[gensym]

Arcteryx, despite being owned by a larger corporation, is still high quality. Their hardshell jackets are the gold standard.

I've also had success with Mountain Hardware, Outdoor Research (jackets and pants).

(I do search and rescue, so a lot of focus on outdoor stuff. It is also really hard on gear so anything cheaply made gets destroyed pretty quickly.)

[insane_dreamer]

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?

[gensym]

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".