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  1. #1

    Default Cheap Outdoor Clothing

    Cheap Outdoor Clothing

    Outdoor clothing needs to function to a higher standard than everyday clothes. This makes it more costly to manufacture, and so more expensive for you. What can you do to find those quality hiking and backpacking clothes for less? You can watch for sales. You will save money, but that "extremely expensive" waterproof/breathable coat may still only be marked down to "very expensive." What else can you do?

    More Radical Ways To Find Cheap Outdoor Clothing

    Start by reconsidering what you really need for the trips you have planned. Will you be scaling peaks in Patagonia for a month? You probably should stick with the best sales you can find on the high-quality stuff. On the other hand, what if your trips are fair-weather overnighters? A dollar-store plastic poncho isn't out of the question.

    Consider things like how often you will be using a piece of clothing, and how abusive or careful you are with your clothes. How will you actually be using it? I didn't take a $400 waterproof/breathable rain suit to the top of 20,600-foot Mount Chimborazo. I took a papery Frogg-Toggs rain suit, which you can find at golf shops. It's waterproof and breaths well, and cost just $49 for the set. I have used it for years, on many rainy trips, with only one duct-tape repair. On the other hand, I hike in open areas, not thick forests that would tear the jacket up.

    If you hike in running shoes, as I do, start watching the sales on out-of-style shoes. I've bought brand-name $90 running shoes for just $25. With savings like that, I'm happy to be out of style.

    Want cheaper hiking and backpacking socks? Mine weigh less than an ounce and cost about a dollar per pair. I actually stopped getting blisters when I gave up on expensive, high-tech, too-hot hiking socks. I can hike thirty miles now without a blister in my comfortable, lightweight, white nylon dress socks. They come four pairs to a pack for three dollars at Wal-Mart.

    Used Outdoor Clothing

    The only outdoor clothing I won't buy used is footwear. Otherwise why not watch for potential hiking and backpacking clothes at a rummage sales or thrift stores? My own finds include a Goretex rain jacket and North Face vest for a few dollars each. My thrifty used wool sweater weighs just 11 ounces, and seems as warm as the newest fiber-pile models.

    One of my thrift store discoveries was silk shirts. They weigh just three ounces, and used to show up on the racks regularly for $3 (they are getting harder to find). They are comfortable, and dry fast if they get wet, though some of the styles make me look like I'm searching for a wilderness disco.

    Making Hiking Clothes

    While I can't recommend sewing your own outdoor clothing, and I don't like sewing myself, I have made a few simple things. A sleeve from an old thermal shirt became a one-ounce ski mask with scissors and three minutes of sewing. Socks with finger-holes became nifty hand warmers. As an insulating layer, I have worn a four-ounce piece of poly-batting like a tunic under my jacket, to the top of many mountains. Finally, without too much sewing, you can often modify your old clothes to make cheap outdoor clothing.

  2. #2
    Registered User Grampie's Avatar
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    Default Cheap

    My Mother always told me, "never say cheap." You should say inexpensive.
    Grampie-N->2001

  3. #3
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    I've been out looking for long pants to go over my polyester+wool blend longjohns ($5 at the local job lots store). I was thinking some nylon warmup pants. Problem is that I have a 3X butt and medium inseam. Not like you hem pants with zippers at the cuffs.

    I was in despair of finding suitable walking pants until I spotted a rack of polyester slacks and a pair in just my size, $12.

  4. #4
    Registered User brianos's Avatar
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    I've found several good buys at both campmor and altrec in their 'hot deals', 'web bargains' and 'outlet' sections. These are usually 'old models' being cleared out to make room for the newest stock. Best deal so far has been finding excellent base-layer wicking shirts for about $5 (normally $20+).

  5. #5
    But I believe, yes I believe, I said I believe
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    Target has 100% polyester shirts for around 12 dollars, at EMS, REI, etc, these would cost around 40 dollars.

    Kirby

  6. #6
    Registered User everydayhiker's Avatar
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    Awesome, Thanks for the insite. I have searched for cheaper hiking clothes. But this actually helps out alot. Thanks.
    "May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."
    -- Unknown

  7. #7
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    Default Columbia Down Jacket

    Picked mine up yesterday (reversible in purplish-blue/bright green) for 11 and change at the thrifty. No rips, tears, stains...looks like new! Similar to this one...




    I see little reason to ever enter a retail store for hiking/camping/packing clothes. Reuse/recycle at every opportunity!

  8. #8

    Default

    I have great stuff and practically never at full retail price.

    I wait a little, until on sale or at discount stores.

    One time, I did pay full retail at a hardware store for a synthetic hoodie and an inexpensive lightweight nylon jacket lined with thin soft cotton "flannel" (maybe).

    The fishermen and highway workmen were wearing this combination, so I thought I would try it out.

    Great stuff! I could perspire and not get wet inside because the combination ventilated well. The ordinary rain was no problem, because active, I stayed warm and dry. Only a downpour (Olympic National Park, rainforest side of the mountains) wetted the jacket out. So, I donned the least expensive Helly Hansen jacket with hood I had purchased at the showroom for the Quinault cannery.

