 Interesting stuff. Rab seem to be moving into the US market in a big way. Using US fillpower, and names like the Bugaboo suit that market. They have also bought Integral Designs, and are moving production from Canada to the US. Story here.
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 21gm weight saving with the new fabric too mike.
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21gm weight saving with the new fabric too mike. My Montbell jacket is lighter anyway Parky.  
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 Well 21g is only about the weight of one of those zips on the pockets  Not that these don't like pretty nice mind - pretty well as much down as in an neutrino endurance and non trivially lighter. Mind you it does seem to have caught a version of minaturised baffle disease. Seem seriously infectious nowadays that. Far from terminal but annoying, and must hurt it slightly. Its not like normal baffles are going to be short of down at this fill weight!
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I agree with you on the tiny pockets/baffles Martin. Lots of jackets seem to have it recently. Doesn't seem right to have lots of cozy down, yet have lots of sewn through cold spots.
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Handy spots for water to get in and down to get out too of course Oh and restricting the loft a touch for good measure. (although its not totally clear how badly that hits the overall warmth.). I have a feeling that fashion may have a few things to answer for Perhaps justified in terms of down control at very low fill weights - Mont Bell/Western Mountaineering use it then but then drop it for their heavier things. Arguably this thing is thick enough it should ideally be box wall like a Yukon/Meltdown etc. Pricy to do that though!
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 Smaller baffles mean that the down does stay put, though; larger down pockets can allow down to shift about and need re-fluffing. Not that that's a great problem... The likes of the Micropuff may be to blame for the apparent fashion for smaller quilting sections.
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I'll stick to my old ME lightline smock. Larger pockets, drilite shell and feathers escaping from the downproof outer fabric. Still can't complain as I got it half price 15 years ago.
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That's very bad news indeed. I mean that Rab have bought ID. The article says production in Calgary will continue until 2011.
Doesn't take a rocket scientist to read between the lines there.
There are several products in the ID line-up in direct competition to Rab stuff. And they're better.
They, and Canada-based production will go.
Bad news.
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 Perhaps Equip will recognise which ID products are better than the Rab equivalents and keep the ID ones....? 
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Actually maybe no need for deep despair. Equip brought up outdoors design a couple of years back. What that seems to have done is produce a smaller range of RAB branded gloves/hats and things but not to have directly affected OD so much. In fact they're in pretty much direct competition in more than a few places. I suppose its not clear if they'll mantain the split long term. I wonder what they wanted ID for?
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 I have a feeling that fashion may have a few things to answer for Perhaps justified in terms of down control at very low fill weights - Mont Bell/Western Mountaineering use it then but then drop it for their heavier things. Arguably this thing is thick enough it should ideally be box wall like a Yukon/Meltdown etc. Pricy to do that though!
I've a Crux Halo which is in this category, Martin. It's less of an issue IMO for gear designed to be midlayer (as this is). Anything with a decent fill weight should really be box wall if possible. I'm pretty sure that Crux would vehemently deny doing anything of design significance for fashion reasons...
I'm also a bit concerned to hear ID have been acquired. It might be fine but looking at how POD has diversified (not a criticism as I haven't seen their new gear but clearly the number of lines has increased enormously) , it may be hard for them to stay purist. John
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Yes, its fine for things designed to be a midlayer. Thats probably where it started (down sweater etc). Its the way its spread out from that base which annoys Many of the things from POD - the new stuffsacs say - are basically modern updates of things originally from outdoor designs. In fact OD aren't doing stuffsacs anymore it seems so that bit did get moved across and rebranded rather than a direct diversification. Long term I don't suppose it would be so surprising if some less madly durable rucksacks (backpacking not climbing) turned up in the range somewhere. I don't suppose one can blame Equip for trying to build a complete outdoors portifolio - a lot of the other bigger brands are at it of course. What is interesting is that OD/POD both fitted into that plan quite nicely, while there's an awful lot of duplication with ID's stuff vs RAB. Tarps don't seem the most obviously large market to try and break into
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A lot of the ID stuff is very popular with US/Canadian cold weather hikers/hunters.
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And ID has a fairly big presence in military spec kit too as far as I know...
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 1. Bugaboo name is apparently not going to be, the jacket will be called the Xenon.
2. Talking to Neil about ID, I got the impression that the corporate mission is to produce really good kit and I very much doubt that ID stuff will be axed if it overlaps with other products in the group. As an example, both outdoordesigns and Rab are part of the Equip stable and both produce outdoor gloves.
On top of that, ID has minimal presence in the UK.
On the Pod front, the new stuff seems very much based on tough functionality, the brand's core values. I think Equip understand that and their aim is more about getting it into more shops and expanding the brand that way than in cheapening it, which would be counter produtive.
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That sounds reassuring, Jon. Hopefully the offshoot will be more availability of ID gear in the UK.
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You can get some Integral Designs gear from UOG John. They will order anything they don't stock for you. I queried about a bit of kit from them they didn't stock, and the price they qouted me was only slightly more than the £/$ exchange rate, and no custom fees to worry about.
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What Mike said. Had the same experience with UOG meself. Only downside, I suppose, is that if you don't like what you got, it may be difficult to return it. But with ID stuff you're unlikely to be disappointed!
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