The Adventurer's Gear Thread

[Mike K.]

If anybody knows where I can get some more old BR stuff 'sides ebay, lemme know, please.

Good luck with that Kiltie. Besides covering original period adventure pieces, books, and other items, this thread has evolved to a large extent as a guide on where to find modern items much like the old Banana Republic used to carry. I know there are a lot of pages to sift through but many of the BR-type clothing, hats, shoulder bags, etc. are here, with links on where to get 'em. My safari-ized Akubra hat was made with the old BR safari hat as its primary inspiration. Many of the outdoors shirts sold now by Cabelas, Filson, L. L. Bean, etc. are along the lines of the old Banana Republic. Some reproduction WWII military retailers fill in the gaps with boots, field packs, etc. If you want the original BR items, eBay is about the only way to go. But if you want new items that are virtually the same, if not better, then you've come to the right place with this thread.

Welcome to the Fedora Lounge!

 

[Mike K.]

Darn Half Pint, nothing like making the rest of us feel like old geezers!

 

[carebear]

Darn Half Pint, nothing like making the rest of us feel like old geezers!

Tell him to pull up his pants (into his armpits like us geezers) and get a haircut.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

If anybody knows where I can get some more old BR stuff 'sides ebay, lemme know, please.

We were just talking about this the other day. Before Gap bought Banana Republic, BR had so many cool things. They were different from the other retailers, and I'd known about them and bought when they were a catalog and no stores. And their stores were great - I remember the one at South Bay Galleria in Torrance, CA - there was a halved Jeep (the glass front of the store inserted in the middle) with one wheel off the ground spinning, lights on, light it was tearing out of the store, over a little rocky streambed with a python up at attention. All the stores had a gimmick like that. And they had the clothing to go with the concept - jungle wear!

But what's with the big retailers today? Something new, inventive and unique comes along, and the new kid on the block starts raking in sales. At some point, a bigger company takes notice of them.

"Gee, they've got a great product line, a great concept, and our sales are hurting because we've got the same boring crap as everyone else...let's buy 'em!" They do and then...and within months, all that remains of the uniqueness the original company had is possibly their name at most. The parent company gets rid of the more inventive product mix

What's Banana Republic evolved into? The Gap, The Limited, Penney's, Macy's, Eddie Bauer. And the eggheads on the Gap board of directors were completely perplexed as to why, after buying Banana Republic and putting in the same tired clothes every Gap carried, did Banana Republic sales tank? Hello, guys - clue phone's ringing off the hook over here. That's the whole problem, though. Some big corporation takes over and just starts sending the same old stuff their exisiting stores had, and the buying staff just ordering more of the same stuff, and they no longer go looking for more unique items, or try to keep the store's product line separate and distinct from everyone else in the mall.

Annoying and frustrating...

 

[John in Covina]

They no longer go looking for more unique items, or try to keep the store's product line separate and distinct from everyone else in the mall. Annoying and frustrating...

****************
It's because so many people do not understand that a specialty store or company is selling to a nitch. This happens in many areas of business. Big companies are usually run by consenses and consenses can not lead with innovation, consenses seaks safety in same-ness not out of the box thinking.

It happens a lot in the replacement auto parts industry, a small company has a nitch and innovative marketing becoming succesful. Large company buys the small company, doesn't understand the nitch nor the innovation, tries to install the big company regemen and loses the nitch market by not providing what the small company did before. Small company is destroyed. Original owners, if young enough and hungry enough will often wait the required time period and recreate the old small company under new banner if the nitch market is lucky.

Example:
Auto Specialty bought by TRW, trw is clueless and loses Auto Specialty market, WD Source / Centic is born reviving nitch.

 

[Jerekson]

Tell him to pull up his pants (into his armpits like us geezers) and get a haircut.

The pants can't be saved, being from Old Navy, but a hair cuit? Gee whiz! I'm going on a half-inch sides and back, you old coot!

 

[carebear]

The pants can't be saved, being from Old Navy, but a hair cuit? Gee whiz! I'm going on a half-inch sides and back, you old coot!

Half-inch?! Why in my day...

 

[Diamondback]

Half-inch?! Why in my day...

You never had a day, Matt--your time was back before the sun first rose, ya old fossil... lol

And young Jerekson: "Turn that stuff DOWN!" lol

Just had to razz both of ya a little...

 

[Jerekson]

You old geezers are way too lame. I'm going to hang with the cool cats.

 

[carebear]

Cool?

Let me and J. Powers tell you about the Pleistocene sometime...

 

[Jerekson]

Cool? Yeah. When you say it, it sounds so un-cool.

 

[carebear]

Cool? Yeah. When you say it, it sounds so un-cool.

We had to walk through glaciers miles deep, avoiding sabertooths and cave-bears...

 

[Mike K.]

Don't forget uphill, both ways! We also discovered fire and began the whole upright walking thing!

 

[Serial Hero]

Don't forget uphill, both ways! We also discovered fire and began the whole upright walking thing!

Didn’t they make a movie about that? “Quest for Fire”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082484/

 

[Jerekson]

We had to walk through glaciers miles deep, avoiding sabertooths and cave-bears...

I had to walk a mile to school every day in the foot-deep snow! And do you think I complained?

 

[Diamondback]

Hey, I had to walk to school in the middle of the Genesis flood! (Seriously, forty days and forty nights is short next to the NorthWet rainy season...)

 

[Serial Hero]

I had to walk a mile to school every day in the foot-deep snow! And do you think I complained?

Yep, every step of the way

 

[Mike K.]

I had to go to school...period.

 

[Jerekson]

Yep, every step of the way

Yeah, honestly. Not one of the generation's greatest arguements

Genesis flood? It would be hard to top that, for most people.

But then again, I'm not most people.

I was there during the great Dino hunt of the Triassic.

 

[John in Covina]

We had to walk through glaciers miles deep, avoiding sabertooths and cave-bears...

***************
You had it easy!

Oh, We pine for the good old days of Tyrannasaurs Rex and Pterydactyls!