I talked to the owner of the shop where they made their presentation and he confirmed that the gear is given to them for promotional purposes. The prices shown are also MSRP which is seldom what you would pay for many of the items. Given the choice between a $300 piece of gear which someone gave me for free and a $100 piece of gear that I had to pay for myself it is no contest. On the other hand if I have to choose between $300 or $100 I am going to give the $100 item a good hard look. Also like many of us we watch for sales, last years model and used items and seldom purchase full price items. Function is a large part of the equation but if fashionable, cool and the latest/greatest are important you are going to spend a lot more.

Some of the items which they "took" on the trip they went on after the presentation were certainly not necessary or even desirable. The trail they went on is one I hike frequently because it is close enough to home that I can leave on Saturday morning and be back home on Sunday afternoon when I just have to get out there for a little while. I would not hesitate to recommend the trail to novices using nothing but the brochure map put out by the forest service so the SPOT/GPS is just dead weight. Given the weather report during the time that they went a lot of the clothes was also just dead weight.