Be Careful What You Buy at REI

I bought my trail hut 2 for like $70 because I went to a grand opening event. Great tent for a beginner I think.

my biggest beef with REI brand vs other brands (including that they often carry) is that they completely cut ties/support for their products after 1 year. Big Agnes, MSR, etc have a much better support and customer service system after that year.

The Trail Hut looks a bit like my Mountain Hardwear Vision 2, but it's clearly heavier (although I don't use a footprint). The Vision has been an AMAZING tent for me - going on five+ years and over 30 trips now without a single issue...

How does the Magma 30 quilt compare to other quilts you recommend, such as the Featherstone Moondance 25? They are similar in price right now. If you could only buy one, which would it be?

Weight does not concern me as a former soldier. If it wont hold up in a 70 mph wind, heavy rain or 20' degree temps it is useless to me.

Good I never use either camping chair or pillow for my hikes. Not necessary, replaceable with other stuff.

My REI half dome is going on 20 years

Are products labeled chemical free??

That trail hut 2 looks just like a Marmot Ajax tent (mine is a 3 person) that I bought like 12 years ago. It’s a nice tent for the $120 I spent on it. Maybe the Marmot version had better materials but it’s a nice tent that holds up well in high wind and doesn’t let water in. It’s heavy tho so not the best for backpacking. Great for car camping.

Buyer beware articles and videos are good. There are bad batch’s, bad products in general happen with every brand. Some brands happen that are not so good.
I spend some money at Rei once in a while. Saving money on a purchase is always best. Seirra trading post may be more fashion store but I’ve found great gear for really good prices just it’s out of fashion last years stuff and so on. I go my mavic cycling shoes for 75 dollars typical price we’re 130 to 150. A no none tepe tent for 50. At the end of summer . The ten gets a new waterproof coat and I need a tarp foot print it’s. a 6 person tent with an addition bedroom you have in or not. But some stuff is manufacturing defects like a med marmot jacket priced at 100 850 down what a deal. I put it on and it’s mid labled xl .

...since when do we think REI is expensive?

Ugh, the Trail Hut 2 for >$225. It's essentially the former Half Dome, which I used to be for $99 and recommend to Scouts in my troop. No longer.

Ive used the REI Quarter Dome SL2 for the last 7 ish years and its been fantastic. It was cheaper from the garage sale than that Trail Hut tent. And its way way lighter. Extremely spacious. I think my trail weight with it is just about 2.5 lbs. For a freestanding tent under 3 lbs for $200, it's really good. Only problem is, REI doesn't even make it anymore. They insist on making worse, heavier, more expensive tents. Bring back the QD SL2

I actually really like the Trail Hut 2. I got it on sale but it has been a great tent so far. I like that pole that keep the ceiling wide so it has lots of space inside. The only thing I don't like is the stakes are trash, but those are easily replaced.

I got my trail hut 2 for 100 bucks and i think its treated me pretty well for the price. Being a double wall, free standing tent with a rain fly and a footprint it was kinda just a good filler tent while I didnt have anything else and considering it clocks only about 5 pounds packed and is spacious I would say its well worth 100 bucks but only about 100 bucks. Itll tolerate most good conditions and ive never really had condensation issues with the thing which is more than can be said with a lot of tents in that price range. My two HUGE issues with the tent are that the footprint is for whatever reason not waterproof, I dont know how they came up with that but when ive camped on packed snow I consistently have woken up with the bottom of my sleeping pad wet. The other big issue is the tent packed is absolutely massive, I get that its a two person tent but for half the price its double the size, not the biggest issue but definitely buyer beware on those two notes.

I still have 2 mid-90s REI Half Domes, which I picked up for $80 each in 1997 when I got married to my husband who has 4 kids. I think they were half price because that was the year they switched from one door on the end to two doors, one on each side. I actually prefer it to my North Face Tadpole because of the extra head room all around. We haven’t backpacked for decades, but still used the Half Domes, which our REI double air mattress fits into for a wall-to-wall bed, for car camping until this past September. It just got too hard to get up off of the ground for me (a la “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”), so starting in September, we got a 2-man cot tent by Naturehike so that it is much easier to get out of, just swing the legs out the door into a sitting position. We have purchased a lot of REI-branded merchandise back in the day, and it is so well made and lasts so long that I actually got rid of my REI credit card about 20 years ago because I ran out of things to buy. I still have a room full of equipment from REI in my house which I call the REI annex!

They are changing their store policy. The whole perk to being a member is being able to return items. Now, if you return too many items or a few expensive items they will black list you and you can no longer return items.

Every manufacture of outdoor gear has some duds.

Too bad about the tent. I used the REI Quarter Dome tent (one person single wall) for 5 seasons -maybe 80 nights total and it's still going strong. Worked great in a few serious rain and hail storms. A great product.

REI is a Fortune500 company and caters entirely to shareholders, while they hide behind their cutesy “co-op” image to mask the fact they’re one of the most pernicious corporations on the scene. Boycott REI ✊✊

Boycott REI!!! ✊ Brandf**kers! Selling out places to sell gear isn’t okay. Stop buying gear from REI until they change their bad business practices!

Ew, two thousand dollars for just THAT?

4 person tent recommendations? I know it's not the usual type of camping for this channel but I trust this channel

I can't afford anything you showed👎

I recently got the magma 30 quilt on sale and I feel like it is pretty decent though It is my first venture into camping quilts, it kept me warm the first two trips I tried it on.
I'm not to sure about the flash packs being worth it as I see them in the re supply department frequently at my local rei for 199.

Sucks that they got rid or the quater dome

The airrail was once a good product but somehow they progressively made it worse and worse until we have hit rock bottom with the current version. It has 2 valves and they're both in the surrounding rail and not on the corner of the pad the way they used to be. They're also angled in such a way that if your pad slides down slightly they will open up leaving you with one of the most infuriating things of camping, a deflated pad in the middle of the night. It was once one of my favorite pieces of gear when it had a good single valve but now it's utter trash and should not be bought by anyone. They count on their users buying it and only using it one or 2 times in the year long return window and never noticing how much trash it is. I switched to a thermarest and it has everything that the airrail used to have including a far superior single valve. REI really slipped in their quality over the last few years and it's incredibly disappointing.

I bought that Flash air pack and it worked great. Question about your hydration setup. Where do you get the thing that goes into a water bottle like that? Can't find it on GGG. Not sure what to search for. Thanks.

Just got an REI rain jacket to replace the LL Bean Trail Model jacket I've worn for 7 years, and worn out. The REI is nice, and actually has some insulation value, but lacks some of the details that made the Bean, at a similar price, a better buy. In particular, I miss having a snap at the bottom of the zipper, and a Velcro flap to cover the zipper. Sometimes it's the little details that make the difference, but I'm loving my REI Half-Dome tent.

The ONLY! Reason I shop REI is the return policy is excellent However! Occasionally i get a young one who attempts to make me feel bad 😂😂😂 returning sonething, especially shoes! Dont be deterred by this retail ploy. I always do my homework thanks to channels like this. My 2nd " Granite Gear" Crown 60 is about to be returned to G.G. so im liking the reviews on the UL's gear . Finally my particular store has huge employees turnover which i blame management for. Great channel..

Fun story:
Mountain Equipment Co-Op stopped selling their own branded, really good quality/reasonably priced packsacks, tents, sleeping bags, pannier bags, etc. and became a retailer of high-end brand goods.

They eventually went bankrupt, and an expensive retailer just inherited the acronym (and built-up goodwill) of MEC.

REI members also have access to RESupply. I just got back into backpacking this last summer and wasn't really sure how often I would be going out and I didn't want to spend hundreds on gear. I was able to get my tent, backpack, Helix sleeping pad, foam Nemo pad, for major discounts. I did check everything in the store before buying because, no returns, but the savings was awesome. It's definitely worth checking out that section in person because buying returned/used gear can be a bit like playing roulette. It's either going to be great, really horrible, or eh-it'll-work-for-now.

