I currently have rivers west gear and was very pleased with it except for the weight. and after a few years the seams on my sleeves started leaking. I think I can send it in and they will fix them. but I was thinking about getting all new gear this year. I like the Sitka but the price is hard to swallow. what do you guys/girls think?
I really like Sitka, I've been using Sitka gear ever since the company started out. I have a jacket and rain gear that's about 5 years old and still in great shape and it's been through a lot! In my opinion you get what you pay for. I have heard they have good customer service and are ready to replace anything that fails you. It is expensive and I'm lucky to get a good discount and can't say anything but great things about Sitka. It's great quality stuff. I just buy a couple of things from them every year and eventually it added up to a solid collection. Most recently I purchased the cloudburst rain gear, and I'm very pleased with it. If you want high quality hunting gear I think Sitka is pretty hard to beat.
Just make sure you have 6 months to wait for your stuff. Anything I have ever wanted to buy from them has been on back order and I am far too impatient to wait for it LOL.
check out Kuiu and first lite for rain gear also....you might find they are price a little better for comparable sitka products. i wouldn't give a nickel for riverwest as its sweat box and doesn't breath at all. I had there fishing jacket and vest and couldn't get ride of the quick enough.
I've been using Sitka the last two seasons. Here is my honest take on it. I love the design of their clothing. I use the Fanatic Jacket and IMO, its the absolute best designed jacket for treestand whitetail hunting by a long shot. I also have the status pants. Good pants and like the gasket things you pull over your boots are a nice touch. What I don't like. Construction and Material. IMO, for the price you pay for it, it needs to be built a bit better than what I see. I came from using Gray Wolf Woolens custom clothing to Sitka and there is no comparison to the quality of the Gray Wolf stuff. I'm not saying the Sitka stuff is bad by any stretch, but it just doesn't feel as well built as the Gray Wolf. Maybe its an unfair comparison, but the price points are comparable. This year, Sitka is using a different material for the Fanatic series. It sounds as if its more of a fleece than the stuff they used originally. I am definitely going to look at the new material. They're also using a more brown toned camo. The original fanatic material left a lot to be desired and is probably my biggest complaint. It pilled really bad after one season and the material snagged a bit on treebark, making a bit of noise. Not enough to alert game as I never had an issue. Its more of an annoyance after spending that kind of money on the stuff.
I also noticed sweating a lot in my rivers west. I really like the Sitka camo pattern but it would be even better if they did add a brown tone to it. maybe i'll do what fulltimekiller did. just buy one piece at a time as I can afford. I do a lot of all day sits and am tired of getting sweated up and wearing the weight of the rivers west. does anyone currently have the kuiu or first light stuff and how do you like it? I also need something warm because our season is usually cold most of the days.
Kuiu is making a great layering system for MT hunting. That said it wouldn't be my first choice of your *** is planted in a cold tree stand . For stand hunting ...Sitka fanatic series or first lite sanctuary is the ticket
