UKC

My friend and I are currently in the process of setting up a company that manufactures custom made rucksacks, for climbers and runners, in the UK.

We've designed the following survey to help us understand a little bit more about our market.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VJND3TB

Thank you for taking the time to fill it out.

If you have any questions or input then please put it on the thread below or send me an email.

Cheers,

Tom Ripley

thesavoygrill@hotmail.co.uk

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

I would Tom, but the price would have to be right. It'd be 30L, weigh 700g and have absolutely no bells and whistles. Good luck to you.

In reply to jon:

You can already buy that. £65 Aiguille Alpine Cirus.

In reply to George Fisher:

I should come clean - I bought this in August: http://www.exped.com/exped/web/exped_homepage_na.nsf/0/64E36D0835BBDE69C125... It's got everything I need and how I would have had Tom make it.

In reply to jon:

Same here. Did the survey.

In reply to Robert Durran And Jon:

How much would you be prepared to pay for a custom made 30 litre?

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

What are you going to customise? Back length? Features? Anything else?

I guess your main issue is that one can go into a decent shop and try on quite a big range of rucsacs, and thus (usually) find one that fits well and feels comfy and has the features one wants. Given that a custom one is inevitably going to be pricier (especially if it's UK labour, not Chinese) it would be tricky to persuade me to pay extra for something I couldn't try on before deciding to buy.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Best custom sack I've ever had/still have:

http://www.cilogear.com/30lws.html

I think I paid $180 for my custom made which included a daisy chain type thing attached to it and they also made a crampon pouch for the front.

Awesome piece of kit. I'd happily pay £120-£150 for the right sack.

In reply to Coel Hellier:


The customer would measure their back between two points and the bag would be cut to fit that measurement.


Customers will be able to decide if their bag has a fixed lid, extendable lid, roll top lid, or no lid at all. They would also be able to choose the type of hip belt: Plain webbing, padded, padded with gear loops or zip pockets. There are a number of other feature that can be customized too: compression straps, daisy chains, hydration system, internal frame, wand pockets, removable hipbelt.


The customer will also be able choose the fabric their bag is made from.

Hope this helpful. Any more questions, just ask.

Tom

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:
Fif Fit Fit - i reckon its all about fit as at present 3 sizes fit all males maybe four. Some are short but have a defined trapezius - inov 8 problem. Others are tall and narrow. Some have funny shaped chests. Some of us have injured or previously injured shoulders and want more padding .Its never going to make you a full living but as a service /hobby/ income source.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Just done your questionnaire, good luck.

I think the backpacking market could be a good place to aim, there is much less variety and the ability to custom make a big pack would definatly for me appeal more than custom making a climbing bag.

Interesting idea, there are a lot of good packs available, but the fit isnt always that good, things like OMM sacks, the are good, but the fit isnt for all people.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Y'know, if you had an option for some nice robust a-frame ski carry straps or snowshoe or even snowboard straps, you might get at least one additional sale.

Just a thought

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide: invent a sack we can customize ourselves and you can mass produce in bangladesh for much cheapness and profit - with a nice range of add-ons and accessories we can buy to add as required according to our own level of gear perversion.. otherwise you'll never get this off the ground, we are in a recession man!

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:


>

I don't know, I suppose the same that I paid for the Exped sac, 90€uros, but this size and type of sac - as simple as possible - might not be the right market for you. You won't be able to justify a high price if it's just a nylon bag with a couple of straps. I'd have thought big complicated trekking packs might be more viable. Maybe also getting into the ultra-light market might work. Filled in your questionaire btw.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Tom, firstly good luck.

Secondly, for a climbing sac what I'd love is one of these http://www.coldcoldworldpacks.com/ozone.htm as the staring point that you could then add to.

Simple, stylish and functional.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

Another market area to consider would be the Army. With all the diverse roles and different equipment used, it could be a sector that would love to have decent bespoke kit.

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide:

For a bit of positive advertising/PR, how about making some bespoke sacks for a Mountain Rescue team?
They get exactly what they need and you get a healthy endorsement.

Thanks for the responses so far folks. They have been really interesting and helpful. I think I need to design a new survey about the fit and features of rucksack.

One of the major flaws of my survey is that it doesn't allow the participant to say the price they'd pay for a particular size of custom rucksack.

The bags we make will use top quality materials and be constructed to the very highest standards (think Crux or POD).

With this in mind how much would you pay for a UK made custom built sack?

Below I've listed four different sacks we will off to begin with. Next to them in italics are the prices for a similar off the peg bag from a well known online retailer. I'd be grateful if you could quote this part of the post and write the amount you'd be prepared to pay for a custom fitted/featured bag.

25 litre running bag (£60)

35 litre climbing bag (£100)

45 litre climbing bag (£130)

55 litre bag with extendable lid (£155)

Cheers,

Tom

In reply to MJ: Aigulle Equipment in the Lakes already do this, they make a lot of stuff for the MRT'S

In reply to galpinos:
They're calling us deviants!
"you won't be mistaken for an ice-climber, mountaineer or other such deviant"