Walking and Climbing

On the one hand lighter, less durable gear so high wear and high replacement rate, on the other hand, heavier, more durable gear so low wear and low replacement rate. In the first case higher replacement rate means gear sold more often so lower market saturation, in the second case, less gear sold because of lower replacement rate therefore market saturation more closely approached.

Something wrong somewhere in pricing policy. There again, pricing policy tends to be, charge as much as you can get away with.

Does hold much more strongly for some things than others this.

Very few 'features' to take out of a shoe so lighter ones must be relatively likely to be less durable. 

With some other things (rucksacks, clothing etc) you can lose an awful lot of weight at the design stage and still keep the end result very tough indeed. Like Crux at the fairly invincible end of the spectrum.

Something of a shame that people don't really publish toughness figures like the tear strength/ abrasion resistance etc of fabrics - or even say what the face fabrics on their shells are. There are of some relatively very durable light fabrics like microlight, dynema etc but they can't all be.

I don't think there's a problem with how tough fabrics are. I'm 18 and I've just started replacing the majority of my original outdoor kit which is mostly between 2-3 years old, and I'm amazed how long it's all lasted. Compare outdoor kit to everyday highstreet clothing and you see the outdoor stuff outlives it all many times over, having been used in far far more damaging conditions.

However this could just be that i've never truely used any of the heavy old kit mentioned in the article. Lugging around all that extra weight never really appealed to me

Chris Townsend wrote (see)

Those of us old enough to remember the old heavy stuff also remember that some of it wasn't that durable either! I used to reckon on a PU coated waterproof lasting about a year and tent flysheets used to become brittle and crack after a few years use. Cotton clothing wore thin at the knees and elbows fairly quickly too and wool jumpers didn't last anything like as long as fleece does.

Do you remember the coating on the inside of a cagoule flaking off after less than a year? Kind of like peeling glue off your hands. At least with wooley jumpers you can stick fabric patches on the elbows and shoulders. You don't see that on fleeces, correction you do see some reinforcement on shoulders of some fleeces. Still I am not that old bt I always used wool jumpers for many years. In fact I had a jumper from one of the Greek Islands that was about 2cm thick and acted at least as well as the modern softshells. I remember wearing nothing but this jumper in the hills for years as my insulation layer. I had a HH base layer and this in the middle of winter and I never needed a hardshell as we had proper winters and snow just brushed off the wool as it still had the oils on it. Very much a case of perfect design in nature is wool. Look at the old mountineering clobber that was assessed at Leeds to have been at least comparable to modern stuff in the high altitude climbing, no hindrance to reaching the top of Everest.

I think you can't generalise with these things. I have destroyed Scarpa SLs in less than two years but still have lightweight hill trainers that have lasted 4 years of abuse. I also have lightweight shoes and boots that look like they will be lucky to last 6 months.

I cannot help thinking that some lightweight shoe manufacturers are sheltering behind the 'its light so it wont last' idea. Proper adhesive weighs no more than cheap muck, and shoe upper fabric which is more tearproof again weighs only a few grams more.

I could name and shame, but am now thrilled with some Montrails that have come through 2 hard rubbly weeks with flying colours ...

 I still have half a 1ltr. can of GRANGERS nyloproof saved for special use ie. my leather/material boots it lasts and lasts. Cheers.

When I started walking in winter I would get away with wearing one of those thick lined lumberjack shirts and army green lightweight nylon trousers and army boots with wool socks.

That was 25 years ago.  They lasted me probably best part of 5 years before trading in.  Nowadays there's so much design testing etc and marketing that they almost make you think you need to change items before its worn out.  My only changes now are due to my size.

In relation to durability I've purchased a Montane G force smock this winter (old design but brand new) for £60.  I would class this as lightweight (400g) for XL but the material feels bombproof and I hope to get many years out of it.  Now it really needs to rain for me to use it as the windproof is my favoured item.

For footwear I've got TNF terranius shoes, leather and material with gtx (careful now). Vibram sole, feel sturdy like a boot but so comfortable and hope these will last a couple of years and I wear them all day.  First signs are good.

And in relation to the pu coating on jackets, I remember by a Millets bright green coat and trouser set all with coating on and seeing it peel off after a rather sweaty wet walk down on dartmoor.  Straight for the bin it went.

 Simon, bit young to be wearing lumberjack shirt and army boots eh?? Cheers.

 25yrs. Wow.