ditto, Nicodemus!!!

echo that nicodemus

+100 Great Post.

This part goes without saying. Nobody is going to tell you to buy the Foundation's knife when there is a better knife at a better price somewhere else. ETS has to be competitive with its product offerings and provide true value.



Making a buck is extremely important to any *company* who is in the survival *business*. I think that many of these companies are more concerned about quality than price, and if you had dinner with doug and saw how he talks about his stuff... you'd see that quality is more important to him than "a buck". I'm sure this is also true for other companies like Redflare.

I believe you are trying to say that products have to have a real value. Quality and price have to be proportionate. Greed is bad.

Once again, everyone would agree with you if you said it that way. But I doubt many people would agree with that statement as it rests.

I think your thoughts are valuable. They are part of the check and balance of commerce. But the way you said it could have been a bit less "charged".

That being said, I don't want this site to turn into an unbalanced gear dog and pony show either... Survival is preparedness, knowledge, skill, wits, and luck. Gear is just a part of preparedness, and sometimes it gets more press than the others combined.

ATTENTION

TO

DETAIL

If anyone can cut through marketing hype, it is Mr. Ritter.

Read Doug's reviews of commercial survival kits.

Now read the detailed description of Doug's aviation survival kit or even the pocket kit. He goes through exactly why he chose each and every item. When something is a compromise, he explains why. Name anyone else that does this to the level he does.

When people here buy DR gear, it is not because of brand loyalty or celebrity status or even because it is for charity. People buy it because they know Doug's picked it apart, found all the weaknesses and either fixed them or told us about them.

I'm saying that people who are trusting their life to a piece of equipment should be given advice that leads them to the right equipment. It doesn't matter who is, or is not, profiting from it. All that matters is that no one dies because someone sold them the wrong equipment.

Where is the link to Katadyn's website around here? A good water filter might save someone's life. But wait... ETS doesn't get any royalties for Katadyn water filters, so let's not show people that particular piece of equipment.

Know what I'm saying?

There are a lot of people discussing all types of katadyn products if you do a search. In fact, there have been entire threads dedicated to different types of water filtration devices by all manufacturers including Katadyn.

This thread was where someone was specifically asking how to benefit a specific non profit corporation the best. All the responses have been on topic with the original question.

You know what I found at that Red Flare website? Those cheap "survival blankets" that are hated by everyone who has ever actually tried to use one. Why is that kind of crap being advertised on ETS? Because making money is more important than someone else's life.

Uh, let's see, that link would be right here.

And here is the link to the piece of crap "survival blanket" that is going to give someone a false sense of security until they get hypothermia.