Welcome - Summer 2012
WE backpacks, daypacks, tents and gaiters - whether you are looking to buy new gear or chasing advice about servicing a twenty year old WE pack this is your one resource, as they say, '...straight from the horse's mouth'. Down the page are the clues to the treasures buried in this site, but first it's news time ...
Down-loadable Product A4 'Tech-sheets'
You will now see a pdf down-load button on every product page. We have placed most of the product info you may need on a single page, easily printed or saved.
New Tents!
Development of our new solo model, the ACE, is finalised and both mesh and winter inner versions are in production. Go to Super-light tents and read the intro on the ACE. We have a reputation for original design, going our own way to find better solutions. This product, made possible by our unique 'dihedral hub' is the latest example. The four-season design combines low profile, excellent stability, real sit-up height and great usable space, all in a compact package with a minimum weight just over 1.9kg. Until now all single-person lightweights have failed one or more of these tests. The free-standing inner tent pitches first and simply clips up to the framework. The well ventilated outer skin requires just two pegs. Available Spring 2011.
The popular I-Explore 3-person tent model is now also available in a 2-person size. The narrower width of the 2-person model results in less weight, a slightly lower profile, but still with plenty of head room. Logically enough the model names are now i-Explore 3 and i-Explore 2 and both are available with either the hybrid mesh inner or the full winter inner.
And remember, "all coated, waterproof fabrics used on WE tents are now specified with high-grade, POLYETHER-based polyurethane coating chemistry". This more expensive coating formulation provides a much greater resistance to hydrolysis, the sticky degradation that occurs in constantly damp or humid conditions, a particular problem in tropical climates.
New Daypacks
The Traverse, our popular, top-loading classic canvas daypack has been updated with an appealing segmented harness panel, revised shoulder harness details and built-in side 'bottle' pouches. You will not find a more durable, useful, weather-resistant daypack anywhere on the planet. Check it out. The new Flash and Slingshot models will be in stock in Spring 2011.
Gaiter Upgrade
Our Bush Gaiters, with their long canvas legs have recently been revised to improve durability and fit. Always looking for unique solutions, we have added a thin layer of closed cell foam between the nylon base layers, devised a new construction for the canvas-nylon seam and added extra stitching. Seams are flatter and the foam layer allows otherwise vulnerable stitching to submerged below the fabric surface. The upper part of the canvas leg is now also sculptured to close more smoothly above the calf muscle bulge. Go to the Gaiter page for full details.
Scroll down over this pic from our recent trip across Tasmania's southern ranges to see the rest of our website intro message. (And yes, we were very lucky to have the good weather on top of Precipitous Bluff).
Products
Three clicks into the right-side menu bar gets you to all the important product information. The short product descriptions will help narrow your focus. Click on 'specifications' to see details and use the printer friendly button to get all the product info onto paper (if you need to). Links on every product page lead you directly to the instructions for choosing sizes, use and care information, and so on. We have over 30 years experience making gear and using it. Product performance is at the core of what we do. Innovation over immitation, experience over wishful thinking, excellence over mediocrity.
Service
An intrinsic and important part of any product's quality is the service available after you have made your purchase. This responsibility dawned on us back in 1977, the first time we stitched a WE label to something we had made. Well, here we are in 2010! A long product life translates directly into a reduced call on increasingly scarce (and expensive) resources. Besides the comprehensive advice on use and care, I have included detailed instructions for common DIY repairs for all products, past and present. If a zip isn't closing properly on your well-worn backpack or tent you can discover the usual reasons why, and how you might be able to fix it yourself. Sea To Summit, the WE brand partners and distributors, provide follow-up service. If you need a measure of our commitment send STS a tricky question. More than likely, the reply you get will be detailed and come directly from me.
Information Resource
Gear freaks rejoice! Links on every product page lead you to more technical information than you may like to read. If you work in retail sales, teach in outdoor education or are just plain curious, you may find valuable perspectives in our more technical explanations of design and materials choices, all firmly grounded in the realities of travelling the back-country, carrying loads and depending on lightweight shelters. You could also look along the head menu bar, at 'Other Stuff'. In here you can find other interesting 'random' content, less directly related to products. Take the page about Staying Comfortable in the Outdoors. Marketing departments and journalists regularly invoke references to every-day matters of physics, stuff about staying warm and dry. Here they all are, collected together and straightened up, ideas that separate fact from fantasy. With them you will be able to do more with less.
Behind the Brand
What about the big questions? How do we see our business responsibilities in the areas of social accountability, impact on the natural enviroment, limited resources and global warming? With one life each to live, we do not draw a line between our business and private activities. The resources required to make a difference, the commitment of time and finances, flow freely back and forth across such a line. If you are interested in where we have come from, and where we are going, look up "Behind the Brand" under Other Stuff.
Finally, like many of our friends, we depend greatly on wild country, the mountains and on the ocean to provide energy and direction in our lives. Through the WE product range we see ourselves playing a part in these aspects of your life. That's a privilege and another important source of satisfaction. Thankyou!
Keep fit and have fun! We'll see you out there.
Ian Maley
Founder and Designer