quechua

[wayno]

anyone tried this brand?
reading an article about a chap who's doing the length of the south island. says he gets most of his clothes from decathlon which sells them, claims they are as good as the expensive brands. no idea if he's sponsored.
just wondered if anyone has tried them and how they'd compare them to other brands...
prices are reasonably cheap.

http://www.decathlon.com.au/hiking-camp ... g-clothes/

[Mark F]

Quechua is Decatholon's house brand sold in France and surrounding countries. It is low cost and of average quality similar to Anaconda etc.For general clothing it is fine - I have a pair of zip-off pants and a sun hat, but I wouldn't be choosing tents, sleeping bags etc from their range or specialist rainwear or puffies etc.

[wayno]

look at the north face, teir parent company made $430 million in profit last year, you can see in part why their gear is more expensive..

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... ntain-cred

[Franco]

I don't think that there is any connection between The North Face (or Vanity Fair Corporation, who owns TNF) and Decathlon.

I see now what I did..
I, mentally, inserted a comma after "their parent company" , sorry about that.

Last edited by Franco on Tue 02 Dec, 2014 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[wayno]

no i wasnt trying to imply there was.. but i was looking at the vast difference in pricings between brands.. and looking at the profit of an expensive brand like the north face you can see where some of the extra price goes...

[GPSGuided]

I get the impression that for the quality of these, might as well as go directly to Aliexpress. Typically quite comparable as they are similarly sourced.

[vicrev]

I have bought Decathlon gear in France,found their prices quite reasonable & the quality not so bad generally ,they seem to source a lot from Portugal,great footwear..............Vicrev

[wayno]

i've seen a lot of people wearing Quechua, its a reasonably popular brand in other countries...

[slparker]

an $8.50 Quecha synthetic t-shirt may lack the multi-panelled and athletic cut of the $100 TNF version but I'd be very surprised if the performance or fabric were any different. Similarly, their 100wt fleece is, i presume, made in the same mills as the patagonia or arcteryx...

[wayno]

aparently the more expensive wicking shirts have grooved fibres that speeds up the wicking, by how much i dont know... is it worth the extra money, for you to decide?

[wayno]

what I wonder is, if a brand is spending a fortune on marketing and advertising, do they know they can get away with cahrging an extra premium because people will pay the extra money for a brand they recognise more over other brands that don't advertise and market as much?

[blacksheep]

Surely that is obvious... Quencha are not innovative in many instances, or remarkable in design, but the basics are pretty equal.

[GPSGuided]

what I wonder is, if a brand is spending a fortune on marketing and advertising, do they know they can get away with cahrging an extra premium because people will pay the extra money for a brand they recognise more over other brands that don't advertise and market as much?

Their return will come through increased margin (not always wise) or through increased volume. Or they will recoup through both, increase a little margin x a major increase in volume.

[vicrev]

I have bought so called wicking shirts ( damn expensive ) & to be quite honest,I cant notice much difference ,if anything,they seem to make me sweat more than my old cotton walking shirts.......is this wicking business just another con ??......they just hang in the wardrobe ,never used.........Vicrev

[slparker]

I have bought so called wicking shirts ( damn expensive ) & to be quite honest,I cant notice much difference ,if anything,they seem to make me sweat more than my old cotton walking shirts.......is this wicking business just another con ??......they just hang in the wardrobe ,never used.........Vicrev

I'm ambivalent about them, and I have a few - they work for cycling where I wouldn't wear anything else but I find the nylon walking versions very clammy in hot weather and slow to dry. Polyester (coolmax) is much better but can stink a little. My current faves are a long sleeved woven polyester shirt from TNF and a coolmax polyester casual shirt from kathmandu - both are loose and ventilated, I guess the opposite of 'wicking'.

merino is great for cooler weather but is hideous in humid warm weather IMHO.

[magoo]

I bought a pair of their florclaz 900 pants when I was in Europe in July. They are advertised here: http://www.decathlon.co.uk/forclaz-900- ... 98974.html

For me, they fit extremely well. I am a slim fit and i had tried on a bunch of brands (including hagloffs, TNF, patagonia) but found they were all a little baggy, even the supposedly slim fit models. So, I was a little shocked when I picked these up for about 35 euros. I wore them for a couple of weeks trekking in switzerland, including some bumsliding down snowy passes, rock scrambling and glacier crossings and they performed very well. Nice stretch, quick drying, lightweight, articulated and reinforced knee, flat pockets, ykk zips, and tough. I'm quite a fussy buyer and I confess I was impressed. They're probably a bit close fitting for a lot of Aussie bushwalking but they are ideal for alpine walking.

