How can you say the stitiching on the cuffs is a minor issue, especially with the problems rab have had with stitching in general since they moved production to china.
Given the amount of rab stuff I see in shops, have owned and other people have mentioned on this very website with stitching falling out, this really is not an isolated problem.
You guys need to grow some balls and review accordingly otherwise rab are going to continue ignore the issue and produice otherwise excellentclothing that is fatally flawed for serious use.
It's relatively minor in functional terms, the jacket still works, it's not ideal though. If it were a main seam then it would be a lot more serious. It's the first Rab jacket we've had issues with, but it suggests that the lycra trim is poorly stitched to the sleeve. There are pictures of it, it's clearly mentioned in the text. If it's a major issue for you, the evidence is there, nothing's been swept under the carpet.
Personally, I think it is a minor fault, given that the rest of the jacket is very good. I can't really review a jacket on the basis of faults on other kit that we haven't seen or tested, can I? I think we'd be deservedly criticised if we did.
Is a slightly detached lycra cuff really a 'fatal flaw' for serious use? Isn't really just a bit irritating?
Personally I think it is a fatal flaw if your paying £120 for it. How would you feel then? Would you still be a bit irritated? I can't afford to throw it on the spare pile because it was a free test sample and use one of the million other jackets I have lying around. I'm not suggesting any impropriety with that it's just thatyou're coming across as though your out of touch with people who have to actually go out and pay for clothing.
Furthermore, I didn't suggest anything about "sweeping things under the rug" quite the opposite. What I meant was how can you rate a jacket so highly with such an obvious defect?
I don't think the poor stitching is really a fatal flaw, but it is an issue and I don't see how the jacket could get full marks for performance with such a fault. Surely a star knocked off, with an explanation as to why this had been done, would have been more appropriate.
The bottom line is that if you returned it to your retailer, it would be either repaired or replaced since it's clearly a manufacturing fault.
I take your point about the overall mark though, I'll consider revising it in the light of the stitching issue on Monday. The performance wasn't affected by the fault, though yes, if I'd paid £120 for a jacket, I'd expect the stitching to be perfect.
I'm not sure the term 'fatal flaw' is particularly helpful btw. It's actually a relatively minor flaw in functional terms as it doesn't impact on the overall performance of the jacket.
I'm a big fan of RAB kit, have got event jacket which i love, and two fleece, but have also had problems with the stitching. Returned and replaced ok, but it does seem that Rab now have a problem with their manufacturing.
There does seem to be more reports of sub-standard manufacturing since they moved abroad. Is it worse, or maybe simply more folk are using Rab stuff, and using online forums?
Unfortunatly I've gotta agree about the stitching issue. Over the last few years I've bought a fair few RAB items, and whilst I love the design and performance, the quality of stitching has been pretty poor.
My Latok and baltoro jackets both had loose threads, as did a polartech jumper, annoying but not not enough to try to get them exchanged. The gloves I bought had one hand significantly smaller than the other, unforunately you couldn't tell this until you took the smaller glove off the packaging, hence I didn't know till after I bought it. Rab did replace them for free, and they were very polite, and apologetic that they didn't have the right style in stock, and gave me options on what to have instead.
So love the design, and the support has been pretty good, but the basic quality of finish is definately lacking at the moment. Especially at the prices that they charge.
I would agree that since production switched to China, the quality is not as good. RAB described to problem "When we made the stuff 5 miles down the road and there was a production / manufacture issue, we could deal with it straight away and put it right. Now we have to wait for the first shipment from China, by which time if there is a fault it's too late to do anything about it and we may have hundreds of faulty peices". M/E have exactly the same problem.
Re the stitching, I bought a RAB belay jacket and within 2 days the stitching had come away on the internal pocket. Whilst this failure may not be regarded as 'critical', it is disappointing that it is there at all, and if the jacket has what may be described as "a secondary failure which in no way compromises the overall performance of the product", whose to say that in a months time the main "critical seam" may not fail? If it does I for one hope that I am shopping and not stuck in the Cairngorms in a storm. But considering the number of RAB products I have, the number of manufacturing defects has been exceptionally small and most of their products have exceeded my expectations.
When I have had a problem, their customer services have always been outstanding with immediate repair / replacement offered, which is very re-assuring.
I haven't used the Sabretooth, thought the guys at Montane rave about it - SRP for the Sabretooth is £160 though, which is a fair chunk more than the Shadow. I'm told that it's a very expensive fabric, but I'm not sure why the price difference is so big.
As far as overall construction on the Rab Shadow goes, mostly the seams are flatlocked and seem to be lasting just fine, the only problem we've had is with the single line of stitches which holds the Lycra strip onto the cuff of the jacket.
Don't buy it then LaptopAcidXperience. Everything about the jacket was clearly stated. If you are greatly opposed to a 'fatal cuff stitching problem' then look somewhere else.