My grip is REI half dome tents have reduced their height in all but the more expensive models. Used to be the base half dome model had 45" of height. If you can't sit up in a tent without hitting your head, it is a bivy not a tent.

R.e.i. really expensive items.

If you shop at Rei, your not that smart. If you pay for a membership, to get a discount....on overpriced items you paid $30 to get 10% off of a huge markup. Suprise.....your still paying more.

Also...REI, "hey let's save money and not pay for a full zipper on a sleeping bag, and mark up the price". How will we sell it? Call it a quilt!

Are we really complaining about zippers starting in the wrong place? I understand there are other issues with the tent, but really? That shouts like you were hunting to try and review the tent badly.

Worth noting that, if you are an REI member, you usually get a 10% dividend on regular price merchandise, REI or other brand.

Good timing on this video as they are in the middle of a winter sale!

Old news and exaggeration. Have a nice day.

Rei branded gear has just a 1 year warranty, thry do not repair gear and they do not sell parts.

Avoid. Buy national and cottege brands.

Virtue signal incorporated.. you pay extra for your liberal guilt and woke talking points.. here's a hint, when you insist you're the outdoor expert.. you're not. Everything listed is garbage compared to cottage companies. I worked for them for years, their hypocrisy knows no bounds. During the force of nature campaign they told me (late 20s white guy) directly to ask women about their labia pressure first thing when trying to sell bikes and saddles.. tell me you want your white male employees in jail or assaulted without telling me..believe it or not I stuck around after hundreds of interactions like that for a few more years until they sent out a company wide email letting everyone know they were going to pay their higher ups who happened to be born browner more money than their paler coworkers because after they already made it to a six figure salary, we needed to make sure they didn't feel marginalized or victimized. That email came the same week the kept kicking me/my van out of their parking lot while I lived in the back country with it and had to work the next morning. Homeless employee living their companies core values couldn't stay in their parking lot for six hours, but they were going to pay rich people even more because they're victimized by me being in the outdoors while white.. they made it clear straight from corporate that I shouldn't be outside because I'm a white man and that it's a privilege to be outside, not that it's the default mode of life on the planet and you'd have to tell every homeless guy that they're racist for "getting" to go outside.. hypocritical left coast buttholes.

FYI you’ve got a repeated bass hit on this video that’s pretty distracting to the overall audio quality. Love your videos always, just letting you know!

Did you test out the Half Dome tents?

jeez, a zipper not quite up? Seems really a 1st world problem!

REI is definitely pricey, but honestly I've been shopping there since I got into climbing and hiking and the shopping experience there is amazing. They have great deals on second hand gear for members, as well as their REI brand gear I've had years of use out it and been very satisfied with its performance. plus their store fronts are inviting and their employees are always very knowledgeable and friendly. I wouldn't hate physically shopping at places nearly as much if they were more like REI.

Ive had the halfdome(?) 2 person rei tent for 5ish years and I have used it for lots of backpacking in rain, snow, wind and its held up not too poorly. it recently got it first hole

REI used to have some really good tents. The half Dome tents were heavy, but bombproof. The half dome 4 is by far my favorite car camping tent. But their Quarter Dome tents were a light-weight and high quality budget alternative to the Big Agnes and MSR tents at the time. It's a shame they stopped both designs.

Steven is my favorite armchair reviewer! I like that he takes the time to walk a few moments down a trail to get those amazing backdrop shots on the gear he’s shilling. It’s those little things that make a difference whether I’m going to buy or not. Oh! An rei video?! Whoa!

I was just at REI the other day for a two person sleeping bag. I know it's really not an ultralight thing but it's the only way I can get my wife to go camping with me. And it is just hard to find any objective reviews on all the two person bags.

REI really needs to bring back the quarterdome