Their other stuff is a bit of a mixed bag admittedly (their tents looked pretty shocking), but I'd say there are some gems there for those wanting well priced, slim /european fit clothing.

[GPSGuided]

I think those wicking fabrics are good if there's air current about to help evaporate the sweat. With walking on humid days, it's just going to be a wet plaster as there's often little wind when stuck within the bushes. A loose fitting cotton T that can be puffed and fanned will be much more comfortable. For cycling, there's always wind when one pedals.

[roysta]

I went into a Quecha store in Chamonix last year and bought some socks, *&%$#! brilliant.
I think their general gear is ok but I'm not sure how it would be in really awful conditions.

[aden94]

I'm french, and I can tell you that Decathlon quality-wise would be the equivalent of Kathmandu.

[jitubisht]

Hi all,

anyone tried this tent or the smaller version of it?

http://www.decathlon.com.au/p/8243148_q ... #/30-254-_

[Tortoise]

No, but a wind resistance of 70km/hr isn't much if you want to camp high in exposed places. Of course, I'm biased, but why wouldn't you want the best views?

[jitubisht]

Thanks for your response Tortoise. I didn't really think much about camping at high altitudes. It will be our first tent and we have only ever camped once before in a dome tent.

My fault too, I didn't really mention what my requirements are. So here they are:

1. Would need a 4p tent at least because we are 3 people travelling around Australia for most times.
2. We also travel around Australia on our Motorcycle two up. I have a top box, unfortunately I cannot pack a tent that goes wider than 53 cms (this reason alone rules out many tents for us)
3. We wish to now combine our love for motorcycle touring and bushwalking, we would like the tent to ideally be below 4 kilos. Under 5kilos is acceptable too. We could be motorcycling to a campsite, pitching our tents and then bushwalking the following day. We could be hiking and wouldn't mind a 4-5kg tent weight being split amongst us.
4. We wish to purchase only one tent for now.

People say there is no 1 tent to rule them all, but so far this tent has ticked all the boxes for our requirements. We are open to recommendations.

[yeverett]

Hey Mitsubishi

...We wish to now combine our love for motorcycle touring and bushwalking, we would like the tent to ideally be below 4 kilos. Under 5kilos is acceptable too. We could be motorcycling to a campsite, pitching our tents and then bushwalking the following day. We could be hiking and wouldn't mind a 4-5kg tent weight being split amongst us.
4. We wish to purchase only one tent for now.....

We motorcycle camp and bushwalk too, currently looking at the Weschler Intrepid 4TL Travelline as it packs small, weight 4.6kg and can take all our motorcycle boots jackets etc in the vestibule under cover and out of sight. Just hesitant about the price! Was wondering what tent you got and how it turned out for you?
PS you can never have too many packs or tents! Small light hiking tent, motorcycle camping tent, rooftop 4WD tent...

[Warin]

3 people don't fit on one motorcycle. So I'd go for 2 tents... and both X mids, one 2 person and one one person. You will want poles for them - those are extra. Total weight would be under 3 kg. The tents pack small. The poles are another matter, chose carefully. The vestibules are reasonable for the amount of motorcycling gear.

[wallwombat]

I have one of their down jackets. 800 fill down. Hood. Quality zip and about 290 g. $130. Absolute bargain, I reckon.

[wallwombat]

Actually, the downie is a brand called Forclaz or something, which seems to be another Decathlon inhouse brand.

I do have a quechua ultralight bum bag that I bought for $4 , because my Exos 38 didn't have hipbelt pockets. I'm thinking about buying some more and sewing them into a couple of other packs as hipbelt pockets. They are perfect.

[Dread]

There are a few new positive reviews on Youtube for the Decathlon Trek 100 puffy. This is NOT the same as the Trek 100 Puffy in the Australian Decathlon Catalogue. You want the Trek 500 in Australia ... why they changed the name in Australia and introduced a crappy non-down Trek 100 is a bit of a mystery to me ...

[mikeRsyd]

The trek 500 down jacket is light and warm, also the synthetic cheap puffy is good, there is a micro grid quarter zip jumper that's very light and warm, it's a good layering piece. The cheap bumbag is good, the packable shoulder bag is also good and light ( good for travel more than hiking) fleece neck gaiter is good and warm. They have alot of budget things.


Sent from my Mi 9 Lite using Tapatalk

[wallwombat]

I have the Trek 500 down jacket.

[Moondog55]

I have the Trek 500 down jacket.

What is the fit like?
I am chasing a bumming around warm layer but I want room to layer underneath it too.