Author Topic: Design faults and failures  (Read 3304 times)

gunwharfman

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Design faults and failures
« on: 15:41:11, 11/10/19 »
Many gear reports about clothing often highlight the design failure where pockets are situated which no longer works when the rucksack hip belt is tightened over them. I have a jacket like this.

I also have a Vaude hiking Poncho, it was fairly expensive as well. it works well except when I try to put it on quickly and then try to take it off when wearing my 48L rucksack. It's easy to manage if I have no rucksack on, or am just wearing a very small daysack but anything bigger and I'm stumped, I've just never acquired the knack! Why, with all of the designers at their disposal, would Vaude (and other firms) not design their product with a front opening zip just like our waterproof jackets have. I only use my Vaude nowadays when I'm out for a run when its raining, or our for a walk like today when I don't need to wear a rucksack.

I wonder how many other design faults, in our innocence, we have purchased?


Man wae a dug

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #1 on: 18:59:55, 11/10/19 »
I have several pairs of Levis with a glaring design fault so obvious I'm amazed it still happens. They all have a waistband that just will not fit round my waist and button/zip up.  There must be an obvious solution to this. ???


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Dread

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #2 on: 20:19:37, 11/10/19 »
I have the same Vaude poncho I think and funnily enough today was the first time that I tried to put it on with a rucksack on. There's loads of room but it just wouldn't go over the rucksack. There I was in the porch of a vegetarian cafe in New Mills going through all sorts of contortions. The only way I got it on was to throw it over the pack first then wiggle furiously to get my head in. I felt like a right idiot. I decided that Vaude must think that everyone has a hiking partner to pull the back down for them. It's also too long, I'm 5'11" and i was steppng on it going up steps. Kept me dry though.

gunwharfman

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #3 on: 20:32:13, 11/10/19 »
The design fault that can be the most niggling for me is when I use a zip and the fabric its sewn onto catches into its mechanism. I've had this happen in my tent, on jacket pockets, at the leg-end of my expensive walking trousers and in my rucksack. The worst was a baselayer I had, with a zip to the neck, the number of times I caught a chest hair in it, made my eyes water! I just had to get rid of it in the end.

harland

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #4 on: 20:36:11, 11/10/19 »
The worst was a baselayer I had, with a zip to the neck, the number of times I caught a chest hair in it, made my eyes water!
Just as well it wasn't your trousers! ;D

gunwharfman

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #5 on: 20:41:09, 11/10/19 »
I've always been lucky with those zips!  :)

Mel

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #6 on: 21:31:05, 11/10/19 »
Long jackets with no two-way zip.  Great for walking on the flat.  Not so great when you need to climb stiles or even steep clambery bits.  A two-way zipped jacket can be unzipped from the bottom to give you free movement then zipped back again once the obstacle is dealt with.  Plus, it’s easier (warmer/drier) to deal with a call of nature if you can just unzip the bottom portion of the jacket.


Sonatine

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #7 on: 19:52:14, 13/10/19 »
My Marmot precip jacket has, what looks like, an internal pocket formed from the actual pockets. The pocket mesh is sewn on the left and right sides with an opening on top. Sadly there's an opening below too, and I put my beloved outdoor research radar cap in it last week - it's just fallen through and has gone. Gutted. Marmot, align the bottom of the mesh with the coats hem, and sew it up at the bottom too.

