Now I have no problem with marketing climbing, I myself regularly promote climbing, hillwalking and mountaineering to those that I introduce. I have mentioned before that I found some business/marketing claims in outdoor instruction provision to be a little OTT. “Best Outdoor course provider in North Wales” by a company I had never heard of was just stunning. However there is much subjective debate in a service industry as to who is best.
Not so with carabiners, as this adverts makes out that they have the lightest ‘keylock’ screwgate carabiner in the world ever at 43 grammes. I have mentioned this lightest carabiner issue before, but given that some time has passed, and they are still using the same market I felt I should mention it again. However I am sure that wild country are more than aware that their competitors DMM have recently launched a ‘keylock’ screwgate carabiner that weighs in at only 41 grammes. Now I am no scientist but when I was a young lad 41 grammes was less weight than 43! Now there is no ambiguity here, both are keylock, both have a screwgate, yet one weighs less than the other. Now there is no abiguity here it is pretty cut and dry, one is lighter than the other.
It just seems wrong to me that Wild Country are misleading potential customers, climbers are pretty shrewd, and will remember things like that. Why they don’t change the advert slightly I’ll never know, trust goes two ways, and I know it is a competitive time in every industry with the economy, but please treat your customers with the respect they deserve.