Comment by insane_dreamer
4 hours ago
It's not that being owned by a larger corp is inherently bad. Mountain Hardware is owned by Columbia, so is Prana, and all three are good quality and Columbia is a decent company by all accounts.
So it's what type of company owns it -- is it a PE play to extract maximum value for shareholders, or a lasting company building value for consumers?
Yeah, totally agree (though Prana changed the fabric of their excellent Stretch Zion pants for the worse a few years back).
Another company I really like is Mystery Ranch (for backpacks). They were purchased by Yeti and it remains to be seen whether their quality will drop to that of a "lifestyle brand".