pay retail prices for small ( less than 100 metres ) lengths of fabric. It isn't labour cost, always; it is often the inability to bulk purchase raw materials that drives the cost of a finished article into the unaffordable.

[Gusto]

Quite a few brands have shifted to using eVent as they don't need to purchase as much at a single time than Gore-Tex.

Summit Gear are a small brand in NSW that make packs. I don't know much about them though. http://www.summitgear.com.au/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=22&zenid=08e98cfac1557c6414dd693ba038b3de

Terra Rosa Gear - http://www.terrarosagear.com/

If you include NZ Tthen there are a couple more:

Cactus Gear: http://www.cactusclimbing.co.nz/

Twin Needle, they have a funny website. They sell custom made packs http://www.twinneedle.co.nz/sackbuilder-about.html aswell as some other gear http://twinneedle.bigcartel.com/


As mentioned already, Wilderness Wear and One Planet still manufacture in Melbourne.

W.E., Sea To Summit and Mont still do R&D in Australia. Aarn does R&D in New Zealand. I presume that Macpac still does R&D in New Zealand. I also presume that most R&D for Kathmandu, Mountain Designs and Anaconda is done in Australia.

[taswegian]

Or am I being too idealistic and missing a bigger picture
I would say no. I could say others are missing 'a bigger picture'. One day the penny will drop and then it will be a hard road back.

I'm like Moondogs and my 'old' gear that I value for its quality is my Paddy gear and Thomas Cook clothing. But the Paddy gear sits together and unused. Sadly replaced by newer.
Well I do drag out my pack but the tent - no.

For work I use Aussie Steel Blue safety boots and chose them for the made in Oz and their quality.
I have Italian walking boots but a pair of Rossi walking boots for everyday use (outside of work) that recently they resoled for me for about $90 return post. Now thats good old fashioned service. I'd be interested to see how some of the other well known brands would stack up to the service I had from Rossi.

TerraMer keep up the good work
regards
Richard

[LTM]

I have kept a pair of Rossi Falcons going from the mid 90's. They are on their 4th or 5th vibram re-sole, I treat them with dubbin after every walk. They do 6=8 weekend pack carrying walks and a week long trek each year.
It's amazing that Rossi keep a factory going in Aust!
I have a similar vintage Mont goretex jacket, retired it two years ago as it just seems to leak water where your pack straps go over your shoulder.
I think it is hard for the locals with the value of the AUD$ and the US lightweight gear these days.

[Macca81]

I have Aussie made gear... But it is all made at home

[Mountain Rocket]

One Planet still manufacture some great gear here in Australia. Terra Rossa is also notable.
Oh and we can not forget Wilderness Wear, who make some fantastic outdoor clothing.

Personally I get Aus made where practical, but if there is a 'better' product made elsewhere in the world that is what I will pursue.
With that said, 95% of all my hiking gear is made in 'developed' nations.

[blacksheep]

Another consideration may be what does a company and or its directors do with profits. Eg; do the profits help the preservation of wilderness in Australia ( and nz) or to community groups ? Is that a company that you would support? It's worth exploring the externalities of choices perhaps.

[tele-whippet]

Don't forget Summit Gear
http://www.summitgear.com.au/

[Tony]

While reading Aussie made gear - what's its cost versus imported, I started thinking if it would be possible to put together a fully Australian/New Zealand made bushwalking kit, so I started to do some research on the net.

I also found this thread, which started while I was away, so I thought I would add my 2CW.

After a few hours surfing I realised that this is going to be harder than I first thought. I did not realise that so few gear manufactures that still make gear in Australia or New Zealand are left.

During my search I came across an excellent Blog by a BWA members, Cam Walker on Green Outdoor Gear , Cam Walker has already done a lot of research into Australian outdoor gear companies mainly to do with their sustainability but also if they actually do make any gear here in Australia or New Zealand and many thanks for his excellent work.

What is worrying is that, what I have found so far is that if a product has the Australian Made logo or Australian Owned logo, it does necessarily mean a product has been made here in Australia or the company is even owned locally. This site http://buyaustralianlogo.com.au/australian-made.html has some interesting information on Australian owned, made and grown labels.

Results, as mentioned in earlier post, there are still a few companies (One Planet, Summit Gear, Cactus Gear, Twin Needle) that make packs in Australia or New Zealand and some clothing manufactures (Wilderness Wear, Qualitops) and a boot maker (Rossi), there is also as mentioned above, Terra Rosa Gear who is a small cottage gear manufacturer who makes Tarps and custom bug inners, I also noticed on his site that he is playing with quilts.

So for my list I have a Australian made pack, some clothes, thermals, socks, WP jacket/WP pants (Wildeness Wear) and a pair of boots

I still need an Australian made sleeping bag, a sleeping mat, a tent (though a trap and bug inner might have to do), stove, pot and utensils.