    I learned to dress like "local workmen" who work outdoors.

    It worked good for me, at the coastal beaches and in the rainforests of western Washington State.

  9. #9
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    Default Bimini Bay Rain Jacket

    Picked up a lightly used one of these for a couple of bucks. A nice jacket at roughly 18 oz. It's PU lined and tape sealed ripstop. Has a velcro wrists and cord locks with plenty of pockets, back-vented.




    Thrifts are always busy, but especially so as the end of year nears and closets are cleaned out. A $3 LE down vest, $3 Montbell fleece, $9 Bugaboo (not lightweight...I know...but spotless and ripfree) are recent finds. I'm a sucker for Columbia and Patagonia shirts, ExO when they are available. Shopping cheap doesn't mean cheap gear (necessarily).

  10. #10
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    Default Dirt bagging and military clothing....size converter

    http://www.unit-converter.com/

    A link for military clothes size conversions.

  11. #11
    Registered User SunnyWalker's Avatar
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    What about military (army) long johns? Are they polyester or some blend? Or are they cotton? (I figure the cotton longjohns sold at places like Walmart are not for hiking).
    "Something hidden. Go and find it. Go, and look behind the Ranges. Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you . . . Go!" (Rudyard Kipling)
    From SunnyWalker, SOBO CDT hiker starting June 2014.
    Please visit: SunnyWalker.Net

  12. #12
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    I recently bought a down, packable, puffy jacket at Sam's Club for my wife for $12.88 cents. It has nice loft, probably 2" of loft, weights 11.4 oz, comes with a thin stuff sack and packs up to the size of a cantelope.

    I buy short and long sleeve polyester t shirts from Wal-Mart for around $10 bucks. I use Target brand polyester/spandex boxer briefs that cost $9.99 versus underarmor which is $29.99 a pair. I just bought myself a primaloft packable puffy jacket on REI closeout for $89 regular $199.

    Clothes are something I just don't believe you get much value for. Take a Patagonia polyester t-shirt for $39.99 versus my WM one for $10. There is no way that Patagonia shirt is 4 times better, they are both 100% polyester.

    Lot's of stuff like this can be had you just have to look for deals and not get tempted when you see all the new stuff in stores.

  13. #13
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    I was at SoRuck this year with my new $125 Zues Down jacket & A guy came up to me with the same jacket that he just bought at Goodwill for @ $8..... SCORE!!
    Take Time to Watch the Trees Dance with The Wind........Then Join In........

  14. #14

    Default

    Move up to maine and work for LLBeans, 30% off everthing and the employees even get better deals on returns. Thye are always looking for seasonal employees.

  15. #15
    Registered User Spogatz's Avatar
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    Having a cotton shirt to hike in is nice when it is hot but it can sure get cold when it is wet.
    ---Where ever you go
    There you are---

  16. #16
    Ohhh-Rraahhh!! Derek81pci's Avatar
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    Default

    Campmor is an amazing website. Click the "hot deals" button and click the tab on the left for the specific item type. Most things are at least 40% off. They just started a Spyder (cold weather gear) sale today, up to 75% off! Awesome looking designs for their gear as well. Amazon.com is good too. I got an out of season pair of Timberland hiking boots for 57 bucks, and they are awesome, and regularly like $149. I pretty much fully outfitted myself for $450. Tent, sleeping bag, stove, socks, 4 in 1 jacket, sock liners, 2 pairs of wool blend socks, poly long Johns, from Campmor = a little under $300 (free shipping), and great quality stuff, brand names. Timberland 1/2 hiking boots from Amazon = $57 (free shipping). Go-lite Men's Odyssey backpack from Go-Lite.com = $79 (free shipping to my zip code) and it weighs 3 lbs, 5400cc or whatever. There are awesome deals out there, you just have to look. I could have saved ALOT more money buy second-handing things, but I plan on doing a lot more hiking after the AT and hopefully the gear will hold up for more than the regular 5 months or so of the AT. Hope any of this is usefull to someone.
    Live your life and I'll live mine, perhaps one day they will intertwine. SEMPER FI! 2013 SOBO

  17. #17

    Default

    Marden's discount and big lot store (in Portland, ME.....maybe elsewhere too ??) has deals on blemished polypro and other long-sleeved tops. I bought several in my size for 50 cents to 90 cents each. In some the "blemish" was invisible, in one or two there was a tiny pinhole that took a minute to darn/fix.
    Since few people will ever see the garment anyway, what's not to like?

  18. #18
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    lots of great info here for us newbies

  19. #19
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    Thanks for the info listed here.

  20. #20
    Registered User wythekari's Avatar
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    Another way to go is http://www.shopgoodwill.com/. You do have to consider shipping costs but today I have seen a JANSPORT external frame pack, Leki hiking poles, and a North Face womens down jacket. So a little effort could yield gear at a savings plus there is always turnover of stuff. I usually watch sales and buy new, takes some planning but get in the mind set of watching for winter gear in the spring and for summer gear at the end of the season.

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