Cheap gear or cheap n nasty?

[Heremeahappy1]

FYI. What appears to be a relatively new player to the online outdoor market albeit lower cost.
https://novaprosports.com.au
Prices are low for product claims, or have large brands finally seen mass their produced products bypass retailers and directly into the hands of consumers sans markup. For less than $200 cant afford not to buy and try/ invest and test/acquire and see what transpire.

[HarryS11]

From having a quick look at the website it looks like they're selling Aliexpress gear at a markup, as for the quality it depends.
Some brands such as 3f, NatureHike and Aegismax have been tried and tested and have a good reputation with the reddit UL community (keep in mind they aren't as durable or as light as name brand equipment). There's plenty of clones of tents/gear out there that perform almost as well as the name brand ones and for half the cost. I've personally bought an aliexpress down jacket, Ti cook pot and Stuff sack and have been more than happy with the quality for the price and I've got more gear on the way.
As for buying from Nova, if it was my money I'd go straight to the source at Aliexpress and save some money with the trade off of slow postage.

I found these to be a good resource and with a bit of digging there is plenty more to be found on BPL, Bushwalk.com and Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Ultralight/comments/4iz7re/ive_compiled_a_list_of_ultracheap_and_ultralight/
https://frugalhiker.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Remove%20Under%20%2410%20USD

[CasualNerd]

I think anyone who's shopped on aliexpress has considered dropshipping some tents with a good markup on ebay.

I wonder if they're actually shipping from Australian stock though ? "fast free shipping" but no mention of where from.

I love the few bits of naturehike gear I own, incredible value and good quality.

[warnabrother]

from their website...

"Self Pick-Up (Victoria) : You can opt to pick-up your items at our Victoria Warehouse in Preston, 3072 from Monday - Wednesday: 10am - 3pm, Thursday - Friday: 10am - 1pm AEST. You will be contacted via email informing you of the time your parcel will be made ready and be given the store address. This could range within 1-2 working days. If you require urgent pick-ups, please contact us via Live Chat, Email or Phone prior to coming to our warehouse to ensure that your item is in stock and ready for pick up."

So it appears they have items in stock in Melbourne...

[Heremeahappy1]

Thanks to all for input. Given the fairly positive feedback on the stocked brands, I may have found the kids hiking tent... they dislike dad's tarps. It appears I need to re-familiarise myself with Aliexpress, years ago they only dealt in commercial and industrial quantities. Cheers

[Strider]

Thanks to all for input. Given the fairly positive feedback on the stocked brands, I may have found the kids hiking tent... they dislike dad's tarps. It appears I need to re-familiarise myself with Aliexpress, years ago they only dealt in commercial and industrial quantities. Cheers

You’re thinking of Alibaba - AliExpress is the consumer friendly sister-site


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[lily2217]

They're not dropshippers haha. I'm from Victoria and did my self pickup from them at their busy looking warehouse last summer for the Illumina Amber X https://novaprosports.com.au/products/illumina-amber-x-ultralight-hiking-tent?variant=47278819413> and I MUST say no regrets! I justtt noted that this tent is stated sold out from the website and I'm not surprised! our other couple of friends are going to upgrade to that too. I had a great cosy time with my husband doing our little overnight trip at Wilsom prom Beautifullll. We're planning our nxt place in Easter now.

Ooh yah the staff attending to me said they're sole distributors of Naturehike in Australia (though my tent was not a Naturehike one, think its one of their own directo to consumer brands (e.g like Aldi snow jackets whoop)) as I did compare both materials and it seemed to be a better version. I am sure about to get another for my sister but it sold out so maybe i'll get the naturhike ones. I did check out aliexpress too and see naturehikes there but the only thing I a little worried about warranty. I mean stuff like iphone has fault in every 1 in 4 units how does it work with aliexpress, do they cover warranty and shipping of theres defect? Or maybe i should start a new query thread on that if anybody has had any experience with that to advise!