Don't forget Bear Archery Note the ® behind Bear®? It's a registered trademark that goes back a couple years before me, let alone Grylls.

Good to Go:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-28737337

I have a problem with his dangerous stunts. If i was in a survival situation I'd backtrack and look for a safer way down than all the jumping and back flips Bear does. And jumping in water in what looks to be cool conditions is just asking for hypothermia IMHO. I saw a Bear Grylls pack at wally world and it was a hundred bucks. Next to it was one very similar in style, much better made, abit larger and with a hydration bladder for sixty. I guess the name really does ad forty bucks.

1) Bear Grylls products are not "marginal" as you put. The quality is as good as, and in many respects superior to other products on the market.
2) Bear, like many successful buisnessmen, has serious problems with third partys trying to exploit his name and image to their own advantage. That means that his legal team has to adopt a very aggressive policy towards anyone using the name "Bear" on a like product. Occasionally that means that someone who is using the term "Bear" in a lawful enterprise going to get an unwelcome letter. That's unfortunate but understandable. It is obvious that on this occasion Bear has looked at the facts, determined that Bear Knives is not engaged in misconduct and taken the appropriate action.

If that is true, they made a fairly poor business decision to market his stuff through Walmart, and have Walmart as a main sponsor of his current TV show. You may not have Walmart stores in the UK, but here in the US they do not have a reputation for selling quality stuff. Yes, you can occasionally find a decent product there, and if you do, it will sell for a price lower than probably anywhere else.

But there is a lot of complete junk in Walmarts. They are well known for striking deals with manufacturers, getting the manufacturers highly dependent on Walmart sales (they are a very big distributer), then turning around and telling those manufactures to make things cheaper and cheaper to hit a Walmart price-point. They've kind of got the manufacturers in their grasp, because those manufacturers have gotten so dependent on sales through Walmart that they don't want to, or can't, give up that revenue stream. You find some manufacturers that have two lines of seemingly identical merchandise, the regular stuff, and the Walmart stuff. The Walmart stuff is much worse quality.

Google "Walmart vs. Vlassic", or "Walmart vs. Snapper" if you want to read up on it. The two links below are samples of the kind of stuff you will find:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bac_1342681195

http://www.fastcompany.com/54763/man-who-said-no-wal-mart

Selling through Walmart, let alone having them be your primary sponser, may be the death knell for your company, or the cause behind your products going from a quality reputation to a trash reputation. Walmart is huge, and very popular for two main demographics: Lower income shoppers, and shoppers in search of a "bargain". That is not necessarily bad, but that is their targeted audience. You don't find folks looking for higher end stuff in a Walmart. No offense intended towards Walmart - I go there occasionally. For example, I like their "bargains" on the K-cups for my Keurig coffee maker. Those things are so horrendously overpriced at normal retail that I'm not overly concerned about Walmart putting those manufacturers in their place, price-wise.

You also find BG items at REI, an enterprise which does not sell junk. My understanding is that much of BGs line is made by Gerber, who mostly makes decent, although not super high end, gear. Will we see, or are we seeing, divergent BG products?

Fascinating - it's like witnessing the evolution of a new species......

I have two BG items, both bought from amazon. The short parang is excellent - light and a good chopper as long as you're not trying to bring down a tree. His firestarting tool works fine; just a little too big for my taste.

I hate to even wade into the whole Bear Grylls issue! He's probably a nice fellow and to have completed the training that he has I'm sure he has a lot of knowledge. But the way he portrays survival strikes me as downright dangerous and reckless. As for his product lines, I suppose they're okay for what they are better options are available for the money. Personally I think Gerber quality has fallen dramatically over the last couple decades, and a lot of the issues revolve around offshoring production of much/most of their stuff to China. It's possible to make great products in China if you set your mind to it, but that's almost never the goal of offshoring; in nearly every case they do it cut costs. It's probably a waste of time to bemoan this since that ship sailed years ago. Many competitors also make their products in China.

Personally I'd rather have Doug's PSP than the corresponding entry level kit by BG. Just looking at his products, both the manufacturing and construction and contents list, it strikes me that many of them are gimmicky more than useful.

On the other hand, his popularity probably encourages folks to study survival and buy his items. You're certainly better off with BG survival gear than having no gear at all!

I've watched a few episodes of Bear's latest show. The one where he takes celebrities out on a weekend adventure. While the show is fairly stupid and contrived (that pretty much goes for ALL shows on TV nowadays), Bear does appear to be a very friendly and likable guy. The show is entertaining. But it's not a vehicle for learning survival skills, much of what goes on there is more likely to get you killed than rescued. But it's still entertaining to a degree, and Bear does appear to be a nice guy.

I would like to see a "the making of..." episode of one of his shows, an episode that shows the cameramen and other support that is around when he is filming. They did a show like that with Dual Survival, and while I knew there were other people around during the episodes, I guess I never realized just how many folks were right there with them during filming. The chances of getting yourself into a bad situation with no hope for assistance were about zero, despite the shows attempts to portray exactly that.

Here in Canada, MEC (equivalent to REI) also sells Bear Gryll's gear. MEC is known for not selling junk so there is some probable merit in their decision to carry this line of product.

Not a fan of BG in any manner, so no affiliation with him or MEC.