> In August a few staff from Sea to Summit are heading off to the USA to one
> of the greatest outdoor trade shows in the world, 'Outdoor Retailer'. This
> is like a feeding frenzy for gear junkies who have overdosed on black
> coffee
> that goes for four days with very late nights where we can see what are
> the
> best and brightest new products that we can import to make your outdoor
> adventures even better.
As some of you already know, the two (sort-of) American bushwalking
organisations I am involved with (BGT, BPL) do attend the OR shows. Yeah -
gear freaks heaven. However, be warned that the stuff shown there often
takes another 6 - 12 months to be released.

> are there any brands or products that you would like Sea to
> Summit to distribute in Australia?
I am going to be very controversial here. A rare event for me of course ...
Having an Australian distributor for an overseas product may NOT be in the
best interests of Australian walkers. A very strange statement, but hearken.
Two examples follow.

Stove
I priced a good Japanese stove at the importer here in Sydney and at several
overseas web sites. Bought overseas it would cost me about $70. Bought here
the Australian price was about $190. The importer explained that he was
pitching this stove towards the 'luxury' end of the market. And making one
hell of a profit in the process.

Sleeping bag
I was recently looking at buying a new sleeping bag for my wife: a winter
bag. But it has to be LIGHT. To take an extreme example of what would NOT
suit: there is a Kelty bag rated to -7 C, but the synthetic filling weighs
1.1 kg and the shell weighs 1.4 kg. The bag weighs 2.5 kg. It might be OK
for car camping, but there is no way I would ever consider carrying such a
thing. (Would you?)

I looked at a very good American brand of down bags and got some prices.
Then I looked to see whether there is an Australian distributor: there is.
So I looked at the local prices for the same bags. The mark-up between the
American RETAIL price and the Australian shop price was over 100%. That
means that a bag selling in America for AU$400 was selling here for over
AU$800. This markup was consistent across a range of bags. The markup is
even higher when calculated on the USA wholesale price. (I am allowing for
US$ conversions.)

You can pay this sort of markup - say AU$400, or you can buy from America
over the web and pay about AU$25 for postage. Your choice of course.

Talking to an un-named but very well knowledgeable identity in the gear
market, I found that the typical shop markup which used to be about 66% is
now generally over 100% across the industry. Thisd applies to both
'Australian' gear and imported gear. My own observations are that the local
stock levels for the imported stuff are very poor as well. Come in sucker.

Many knowledgeable NSW walkers now buy over the web. Sure, postage from
America is dear - but they are getting better, lighter gear at far lower
prices not withstanding.

Purely as an amusing reflection on our times, I will add that I regularly
get offers from Chinese gear makers for a whole range of packs and bags, on
a wholesale basis. A good day pack would cost me about $2.50 each. Custom
branding with a logo would add about 30 cents. I would have to buy $1000
worth of course.

I am resigned to the possibility that some shop owners won't like me any
more. That's OK: many of them get most of their profit by selling outdoors
fashion clothing to the trendy street market anyhow.

Cheers
Roger