In reply to UKC Gear:
It is extremely interesting to hear peoples perception of our brand and for that matter other brands also. Marmot, a Mountain Clothing brand. If you saw there booth at any large trade show you'd be surprised to see only a portion of the stand dedicated to true mountain clothing. The rest is filled with casual clothing, expedition bags, sleeping bags, tents, bivi bags, gloves, etc. The same can be said for many of the other brands.
We, Alpkit, are in a very privileged position in being both the brand and the retailer, something still very unique. I think we can put our hands up to having a change in focus a couple of years ago, where by in the past we saw price as more important than quality. The focus is now truly on quality. Being the brand and the retailer exposes all our products to all our customers.
We did originally hope the tents would have been considerably less than they are shaping up to be. However we can hand on heart and say we have not compromised anything on the mountain tents to save a few cents here and there. Neither have we jumped hands and feet into the tent market, our warehouse isn't going to be over flowing with tents and it won't effect any other part of our business.
If you would like to take a look at the tents we are going to be setting them up at the Cardiff International Paddlefest 3rd/4th September. The event is free to enter, there are fees if you want to paddle. Full details can be found here
http://www.ciww.com/content.asp?nav=52&parent_directory_id=1
I hope to see a few of you there.
Cheers, Alpjim
p.s. we are working on a range of lightweight backpacking tents at the moment, if you have any comments you would like us to consider in the design process please let us know either here or drop us an email.