What's better than The North Face?

This stuff is amazing. Mountain Hardwear.

Great quality.

I love the stuff, and its not overpriced, even at places like REI (assuming you live in the US even though they operate in many countries)

Previously, I would have chosen Macpac. But I have recently found out that Kathmandu actually bought Macpac a couple of years ago. Kathmandu used to be alright, but in recent years have become very commercial and have lowered the standards of their gear for less extreme conditions, i.e so people in the city can feel cool wearing outdoorsy looking stuff. Now what they’ve done is made crappy quality gear under the Macpac label as well, and have kept the prices up as it has a very good reputation and not many people know that they bought it.

I was looking for a quality down jacket to take with me to India, and had been looking at Macpac until I found this out. Instead, I got a Mountain Hardware one, as blastfamy said above, and I absolutely love it. I’ll let you know when I come back whether it was warm enough in the Himalayas.

I haven’t had much experience with The North Face, but I still have a bit of gear left to get for my trip so I’ll look into it.

I took my time deciding on what brand pants to get, and decided on Gondwana zip offs. They were the best price for what I was looking for and had an added bonus of being mosquito repellent, to save my skin from the harsh deet.

edit :: Columbia is also a brand that I am partial to, and I have bought a couple of wick away shirts from them.

Also, I got my shorts from Mont though I don’t know much about them, it was just because they were on sale :P

And I don’t know too much about Berghaus but their packs seem awesome, and my day backpack is Berghaus and I love it :D

I think it depends on the equipment, but for the last 15 years I’ve bought my boots from EMS. Most of their products come with a lifetime warranty and I have never yet had an issue with any of their equipment.

Under armour suprisingly has some good warm compression cold gear but it is kind of pricey. It is some of the best that I have seen though.

Probably one of the most important articles is my socks. I particularly like Nordic but again expensive and can likely be compared to a lot of other polypropylene socks.

Carhartt
I have many friends who spend a lot of time outdoors and they swear by this brand!

Patagonia is the gear of choice for mountaineering etc., along with Marmot and North Face. Marmot stuff even looks cool.

A recent up-and comer is I.D.I., with their floating cold-water suits and proprietary fabric.

For under/technical wear, generally, you can’t go wrong with UnderArmour.

Also, stuff with Thermax in it keeps you wa-a-a-a-aarm.

nothing.

I’m not a big fan of anything by The North Face. Sure it’s decent stuff, but it’s priced like high end gear and, for my needs, falls in the lower end of performance. I’d rather go with Mountain Hardware for fleeces, Patagonia for rain gear and down jackets, Icebreaker for base layers and some other insulating layers. There’s sway here and a lot of it depends on what your needs are, but I’ve never found The North Face to be good for much other than everyday outdoorsy activities, car/backyard camping and such.