But my disdain from

THE
NORTH
FACE

comes from my inability to trek into the wilderness while being a walking billboard for a gear manufacturer, and quirky as it is, it's why I've NEVER owned a single piece of The North Face gear.

In the old days, I'd sew a 'park patch' over other less obvious brands stitched on hiking gear -- and I never saw a park patch big enough to cover TNF gear logo.

Spend anytime here on this forum and at the online retailers and it's easy to spot gear brands on the trail. 'That's an Arc'terix pack,' 'there's a Six Moons Designs Lunar Solo tent,' without having to have the brand posted billboard fashion on the gear.

My time on the trail is an escape from urban life. We've got billboards everywhere in Miami -- they're ugly, unaesthetic, and at times gross. We've got "mobile billboards" -- trucks with huge signs on their beds driving around (with gas near $4/gal.) -- another reason I don't want to see those mobile billboards in nature, on the trail.

Some kids live by their labels. Abercrombie & Fitch, replaced by Hollister, soon to be replaced by ??? It's the passage of youth, but then it's really not, since many kids by age 10 have already snubbed their noses at being a billboard lemming, no matter how much the slick advertising (conceived by conniving adults) builds up that peer pressure to purchase, put on and fit in.

To each their own. But if I am going to be a walking billboard, then my advertiser better darn well honor that written warranty of theirs in exchange for plastering their logo on my clothing or my gear.

(Enjoyed the post, neijiy, but with no profile info and this being you're first post, I'm just hoping that in our troubled economic times, that you're not a desperate TNF competitor.)