Mountain Hardware Exposure II Parka

Looked at some reviews including the one reviewer here on trailspace, did some poking around.

I would love to hear from my fellow trailspace forum users.

Whats your opinion as far as their jackets go? Have they been bought out by one of the big conglomerates? Has quality of product suffered recently?

I am about to drop $200 for a Mountain Hardwear Exposure II Parka - Men's

http://www.rei.com/product/687096

As far as budget goes this is pretty closee to the limit.

Yes, MH is, like most of the outdoor gear makers, a subsidiary of a Big Conglomerate.

MH makes excellent gear. Depending on your application, that's a reasonable choice. I use one of their tents as my main winter/expedition tent when I am with 1 or 2 other people.

Thanks Bill,

I was beginning to think with the colder weather everyone had gone into hibernation.

I appreciate the positive feedback.

My only fear - the reasons these companies became great, attention to detail, using the best materiel’s, double stitching, etc., gets tossed to the wind in favor of profits and adding to the bottom line so they can show investors a pretty number on the balance sheet.

I will give MH's jacket a shot and add to the reviews section.

I've purchased Mountain Hardwear gear, both pre and post Columbia assimilation and haven't really noticed any noticeable drop-off in quality (design, material, construction, etc). More recent clothing pieces had price tags that were essentially identical in appearance to what's attached to Columbia stuff so it's probably safe to assume they were made in the same factory, but that shouldn't be a big surprise. I guess one of the only hiccups they had was early in the production run of their (then new) backpacking packs a couple seasons ago, but who knows if that had anything to do with their corporate overlords.

MH still maintains a stand-alone base of operations in Richmond, CA, a good distance from the mothership, which is encouraging. I just hope they continue to put an emphasis on performance and function and don't go all TNF on us.