meateater buying first lite

[trophyhunt]

I'm seeing holes in their merlino in places they shouldn't be, always been a fan but also always been concerned about the quality.

[Stein]

Camofire wool holds up better at half the price.  Holes wear through FL in strange spots, hems fray out, stitching dissolves and their wool just wears out shockingly quickly.

I wouldn’t be surprised if FL was headed toward problems after dropping all their distributors and rolling out horrible policies.

I gave up after they came up with the no return policy on anything on sale.  There are simply better companies to buy from that are making better products for a better price and better policies.

Years ago, they were ahead of the curve, but they aren’t any more.


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[Whitpirate]

Makes more sense why Callahan went full-time at MeatEater in advance of this....

[KFhunter]

They're great if you treat them as disposable garments, like a diaper just change out daily for a new pair and life would be good!

But I aint sponsored and that costs too much

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[andersonjk4]

Former Sitka President Kevin Sloan is currently CEO if MeatEater Inc... Hopefully he will have a good influence on First Lite. 

[jackelope]

I have a harder time rationalizing $45 boxers in the first place, nevermind $45 boxers with holes in them. I'd lose my ever loving mind.

[Karl Blanchard]

Camofire wool holds up better at half the price.  Holes wear through FL in strange spots, hems fray out, stitching dissolves and their wool just wears out shockingly quickly.

I wouldn’t be surprised if FL was headed toward problems after dropping all their distributors and rolling out horrible policies.

I gave up after they came up with the no return policy on anything on sale.  There are simply better companies to buy from that are making better products for a better price and better policies.

Years ago, they were ahead of the curve, but they aren’t any more.


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camofire is a synthetic wool blend so not really a good comparison. That camofire stuff gets to stinking just like any other synthetic.   

[cbond3318]

I’d rather smell like a dumpster behind KFC.

[Stein]

This is the stuff I have, 100% merino.




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[Karl Blanchard]

Well I was gonna post the picture of the tag on mine that says 80/20 wool spandex or whatever ratio it was but it's a black blank tag. They must have changed their blend at some point since I've bought this shirt. Durability wise I'd put it right there with the 2 FL items I use which is a chama hoodie and a Llano quarter zip. The chama is 4 years old. Maybe I dont hunt all that hard

[ctwiggs1]

I have a harder time rationalizing $45 boxers in the first place, nevermind $45 boxers with holes in them. I'd lose my ever loving mind.

Boom. 

I don’t hunt as much as Karl but I seem to hear about quality issues from them from day hunters regularly.   I can “buy once cry once” but I can’t just keep buying something if I’m not confident it will
1)survive
2)be covered by warranty

[Jpmiller]

I don't know why but I get a slightly uneasy feeling about the whole meateater expansion. I'm literally reading into nothing so don't expect a rational defense of my position but I don't like it. Anybody else feeling this?

[Stein]

Yeah, merino isn't kevlar for sure.  The difference now is that there are tons of companies making decent merino clothing that have better pricing and better sales terms.  Black Ovis is on Camofire all the time and they have free returns if it doesn't fit. 

I'm not against First Lite, I'm just not willing to pay a bunch of money to have something that doesn't fit right that I can't return.  Once they went away from the distributor model, their prices should have gone down to be more competitive, but didn't.  With high performance, athletic fit gear that you can't try on before you buy, they need a better return policy for sale items as well as competitive pricing.

Here is an example, I bought the Camofire 230 zip hoodie for $58, the comparable First Lite is $105-115.  For double the cost, there should be a big difference and there isn't.  I've owned both and short of the fancy logo, they are both foreign produced merino.  If a guy needs to be matchy with the the latest pattern, FL may be your ticket, but I don't care if it is solid or whatever pattern as long as it works and is fairly priced.

If they improve, I'll be glad to jump back on board, I have no ill will and would like to support them as I like the Meat Eater brand, but if they are going to be double the cost for the same thing and hard to deal with, I'm not interested.

[Odell]

I don't know why but I get a slightly uneasy feeling about the whole meateater expansion. I'm literally reading into nothing so don't expect a rational defense of my position but I don't like it. Anybody else feeling this?

Yes but I've been told I'm just a hater. Which might be true, I can barely stomach the podcast anymore. Getting a bit high on their own supply imo

[ctwiggs1]

@stein well said.

@odell - oh come on man, you’ve been a hater since he killed his WA elk 

In all seriousness, it doesn’t help that the FL staff are VERY outspoken when it comes to politics. Tends to turn me off.