gunwharfman

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #8 on: 20:39:18, 13/10/19 »
Sorry, Mel can only partially agree with you. Yes, my long coat is great for walking on the flat but stiles are easy, I clambered over two this morning, just gathered up the lower part, got over the stile in the usual way and then once over just let the material fall back to its natural position. Walking uphill can be a bit of a problem, which I'm working on now, its a particular problem when it's raining AND it's windy because my knees keep pushing at the gap in the material and the wind blows the gap open, but I now believe I have more or less solved this matter. I just stuff a pinny of waterproof silnylon over my belt which hangs down to my coat hem level. I tried this again this morning as I walked up a steep hill in the rain and when I got back to my care my legs were dry. I'm still in the testing stage, at the moment my pinny is 14" across, I suspect I need a piece about 20" to be properly effective, that is, it goes across my front from iliac crest to iliac crest. I also have a pair of Amsterdam thigh covers, (they are designed for bike riding) the material covers just the front of my thighs, from the top of my Rab gaiters, to well above the lower zip level of my coat. If I'm going to get wet its directly on my knees. At the moment I'm trying to take advantage of every rainy day to test out my ideas of how to keep dry from rain, I am not trying to solve perspiration from the inside. I hope to be in the Lakes soon, so if I'm lucky to experience rain whilst then I can test my gear in real conditions properly.

archaeoroutes

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #9 on: 21:40:51, 13/10/19 »
I've found a near-universal fault with trousers. If only a manufacturer could stop the waists shrinking.
I mean, I buy a pair and they fit brilliantly. Then, over the next few years they get smaller and smaller. Eventually, the waist becomes so tight I have to replace them.
Walking routes visiting ancient sites in Britain's uplands: http://www.archaeoroutes.co.uk

ninthace

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #10 on: 22:11:21, 13/10/19 »
I've found a near-universal fault with trousers. If only a manufacturer could stop the waists shrinking.
I mean, I buy a pair and they fit brilliantly. Then, over the next few years they get smaller and smaller. Eventually, the waist becomes so tight I have to replace them.
+1!
Solvitur Ambulando

sussamb

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #11 on: 22:12:59, 13/10/19 »
I've found a near-universal fault with trousers. If only a manufacturer could stop the waists shrinking.
I mean, I buy a pair and they fit brilliantly. Then, over the next few years they get smaller and smaller. Eventually, the waist becomes so tight I have to replace them.


 ;D
Where there's a will ...

Boudicca3

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #12 on: 10:54:53, 14/10/19 »
I just want to report a major flaw with my Meindl Bhutans - boots that cost over £220 and which leaked at the toe end whilst I hiked the West Highland Way. I reported these to Meindl (via Cotswold Outdoor who merely sent them to Meindl) who  found no fault; I then read on Trust Pilot that 88% of buyers complained to Meindl and Meindl NEVER recognise a fault with their boots these days - so that's the end of Meindl for me... and I've loved them for years (and my feet don't fit Scarpa)


Also bought a Berghaus Hillwalker Jacket this year (I love throwing my money away it seems) - and whilst it has goretex the outer fabric gets soaked and heavy and water pours in through the ends of the arms (where the Gx runs out) and at the bottom so I felt soggy even though I was (mainly) dry as my arms got wet - a lot! I used to sweat in my cheap Regatta but I never had this problem, ironically.


In Kinlochleven, arriving at a camp site on the WHW I was surprised to find hanging in the drying room, Arc'terx, Berghaus, Patagonia, Montane... The only jacket not hanging there was one from a young girl who'd bought her clothes for a few euros from a German flee market. I'm beginning to think all this so-called professional gear is not worth the money.


Things that have never failed for me however are my Berghaus over-trousers. And my... no, I think that's it.

GnP

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #13 on: 11:12:30, 14/10/19 »
My Anatom leather boots have started leaking where the leather top meets up with the sole, at the flex point..When I first bought them I noticed how soft the leather felt in that area, as if it was thinner for a few square cm ...so it could be a hide that was thin in one area & missed quality control..I still love them as they are like wearing slippers to walk....its just that they are now wet slippers.


I have a new pair that I bought for when these wore out, and use them now for when it it`s pouring....which seems like every day lately... ::)
A night under silnylon. Doesn't have the same ring to it.

Sleepy

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Re: Design faults and failures
« Reply #14 on: 02:15:50, 15/10/19 »
Just as well it wasn't your trousers! ;D


I can say with a degree of certainty; that happens once or twice fairly early in life and is virtually guaranteed not to happen from then on  ;D

 

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