Hi all,

I found a line of tents that will be debuting in the Spring of 2005. The company that makes them happens to be founded and operated by Industrial Design graduates from RISD (my alma mater). I took a look at their site and everything really fits into the style that I saw in that department at school: a stroke of genius, a bit of arrogance, and an rare touch of "Blue Sky." Since I was from Illustration I often looked at their projects and thought "WTF?"

That in mind, some of the technology that they've developed include inflatable tents, a mesh partition that hangs from the ceiling to trap the condensation from your breath, and a removable insulating floor. I'm REAL curious to see what you guys think. Their website is Hompage. If I've screwed up the link just go to www.nemoequipment.com. Since the stuff hasn't come out yet, they've only got extensive info on their designs, but please take a nice hard look and let me know how it stacks up so far.

Having poked a hole in a Thermarest just this weekend, I can only forsee pain and suffering coming from an inflatable tent in most backpacking, bug out, or mountainerring scenarios. There are lighter options as well.

Nevertheless, it is a truly interesting idea, probably very comfortable, and a great website.

Without more information, I'm a little skeptical whether these tents would stand up to real world usage. It'd also be nice to see some good ole fashioned expedition reports because the design seems a bit fragile to me. For example, can you patch those high pressure air channels with duct tape?

And that insulated winter tent looks kind of cool but I'd like to know someone has actually used it in extreme conditions before they make that marketing claim. Maybe they should donate some to the US Antarctic Program for evaluation? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />