Right, Vasque St. Elias GTX. Good eye. I got mine for $136 on sale at Amazon. I saw them for around $144 at Campmor (they had a 20% off sale plus an extra 20% for a new online customer) but Amazon had the best price going that I could find.
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I did see that there were cheap ones on Amazon in, IMO, a much better color, light brown instead of the dark that REI et al. stock in-store. I am almost certainly going to go to REI to try them on first though and if I do that itās reasonably likely Iāll just buy them there out of laziness which is why I quoted the MSRP 
Definitely worth pointing out that with camping gear, you can usually find last yearās model (which is usually practically the same as this yearās) discounted online in various places.
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Iād do it just like you if we had an REI, but weāre not that lucky. ::glumface::
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Itās not luck. Wherever you live doesnāt have a thick enough smug problem. A2 has one. It is not a blessing.
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Does smugness lead to good camping gear options? Or vice versa? 
I was pleased to find a Bass Pro Shop way out in Rancho Cucamonga one day on my way to or from my sisterās house in Temecula. I still havenāt set foot in there yet, but I remember visiting the big one in Springfield MO and being quite impressed at the sheer volume of outdoor gear they carried.
Iām not much for fishing, but Iād love to get a boat like the one my parents owned when they lived on the shore of Bull Shoals Lake.
Iād also then need to find a lake.
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I know what youāre saying, but REI has one thing going for them thatās really key when buying boots, where getting a good fit can be a matter of trial and error: a one year no questions asked return policy, even if youāve worn them. That can really cut down the final outlay versus buying and owning three or five before you find a pair thatās a dream to walk in. (My feet need a lot of room in the toes and not much at the heel; people with normal feet would have an easier time I guess.)
To answer your question, not entirely sure, but positive you could get more useful gear for less money somewhere else. Socks were what I was after, and no cashmere or angora was to be found. There is no sheepās wool that can compare in weight to warmth ratio to bunny or goat clippings.
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Ah, I see. Iāve only been to REI once or twice, and they seemed to have good stuff, but I didnāt do any comparison shopping, and Iām not a frequent enough buyer of outdoor equipment to know any better. For all I know they very well could be outrageously overpriced.
But the big-ass backpack I got there has served me and my nephew well for over a decade, so it seemed worth whatever I paid for it. At the time I was unmarried and had no mortgage, and for the first time in my life had some disposable income. Somebody recommended REI to me, and it seemed legit.
But now Iām coveting your socks.
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Amazon, less than $15 for 5 pair, and theyāve lasted longer than the $5 a pair I can no longer get in any US brick-and-mortar store. (Like it ever gets cold enough in greater LA to be comfy.) 
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My understanding was that there really isnāt a limit for when you can return things - you have to be pretty shameless to bring in something youāve used heavily for more than a little bit but you can certainly bring back a pair of boots that you tried a couple times then forgot at the back of the closet for a couple years. I returned a pair of casual shoes I bought there and wore outside for a couple of weeks (destroyed the back of my ankle). They do re-sell used returned gear, a couple times a year at tent sales in the parking lot (depending on the store probably).
Nordstrom famously has a similar policy, which I have also used. Though EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports, which is what I grew up with in upstate NY) doesnāt advertise such a policy explicitly, they do have a satisfaction guarantee and were happy to take a return two years after I bought it (running shoes that didnāt work for me and which I forgot in the closet for two years).
REI and EMS are definitely a bit smug (depending on who you talk to while there), and they tend not to carry many budget-friendly options, and everything is almost always full price - though at REI with the $20 lifetime membership (you just pay the $20 once) you get 10% back on everything you buy. And Iām definitely more inclined to pay a little extra at REI, EMS, or Nordstrom because I know I can return things that donāt work out. If I know for sure what I want then I look for a deal online of course! And yeah, sometimes they just donāt carry what you want, like the sock situation - but Iām a fan of merino wool socks they carry, from Smartwool and Darn Tough Vermont (Smartwool ones are a lot softer, but they wear out, which the Darn Tough ones basically donāt). They are quite expensive though.
Interesting but not surprising that I too need more room at the toes and less at heels - weāve seemingly confirmed what kind of foot Vasque boots fit best.
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How does that work? I mean, do they wrinkle their noses if you try to get them to match a price from Sport Chalet or something? I ask because I donāt think Iāve run into a lot of retail smugness before. Maybe Iāve become ridiculously over-privileged and havenāt noticed itā¦ I remember feeling a bit nervous and out of place on occasions when I poked my head into certain high-end emporia in my 20s. Back in my PA days, Iād occasionally have to do pickups and dropoffs for costume designers at some pretty swanky Beverly Hills joints where my Iron Maiden t-shirts definitely didnāt belong, but the vast majority of the time, I havenāt encountered (or at least havenāt noticed) smugness as such in any stores I can remember shopping at.
I mean yeah, Iām a white cisgender American male who doesnāt have any obvious disabilities and still possesses most of his hair, so naturally (if definitely not justifiably) those will act as social advantages for me. But I still dress as unfashionably cheaply as ever, and Iāve never looked like I had any money to spend (or good taste to spend it on). So I would expect to have been āsmugged outā at some point or other.
What am I missing?
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Yeah, those Sundowners were great boots but notorious for the soles coming off.
I guess my biggest recent āreplaceā was this
for this
2 ft longer, 10 lb lighter, and about as fast as a paddle driven non-composite fishing kayak can get. Iām trying to hold my identity as a ākayakerā and not get one of the pedaling boats taking over the kayak fishing field.
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Nothing. Your white, male, cis status is generally sufficient to shield you from much daily BS.
Itās other females who most frequently deliver the smug to me in such retail environments. Iām size 4 instead of 0 these days (what, being mid 40ās, and all), so thereās a extra layer of crap in there. The webtubz donāt care whatās between my legs, nor what size my pants are, so I find it far preferable for a large swath of shopping.
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It might not be the right word. That feeling you got going in swanky boutiques is on the right track though. Itās this sense that you have to have the most expensive stuff available in order to be a True Outdoorsman ā¢ which is the impression you get when you talk to many (certainly not all) of the people who work in these stores. Itās also just the general image they portray - they turned enjoying the outdoors into the ultimate yuppie thing, in order first of all to make more money selling more expensive things than in the old days but also to differentiate from the ālow classā version of enjoying the outdoors - e.g. Bass Pro or Cabelaās especially because thatās where rednecks and conservatives get their gear.
The gear they sell is good stuff, and the staff are actually knowledgeable - theyāre all people who spend most of their free time doing outdoorsy stuff. But thereās a lot to read into if you start observing, haha.
edit: itās like extreme sports bros, just diluted down to the retail level
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I realize that I have spent a lot of time in happy obliviousness.
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Every time I go into one of the āupper-endā retail joints, I canāt help thinking āwhat does this stuff have to offer that my handed-down stuff from the 50ās not have for my very-not extreme northern-tier state summer camping?ā The usual answer is ānothing. Go home and wash the sleepingbags Grandma and Grandpa let you have. Dāereās goose feathers in em.ā (Yes, I start channeling their speech patterns too, because why not?)
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Best move is patience. Everything goes on sale eventually. Everything has a season.
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The flip side of that is everything will be made cheaper, and with decreased quality in the future, and may be discontinued. Sometimes when you find something good that you like, youāre better off purchasing two or more.
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Heh. I agree. Just had issues replacing my old loafers! Ended up with three pairs. Two on sale though. The trick is to know the schedules of where you buy stuff, so you know when sale is coming!
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Zamberlain. Theyāre pricy and soooo comfy.
