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 it’s reasonably likely I’ll 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 year’s model (which is usually practically the same as this year’s) discounted online in various places.
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I’d do it just like you if we had an REI, but we’re not that lucky. ::glumface::
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It’s not luck. Wherever you live doesn’t 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 sister’s house in Temecula. I still haven’t 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.
I’m not much for fishing, but I’d love to get a boat like the one my parents owned when they lived on the shore of Bull Shoals Lake.
I’d also then need to find a lake.
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I know what you’re saying, but REI has one thing going for them that’s 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 you’ve worn them. That can really cut down the final outlay versus buying and owning three or five before you find a pair that’s 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 sheep’s wool that can compare in weight to warmth ratio to bunny or goat clippings.
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Ah, I see. I’ve only been to REI once or twice, and they seemed to have good stuff, but I didn’t do any comparison shopping, and I’m 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 I’m coveting your socks.
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Amazon, less than $15 for 5 pair, and they’ve 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 isn’t a limit for when you can return things - you have to be pretty shameless to bring in something you’ve 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) doesn’t 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 didn’t 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 I’m definitely more inclined to pay a little extra at REI, EMS, or Nordstrom because I know I can return things that don’t work out. If I know for sure what I want then I look for a deal online of course! And yeah, sometimes they just don’t carry what you want, like the sock situation - but I’m 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 don’t). They are quite expensive though.
Interesting but not surprising that I too need more room at the toes and less at heels - we’ve 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 don’t think I’ve run into a lot of retail smugness before. Maybe I’ve become ridiculously over-privileged and haven’t noticed it… 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, I’d occasionally have to do pickups and dropoffs for costume designers at some pretty swanky Beverly Hills joints where my Iron Maiden t-shirts definitely didn’t belong, but the vast majority of the time, I haven’t encountered (or at least haven’t noticed) smugness as such in any stores I can remember shopping at.
I mean yeah, I’m a white cisgender American male who doesn’t 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 I’ve never looked like I had any money to spend (or good taste to spend it on). So I would expect to have been “smugged out” 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 “replace” was this
for this
2 ft longer, 10 lb lighter, and about as fast as a paddle driven non-composite fishing kayak can get. I’m trying to hold my identity as a “kayaker” 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.
It’s other females who most frequently deliver the smug to me in such retail environments. I’m size 4 instead of 0 these days (what, being mid 40’s, and all), so there’s a extra layer of crap in there. The webtubz don’t care what’s 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. It’s this sense that you have to have the most expensive stuff available in order to be a True Outdoorsman ™ which is the impression you get when you talk to many (certainly not all) of the people who work in these stores. It’s 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 “low class” version of enjoying the outdoors - e.g. Bass Pro or Cabela’s especially because that’s where rednecks and conservatives get their gear.
The gear they sell is good stuff, and the staff are actually knowledgeable - they’re all people who spend most of their free time doing outdoorsy stuff. But there’s a lot to read into if you start observing, haha.
edit: it’s 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 ‘upper-end’ retail joints, I can’t help thinking “what does this stuff have to offer that my handed-down stuff from the 50’s not have for my very-not extreme northern-tier state summer camping?” The usual answer is “nothing. Go home and wash the sleepingbags Grandma and Grandpa let you have. D’ere’s goose feathers in em.” (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, you’re 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. They’re pricy and soooo comfy.
