SOT: The South Butt

[GutIt]

Yvon Chouinard happens to be one of my personal heros. And I have a good bit of their stuff as well. And when it dates to when he owned it. Awesome gear.

I'll just assume for the sake of argument that you would email and boycott Patagonia if they were parodied, post it up, and then unload all of your Pat gear over this.

[ebell]

I don't own anything by north face and I hope that their stuff is great because it sure is expensive.

I just find it funny that they take this so seriously. This south butt business will never infringe on their botton line. In fact i would wager that if they hadn't sued over the issue nobody outside of Central MO would have ever heard much about South BUTT.

The North Face suing may be the best advertisement that South Butt ever gets.

I do always enjoy a good joke and to me this lawsuit business is funny stuff.

eric

[George Locke]

Gotta weigh in on this- The Face was the premier brand of outdoor clothing while I was retailing in the late 70s early 80s at Ozark Mtn. Sports - GPIW(Patagonia) and Marmot were coming on but TNF had it all. They always treated customers and retailers well. I had borrowed an Oval Intention from a friend to take on my honeymoon out east and after a battle with a tequila bottle, fell through the tent breaking several poles. I sent the tent in and they stated they no longer made the ring Oval and only produced the pole sleeve oval which used different poles... They sent me a Complete Brand New Pole Sleeve Oval. That was then before they were aquired by Vanity Fair. They still have some good expedition lines but my 15 year old grand daughter and her friends are wearing TNF. Not quality stuff but it says The North Face. I see shabby TNF sweatshirts on some of the most struggling children- They are not the same company since VF has purchased them. South Butt works for me!
Geo.

[okieboater]

George, same here, every kid in my 14 year old grand daughter's class wears a North Face Jacket. Great sales man ship on TNF's part to expand their market draw.

I have one of the North Face Parka jackets made with Gore Tex. Got that thing up in Maine some ten years ago and it was not cheap.

Still have it, have worn the thing in Maine winters, Boston winters with rain and cold wet Okie winters. The thing is bomb proof and worth the money in the long run.

Have to agree some of the North Face stuff looks a bit like made in China and it may be, as I do not know. But some of their gear is about as good as it gets.

[ARzach]

I'll just assume for the sake of argument that you would email and boycott Patagonia if they were parodied, post it up, and then unload all of your Pat gear over this.

I'm assuming you mean, IF Patagucci were parodied, THEN decided to sue a small-time manufacturer of parody gear that most likely affects about .00012748089% of their multi-million dollar market base, making complete a**es of themselves as a corporation?

Yes. I would.

That being said I think Patagonia's products are FAR superior to The North Face apparel. I'm not saying the North Face doesn't produce quality gear, they do, but given the option I'll choose South Butt over either of them for my t-shirt/light outerwear for streetin' it .

[shelbyjohnson]

That was then before they were aquired by Vanity Fair. They still have some good expedition lines but my 15 year old grand daughter and her friends are wearing TNF. Not quality stuff but it says The North Face. I see shabby TNF sweatshirts on some of the most struggling children- They are not the same company since VF has purchased them. South Butt works for me!
Geo.

The same thing happened to Teva. Their original Guide model was the best river sandal ever made period. They reached a tipping point with market penetration and then were acquired. After they went into mass production they went downhill from their and starting making all sorts of goofy crap that really did not work inside a kayak. Over the years I had three different pairs of the original guide sandal. I still have one pair left that has been resoled once. They were light weight and a far better paddling option than other crap on the market today. I've resented to conglomerate that bought them out ever since because their product went to crap.

[okieboater]

My take on these small hi quality operations is:

1. long as the original creator of the company actually runs the deal, quality is good. the original person will wear and use the product and is personally part of the product. They are proud of the product.

2. For what ever reason, the original owner sells out to a big operation.
Bean counters enter the operation and cost efficiency becomes more important than quality.

3. Actual manufacturing is turned over either to mass operations or outsourced China as a cost savings attempt. The product is made by people who have no idea if the product works in the field, they just go thru the motions of manufacturing.

4. Product turns crappy, sales drop and attempts are made to market to the masses with cheap manufacture. This works for a while but eventually the product goes away.

I have seen this with paddles, PFD'S, boats, tents and any number of other products.

I sure hope folks like Shane and EJ stay active in management. Else we will loose another couple of good companies.