Pro tip: that $40 rain jacket I bought at Costco saved my camping trip last weekend

I was up near Big Sur and the weather turned nasty around 2am. My buddy had a fancy $200 Patagonia shell and still got soaked, but my cheap Kirkland jacket kept me bone dry through three hours of sideways rain. Has anyone else found that one random budget item that out performs the expensive stuff?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_diana1mo agoMost Upvoted

Same here. I grabbed a $30 canvas tarp from Walmart that's outlasted my friend's expensive REI tent footprint by years. That Big Sur storm sounds brutal, but it's wild how often the cheap stuff just works better when it matters most.

emmaclark1mo ago

Got a buddy who bought a name brand "ultralight" tent for like $400. First trip out with it, we got hit with a random hailstorm up in the Sierras. His fancy tent poles snapped in two places. Me and my old Coleman dome tent with the steel poles just sat there laughing through the whole thing. He spent the night huddled in the car while his tent flapped around like a broken umbrella. Next week he returned it and bought a basic no-name tent from a hardware store. Hasn't had a single problem since. Sometimes the simple stuff really is built better.

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spencer_owens5826d ago

Actually Kirkland isn't Costco's own brand anymore, they switched to a different supplier for rain jackets.

knight.dylan1mo ago

Three hours of sideways rain? That's insane. Your buddy must be furious.