Tony

[Ent]

Good brands coming up here. I have felt for some time that the best gear comes from companies where the staff use there own products. Tend to find gear from countries with similar weather conditions to Tassie are the go.

Very little issue with gear failures from Aussie or NZ made products but a chooks lottery with stuff made in cheap labour countries. Some excellent with other poor. Also tend to have no warranty issues with Aussie companies while other brands made offshore again a lottery.

Tending to find paying extra worth it in the long run. Better fit in clothing for me and longevity.

Be great if more brands could be found, especially in rainwear. Best socks I have are NZ 70 mile bush socks but in true chain store style they disappeared and have been replaced with a home brand product that is no cheaper just nasty.

Cheers

[Tony]

Good brands coming up here. I have felt for some time that the best gear comes from companies where the staff use there own products. Tend to find gear from countries with similar weather conditions to Tassie are the go.

Very little issue with gear failures from Aussie or NZ made products but a chooks lottery with stuff made in cheap labour countries. Some excellent with other poor. Also tend to have no warranty issues with Aussie companies while other brands made offshore again a lottery.

Tending to find paying extra worth it in the long run. Better fit in clothing for me and longevity.

Be great if more brands could be found, especially in rainwear. Best socks I have are NZ 70 mile bush socks but in true chain store style they disappeared and have been replaced with a home brand product that is no cheaper just nasty.

Cheers

Hi Ent,

I agree with what you have written above, Australian made gear is generally very good quality and warranty issues are usually easier to deal with than OS gear.

I have to confess, with my current gear list, while I have some Australian sourced gear I do not think I have one piece of made in Australian or NZ gear.

Tony

[Ent]

Hi Tony

It is not easy. My preference for traditional weight gear means One Planet packs and Wilderness Wear clothing along with the never died Aussie made MD tops. They must be ten year or more years old and still wash up like new. Also the Georgetown clothing was great.

But those bits aside USA/European/Taiwan stuff fights it out with a sprinkling of other countries. But low cost countries are creeping in as there is often no alternative. But heading more for specialty brands nowadays to better suit my preferences. Which is strong but lighter gear.

It is annoying when a NZ items appears and then disappears as a lot of their NZ made stuff is excellent. It is also sad when a brand changes ownership and production location changes often with quality. Some firms can hold on to the quality but many do not.

Cheers

[ggorgeman]

I have kept a pair of Rossi Falcons going from the mid 90's. They are on their 4th or 5th vibram re-sole, I treat them with dubbin after every walk. They do 6=8 weekend pack carrying walks and a week long trek each year.

I'm keen to know which brand/s of dubbin members would recommend? Thanks

[Ent]

Hi

Dubbin gets a lot of bad press for rotting stitching and overly softening the leather so it weakens. But not sure if thus really is the case So I use Snowseal or something similar. Find that RM Williams leather conditioner works well.

Cheers

[ggorgeman]

Thanks for that......I do have the RM Williams conditioner and find that its good but haven't tried anything else; so will keep using it...cheers

[Gusto]

Here's another Brand I forgot to mention earlier.

Glanda - http://www.glanda.com.au/

They are an industry/comercial only manufacturer, so they aren't very well known.


Australian made Gore-Tex rain wear

[Marwood]

There's a local company (Wollongong, NSW) that makes multi-use pot cosies for most makes/models of billies: http://www.soultrampers.com/index.html. Haven't seen them mentioned on this site before - I saw a thing about their products on a US-based hiking blog.

[slparker]

Anyone wear Rossi boots? Still made in oz. I have a pair of mulgas for day walks and general kicking around... Very comfortable boots. apart from Baxter and rm Williams must be one of the only boots still made here.

[LTM]

Hi

Dubbin gets a lot of bad press for rotting stitching and overly softening the leather so it weakens. But not sure if thus really is the case So I use Snowseal or something similar. Find that RM Williams leather conditioner works well.

Cheers

I have heard that said before about dubbin but it has not been my experience. Been using the commonly available Kiwi dubbin on the Rossi Falcons at least 6 times a year for at least 15 years and they just keep on going. I use the RM Williams soap and conditioner on my works shoes also and like it a lot.

[andrewa]

Interesting thread. I worked for MDs part time back in the late 80's, and their gear was made in Oz then. As the company grew, and the quality of offshore (largely Chinese) production improved, it made sense to get stuff made offshore. In the the, 80's Chinese stuff was badly sewn, with 8 stitches per inch, compared with 12-14 forlocally made stuff, and it was easy to sell a locally made product against a cheaper Chinese import, but nowadays the Chinese stuff is very well made, so you can't now argue about Chinese manufacture being poor.

?progress.... I suppose that's why we look on the net for gear. It's all now made well, so why pay higher prices for stuff made in Oz. myself-I mostly make my own. More fun still!
A