In short, I want to plug Feathered Friends down jackets, Luna Sandals, and Osprey backpacks, because their stuff has held up for me for 10 years.

In long: A little over 10 years ago, I set off on a trip to 22 countries over 10 months. I did a lot of gear research. I ended up packing pretty minimally and felt pretty good about it. But now, 10 years later, 3 of those things have become ongoing staples:

• Feathered Friends lightweight down jacket. Down is so light yet warm. This stuffs to about softball size and keeps me warm in most any weather.
• Luna Sandals. These are lightweight thin sandals. I bought them during the “barefoot running” craze, which I since have decided is kind of dumb, but they’re still great because they’re so small and therefore easy to pack.
• Osprey backpack. There are a million options in backpacks, so pick the one that fits you that you like etc, but if an Osprey works, I’ll buy it. First, it’s durable; second, after about 5 years it got ripped a bit because I fell off my bike wearing it but they still replaced it for free!

why write this?

I don’t like thinking about things. But we all need things, and someone’s got to make things, and I want to help, even a little bit, to create the right incentives for companies that make things.

Often, the #1 attribute I want is durability, and product ratings cannot tell you this, because websites ask you for a review right after you buy something. If I buy a jacket and it fits well, sure, 5 stars! But then if it falls apart 6mo later, I want to retroactively give it 1 star, but I will not remember to.

If you ask a super-libertarian-capitalist “how do we incentivize companies to make 10-year products instead of half-price 1-year products?” I assume they’d say something like “reputation”… And given that the market for things is about as super-libertarian as possible, I guess this is the only lever we have. So, +1 to these companies' reputations, I guess.