Don't worry I wont actually make you look at my underwear!
If you are a climber/walker/biker/triathlete/adventure racer/snowsports enthusiast and haven't tried SportPursuit yet where have you been? This website holds flash sales on an excellent range of both well known and lesser known active gear (brand names from MHW and Marmot to AKU, Giro, Cliff, Icebreaker the list goes on and on). The way it works is that they advertise items at enormous discounts (often more than 50% off the retail price) for a set period of time (typically 7 days- hot tip; buy it when you see it, the best items go fast). You order what you want and at the end of the sale period orders are processed and your goodies sent out.
I've had various thermals, shirts, a jacket for my wife, cliff bars and currently have 2 pairs of mountaineering trousers on order. I've had no problems with delivery (items even arriving ahead of expected dates- unheard of in the Highlands!) and saved a good deal of cash. I'm very lucky to receive a number of trade deals with some excellent manufacturers through my various Professional Associations but SportPursuit can sometimes even trump these.
I'm often a little cynical about highly commercial outdoor websites but the folk at Sportpursuit seem to be a collection of real enthusiasts who use it and decided to make a business out of offering us good deals.
So I'm wearing Red Ram merino boxers and short sleeve t-shirt and its good stuff. I love merino but whilst its a relatively environmentally friendly, warm when wet, non smelly product it is quite pricey not hugely durable and doesn't always hold its shape well in my experience. Ive been super pleased with the Red Ram stuff I got from SportPursuit though. Going strong, holds its shape and all the usual benefits of merino- and it was at a bargain price! I'll be wearing it on the Cuillin Ridge this weekend (no photos though- promise).
Now the self serving bit... if you join (they don't really seem to do junk mail other than updates on what sales are on) through one of my links on this page they give me money to spend. Likewise if you invite friends to join and they register through you then you will receive the same reward.
More thoughts....
A friend who is a specialist retailer in active sports was bemoaning the rise of web based competition and with some justification. Less staff, no premises, often little or no stock and therefore lower prices. This also means the customer lacks a human interface to ask for advice and often suffers if they get things wrong and want to return an item. In particular if customers have limited experience of gear, sizing and materials it would be easy for them to buy the wrong thing for them. That's why we need good specialist retailers. For the (relatively) experienced shopper then a site like SportPursuit works well.
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