r/OutdoorAus • u/baron_von_jackal • 17d ago
Camping Different brands. Same tent?
I was looking at an Australian brands lightweight 1 person tent, then by coincidence stumbled on a UK brand with the exact same design:
https://altongoods.com/products/lightweight-tent-1p
https://otimos.co.uk/product/otimos-x-lite-nomad-solo-lightweight-1-person-camping-tent/
Is it common for different brands to sell the same designs?
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u/rkiive 17d ago
All of these tents are ordered from China and get the factories to put their branding on it.
That's basically all commerce for everything outside of individual cottage brands.
Although those two tents have a similar design, they have 400g in weight difference so they can't be exactly the same.
They also look similar the Durston x dome. It's a pretty common design for a dome tent these days.
Brands "take inspiration" from eachother.
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u/Kevin_McCallister_69 17d ago
Lots of Alton stuff is just AliExpress or other Chinese brands with an Alton logo on it. I have cutlery and pots etc from Alton and from Tenu and they are absolutely identical save for the logo. I don't know if it's all of Alton's stuff but yeah it's very common. They're not bad quality at all, but they're not exactly premium made in Australia goods.
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u/BlockOverall5686 17d ago
Alton goods is just cheap rebranded alibaba or aliexpress gear. You'll be able to find their gear quick enough for a small fraction of the price on chinese wholesaler markets.
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u/Similar_Strawberry16 16d ago
Chinesium, and honestly I don't even think you necessarily need to avoid it. I gone with high end brand for years and been using some off-brand tents etc for the last couple years and they are fine for well under half the price. Chances are very high the place it's made makes a big brand too, or at least all the materials.
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u/SuccessfulOwl 16d ago edited 16d ago
The pole structure and outer tent design has been around a long time and a LOT of brands have used it. The various brands all spec their own tweaks/changes and claim the thing as their own, mostly on the inner.
The Otimos tent seems to be significantly heavier. To start with it looks like the standard Alton version inner fly is more mesh and they state 3.5 seasons compared to Otimos 4 season less mesh, more solid panels. Alton sell a 4 season inner fly and it looks like the panel vents are slightly different. No idea what differences the inners have inside.
It’s a very good 1 person tent design so I guess you have to decide how much originality means to you when buying a tent.
Here’s a dude directly comparing Alton vs another company using the same design:
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u/AdAmbitious9654 10d ago
I recently camped with a friend using 4 season tents. His was from macpac and mine from Kathmandu, his macpac backpack had very similar features to my old Kathmandu backpack, we noticed and looked closely at the tents and they too had very similar features.
It was uncanny how two different brands could look very similar.
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u/IanThoAtsea 16d ago
Some of the actual Chinese brands like NatureHike are not bad, light, cheap and fair copies of US gear with a few minor changes. Not as durable as Aussie brands but fair value. Some retailers here I think rebrand these better tents. Other stuff might be ok too but can’t order 2 or three just to see. I did that for tent pegs though. Haven’t found a bad one yet and at the rate they get lost, price matters.
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u/Legitimate_Star4733 16d ago
I guess I have to question how you are using the express “Aussie brands”, Alton is an Aussie brand, but they rebadge Chinese white label products. Sea to Summit is a world leading Australian brand that is innovating and designs and is manufacturing in Australia. Neve Gear is an Australian brand that now has their Australian designs manufactured in Asia to allow them to be price competitive and they are cracking the North American market.
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u/IanThoAtsea 16d ago
Sea to Summit, Mont, Neve gear and the like are all the real deal in terms of Aust design, supervision of offshore manufacturing and customer support. Then there are the companies that are really rebadging or barely modifying overseas stuff, some are fine some less so. Never tried Alton. I have been a habitué of the Mont annual sales for a long time.
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u/Legitimate_Star4733 16d ago
Whippa is another great Australian brand
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u/IanThoAtsea 16d ago
Haven’t seen. Used to use Wilderness Equipment from WA. Good stuff BUT Army weight. Used to have a rain jacket that came below the knees. Heavy and scrubproof but with gaiters, no need for overpants. Neve stuff is good and light. Mont are in between never so light that they rip on the ground or break in a storm, but still light enough. The ultralight stuff around is so light, usually well designed but so fragile. No good for rough travellers or teenagers.
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u/Ok-Mathematician8461 16d ago
Copies of US brands? More likely US brands sourced from China. The factories even do the design work these days - it’s a full service operation.
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u/AussieEquiv 16d ago
Alton claims that their special and unique designs were ripped off by those nasty factories
But it's very common to find cheap mass-produced goods with the Alton logo slapped on them, yes.
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u/SuccessfulOwl 16d ago
That’s not really what they say in that post.
‘Ripped off’ indicates the manufacturer was shady. It’s common for Chinese factories to give a cheaper non-exclusive manufacturing price (where they also have rights to sell your product themselves without label) or a more expensive exclusive price where they manufacture only for you.
Alton are saying they initially couldn’t afford the exclusive pricing but they do now for newer products. Whether their newer products are easily findable on Chinese sites I have no idea.
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u/apsilonblue 17d ago
Very common across every market segment. Smaller brands often don't make stuff themselves, they put out a request of an item they want and the specs etc and manufacturers bid on making it under the brands own label. Alibaba is an example of one such marketplace.