This is the year that I need to replace some of my camping equipment. I needed a new pair of Hiking Boots. I went shopping and was I shocked at the cheap quality of construction of the new boots. I have been hiking and camping all of my life and have seen the equipment go from non existing to great quality to junk. I always buy the best quality that I can afford. My last pair of hiking boots was bought 20 years ago. I have had them resoled a couple of times. I have a pair of L. L. Bean Boots that I purchased 25 years ago, and they are now having new leather tops installed at L. L. Bean. I am used to having the things I buy last a very long time. The new boots can't be repaired, resoled, etc. I had to try on a dozen different boots to find a pair that fits because nobody in the boot making business uses standard sizes anymore. One company's size 8 wide is the same size as another company's 10 extra wide. I was taught that when camping, one should try to blend in with nature, so my equipment was all earth tones. I look at the new tents and most are blue (the worst color to use because skeeters are attracted to blue) and the rest are red, yellow or orange. Our campgrounds are going to look like a circus instead of a campround. I can understand using yellow or orange for a climbing expedition, but how many campers will actually go on a climbing expedition? I see the seams on the tents that looked stressed before they are even used. My last backpacking tent was a Sierra Designs Mountain tent that was absolutley bomb proof and has kept me dry under a rocky mountain 2 foot overnight snow storm. Very well engineered and was green to blend into the woods or meadows. There is no modern day replacement for this tent. The new stoves are all copied after MSR stoves with the worst windscreen ever designed by man. I long for the old Optimus or Svea stoves that actually had a windscreen that would survive a weekend of camping. Cooksets were designed around particular stoves so that everything could be packed together and compactly. The cooksets also had a better windscreen included with the cooksets that were better than the good windscreens included with the stoves. It seems to me that the companies that grew up in the middle of the backpacking scene of years ago have lost touch with their customer base and just builds things to get thrown away and replaced frequently. These companies are the same companies that belong to orginizations that talks about how bad we are for being a throw-a-way society. If you don't want us to be a throw-a-way society, then build us products that last and can be repaired, so we don't have to replace so often.