Ben,
just to be clear, I have no problem with Westcomb being a small company. On the contrary, all big companies started as small companies, often in their garage. And most of the time, they were created because of dissatisfaction with what was available at that time. I'm always on the look-out on what small companies like Tarptent, MLD, ULA, ... are bringing to the market. My main problem is that it's very hard to find any of the Westcomb products (being from Europe doesn't help here) and almost as difficult to find out why I should take a look at their products.

What branding concerns, all that interests me is performance, value for money. I don't care from which brand it comes.
The fact that I still point to the capabilites of Gore to make something similar, has more to do with the fact that currently people seem to disregard Gore as something from the past. How often have I seen people write that they would never buy Gore again. If it's gore-tex, it's automatically inferior to eVENT. That's just silly.

Well, back to my tarptent, thermawrap jacket, torsolite pad, valandre sleeping bag, all from mass market brands <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />