Hi,
just been after a water bottle and have bought 2 of these
http://www.sportsdirect.com/sportsdirect-fold-water-bottle-898053 total £1,98 and 2 of these
http://cascadedesigns.com/en/platypus/water-bottles/softbottle/product total £11.40 and have got to say the 99p ones seem fine, I have yet to receive the platypus so cannot comment yet, but its a bag with a lid, can it be 500% better.
So is the platypus value for money, well if I pull the 99p one out of my pack high on a route and the cap has broken off and all the water gone I would surely give £100 for .5L of water, but how do I know the platypus would have fared better, the guarantee is fine and dandy but I want the water now and when someone is charging 4 or 6 times as much they can afford to send out a few warranty claims.
In this day of Chinese manufacturers churning stuff out with minimal differences and suppliers then marketing at their own niche it really is getting difficult to assess if the dearer stuff is better or more to the point, the cheap stuff is actually worse.
Cheers sjc