Backcountry.com at it Again

Lets face it: adventure sports ain't cheap. The free market has even found a way to make hiking expensive. Gear for everything from skiing to climbing demands large chunks of paycheck and stores such as EMS and REI don't help, unless there are store-closing sales. Enter Backcountry.com .

A few years ago, a friend introduced Backcountry's steepandcheap.com , which features one gear deal at a time. The site lists a single skiing, climbing, hiking, etc. product at a massive reduction in price until the item sells out. Then, a new deal is listed. This means several deals daily and a massively distracted work force hungry for a steal. The site has even added a widget that alerts users to each deal as it launches and web browser toolbars nationwide are littered with buttons for the backcountry family of sites for quick access.

Next up was whiskeymilitia.com , the punk younger brother of steepandcheap that caters more to the snowboard-surf-skate crowd and also offers streetwear deals. After scoring a few deals from these sites, one becomes hopelessly addicted and finds themselves buying gear that they don't even really need. I still haven't gotten into rock climbing yet, but that pair of Five Ten shoes from a steepandcheap session two years are great surprisingly great for bowling.

To make matters worse on workforce focus, Backcountry has got a slew of newer gear sites such as single-stealers tramdock.com (ski goods) and chainlove.com (biking). They also have dogfunk.com, a snowboarding warehouse and their awesome backcountryoutlets.com , which features loads of gear for all adventure sports at big cuts in price. They also just launched their newest site, Brociety.com , which offers one snowboarding deal at a time and adheres to the family's policy of trying way too hard to be hip. (But as long as the site is hooking it up with a brand new Burton Custom for $200, who cares how lame the product description is?)

Building on their momentum, the site went ahead and gobbled up geartrade.com somewhere along the way, where people can list their used gear for sale without a listing fee. I have personally sold 2 pairs of snowboard boots on this and received my check within ten days. More money to spend on steepandcheap.com. Sweet.

Ordering gear online has its drawbacks (you can't try stuff on or see that those navy blue stripes are actually purple), but to address this, Backcountry has created an awesome customer service system. They allow you to return your gear with no questions asked-even if its been used a few times. Which makes sense for gear. They also feature a chat system where you can grill an expert on anything before you buy it, and who bends easily when you ask for free shipping upgrades. They will also readily send shipping labels for dysfunctional gear that needs to be returned and you don't even have to scream at anyone to get one. Take that Hewlett Packard.

Lastly, and perhaps their best feature, is the feedback. The comments left by users are not censored and so you can get an honest sense of whether of not the product, ahem, sucks. You can also sort products according to their user ratings. This feature is very helpful in every aspect of a product from water-proof ratings to sizing vagaries.

So quit wasting time doing work and put your A.D.D. to good use with some of the backcountry family. If you are going to play your part in stimulating the economy, you may as well get more gear out of it.