Product Weights

Its about time I had a rant about product weights, having just bought yet another item that was well over its advertised weight.

So let me flesh this out. When I say "yet another", I say that because the vast majority of gear that I have bought tips the scale above what the manufacturer's claim. Now the odd gram here or there doesn't bother me (despite the fact that it all adds up)- I expect and accept that. I'm talking about when a product is significantly over the limit.

For example, the 380g sleeping mat that actually weighs 440g, or the 540g sleeping mat that actually weighs 600g, or- wait for it- the 700g rucksack that actually weighs over 1200g! Those are my three most recent purchases that have pushed me over the edge.

So why is weight so important? Well, for me personally I look to lighten my load because I have bad knees, and the less they have to lug around the better. Many ultralight campers will be in a similar boat. Because I've saved 30g here and 100g there, my pack now weighs over 2kg less than it used to. So when you're talking about saving weight, weights really are important. But that aside its the simple principle of getting what I paid for.

Somehow, manufacturers seem to get away with this practice. Often the get-out involves weighing "incomplete" items- a sleeping bag without its stuff sack, a water bottle without its lid, a tent without its pegs- without disclosing this fact, of course. That, or just outright fabrication of figures.

This "manipulation" of weights seems commonplace yet at the same time accepted. However, lets reverse the concept and transpose it to a different scenario: Imagine a big supermarket was overestimating product weights and were, on a daily basis, selling 1kg packs of beef that actually contained just 700g of meat. There would be a huge scandal, watchdog's would be involved, share prices would plummet and criminal proceedings would possibly take place. Yet when the opposite happens in the outdoor gear industry, nothing happens. Surely false advertising is false advertising?

Now I've heard that self-inflating sleeping mats can vary wildly, so manufacturer's take an average weight. If so, that means if my 380g mat weighs 440g, then somewhere there is one that weighs 320g. If that's the case you need to sort your manufacturing tolerances out. 

Its refreshing to be able to report that not all manufacturers feel compelled to succumb to these shady practices, however, and I do have many items that were not just the correct weight advertised, but actually less than that, and that really is the mantra of good business:

If you over-promise and under-deliver, you're only going to piss people off and create distrust in your brand. Maybe you'll gain a few extra sales that you wouldn't have got by being honest about your product, but you'll destroy your repeat-custom potential and risk your reputation by word-of-mouth. Far better to under-promise and over-deliver, and gain customers for life.