Greetings one and all,
I would like to add my two bits to the Serratus comments. First I’ll point out that I work for MEC and I have designed virtually all of the Serratus products made in the last eleven years (packs, bike-bags, PFDs, etc). I have also designed many of the MEC packs, sleeping bags, tents, etc for the last eight years. Obviously my personal tastes in packs run to the ones people have commented on positively in this web-site over the years; the lean, technical packs. I admit that I also made the more behemoth style packs such as the Ibex. The sad truth is the “full featured” packs like the Ibex, Gregory, Arc’teryx, et al make up the bulk of the big-pack market and we wanted to offer some Serratus packs that would sell, so that we could keep making things like the Gene, Aladdin, Icefall, and Alpine 65/85 (if you lump the Alpine 85 in with the behemoth packs you clearly haven’t used one). In the end though, the MEC membership decides where and how to spend their money and the clear winner in the pack market in Canada is the MEC packs. With the closing of Serratus we will be pouring all of our energy into the MEC packs, not holding back on the high end to protect the Serratus brand as we have for years, and dividing our energy between the two brands. Our intention is to cover the technical niches we served with Serratus using new MEC designs, but do it better and at a lower price. We will not be transferring exact pack designs over (and there is no copyright or intellectual protection on virtually any pack on the market) to the MEC brand, but rather developing technical equivalents. The same people that have been behind all of the really tech Serratus packs will be the same people behind the MEC packs, so I truly hope we will not disappoint our fellow core users! I’m glad a lot of people like the Genie – I designed and built it on my own time, for myself, before it ever saw the light of day as a Serratus product. Now, many years later, I fully intend to make a MEC replacement that is even better!
A note on why Arc’teryx can compete and Serratus could not (not to be confused with the MEC packs, which can and do compete with anything on the market). First of all, Arc’teryx sells to a global market, not just to MEC as does Serratus. The bulk of their product is also clothing – a much bigger market than packs and panniers. Hence their factory is ten times bigger than Serratus and they can benefit from all of the advantages that a larger scale brings. They also manufacture a portion of the their product line outside of Canada – not an option for Serratus due to their role within MEC. Lastly, because of their scale, financial backing, and focus on being a manufacturer, Arc’teryx has been able to pour vast amounts of money and resources into marketing, advertising, professional athletes, design, manufacturing technologies, and distribution. All of these things permit Arc’teryx to produce exceptionally good gear and command a premium price for their products, enabling them to make high-end stuff in Canada. Being owned by Adidas (a 5 billion dollar multinational) probably doesn’t hurt either. Far bigger companies than Serratus gave up on manufacturing packs domestically years ago (The North Face, Marmot, Osprey, Dana Designs, Kelty, Mountainsmith, REI, LL Bean, Lafuma, Millet, Gregory, Eagle Creek, Lowe, etc, etc). It is really a credit to all the great people at Serratus and our minimalist customers (few may they be) that they have been able to keep it going for so long. Thanks to you all.