Tents & Sleeping Bags Washington DC

Tents and sleeping bags take on environmental friendliness while innovating with materials and construction

Given that camping presumably puts participants into closer contact with the natural environment, it follows that some tent and sleeping bag manufacturers are going green. Among these are Marmot, Big Agnes and Sierra Designs; the latter picked up the "Sprout Award" from Rock & Ice magazine last month for its Green Effect program.

Announced in 2007, Sierra Designs' Green Effect program incorporates five goals: "build environmentally friendly products whenever possible; support environmental programs and organizations; grow programs that promote sustainable outdoor recreation; reduce costs and waste; [and] enhance community involvement through its employees, reps, retailers and consumers." In terms of environmentally friendly products, that commitment translates into bags such as the Verde 20, Déjà vu 20, Nahche 0 and Winema 0, which use 90 percent-plus green materials. These materials include Climashield Green, Primaloft Recycled, Cocona lining material and EcoSensor recycled shell material.

Eco-friendliness is not the only priority driving innovation in tents and bags. For example, Sierra Designs launched into four-season Convert 2, with an external pole feed to internal pole sleeves. The tent comes with removable Jake's Corners on the inside as well as an air flow vent system to increase the strength during harsh weather conditions, and a removable vestibule. The company's new ultra-light Velox series comes in one- (3 lbs.), two- (4 lbs. 2 oz.) and three-person (5 lbs.) versions, providing a hybrid single and double-wall construction for fast and light set-up and use, according to Sierra Designs.

ReserveAmerica recently gave a plaudit to Eureka! for its N!ergy series: tents wired for power with the E! Power system, which, according to the manufacturer, "enables campers to use convenient 12-volt accessories such as lights, fans or mattress pumps right inside the tents." The Eureka! N!ergy tent series was selected from thousands of products from all major categories as ReserveAmerica's overall industry winner for 2007.

A luxury such as this might be just the ticket to persuade customers who'd be attracted in theory to camping, but balk at the idea of too much "roughing it." That kind of squeamishness might strike your more hardy outdoor customers as laughable—but both groups have the potential to spend money in this category. Clearly, before you can meet the camping customer's needs in tents and sleeping bags, you have to understand how to meet those needs. Sorting through the hundreds of choices available in each of these categories becomes a little easier when you group those choices by their relevance to the people who will be buying and using them.

Doing that means first identifying who those people are and what kinds of camping they tend toward. You should look at both your existing customer base and beyond, to the type or types of campers you'd like to draw into the store. Identifying those customers as either family campers or backpackers isn't the end of it, either. There are occasional family campers and those who like to get away as many weekends as possible during the warmer months, and you will encounter sometime backpackers as well as those whose idea of a good time is to disappear into the wilderness for a couple of weeks at a time.

Each of these customers will have different requirements in tents and bags. The avid family group will need a tent that can stand up to more frequent use, and may also need bags that are rated to lower temperatures, because their camping season may stretch into early fall. The casual and hardcore backpackers each need lightweight tents, designed to compress into small, manageable silhouettes that will co-exist peaceably with the other gear. Unlike the family group, each backpacker will carry his or her own tent. However, the frequent backpacker will likely be in the market for something more technical and therefore (usually) more expensive.

Good, better, best

Since not all family campers and backpackers have the same requirements or budgets, consider offering three price point levels in tents and sleeping bags: "good," "better," and "best." The "good" items will meet the needs of most customers, allowing you to offer competitive pricing while stocking items you can feel confident in putting your store's name and reputation behind. The "better" items are for those who want more, require more, are willing to pay more, or some combination of the above. Top of the line, of course, is the domain of "best" items, for customers whose dedication to camping warrants making a bigger investment.

To hit price points that may be lower than those on this three-tiered pricing structure, surplus and reconditioned tents and bags present an option. These represent value for money in that they are lower in price without being lower in quality.

Unless your store has an enormous selling area, chances are that an online merchant or sporting goods superstore can eclipse the selection you're able to put on display. However, your staff can offer more product knowledge and practical advice than the superstore's sales associates, and the online merchant cannot offer customers the option of getting into the tent or bag and sizing it up, literally.

The importance of being able to "try before you buy" in selecting a tent or sleeping bag cannot be overestimated, specially since comfort is such an individual matter when it comes to sleeping bags. Nobody would buy a house sight unseen, and neither should someone acquire his or her camping "home away from home" without judging whether it meets his or her living requirements.

Those requirements vary from customer to customer. While some campers bring only the basics with them into the tent, others pile in everything they might possibly. Customers at both ends of these two extremes will need to judge for themselves whether a particular tent will allow them to be comfortable when stretched out full-length on the floor in a sleeping bag, and whether there will be enough floor space to avoid cabin fever in the event of inclement weather. Since the number of people and the amount of gear they bring varies from family to family, one person's roomy six-person tent might be someone else's tight quarters, even if the group sizes are the same.

Sleeping bag requirements are even more individual. People not only vary by size and shape, but also by tolerance to cold and also by sleeping style. A camper who tosses and turns will plainly need a roomier bag. The more confining shape of a mummy bag might be better for a camper who heads into the outdoors in colder weather.

Choosing the tent or bag—or multiple individual bags, in the case of family campers—is not the end of the deal, even assuming that the products are intended to last for many seasons. You can look to add-on sales in the form of replacement fiberglass or aluminum tent poles, and sleeping bags should be accessorized with pads or ground covers. There are also tips about proper care of tents and bags, which you and your staff can pass along.