Not splitboard specific, but more general gear specific that applies across the board to the companies we purchase from:

Less steeze, more function.
Less gimmicks, more simplicity.
Cut the bullshit marketing hype, more straight up factual information (lots of numbers and shit) about the product being sold.
Really, really cut the bullshit marketing hype and cute inforgraphics if using proprietary materials/techniques. Back it up with science yo.
A price reflective of the amount of material used, the type of material used, the complexity of construction and where the fuck it’s made (I’m not gonna pay for your shipping costs from China.), not the marketing label.
Solid warranty that isn’t next to impossible to utalize if located outside of ‘merica.

You can see where this is going… A good product will sell itself… Or at least get the customers to do the selling for it. So fire the marketing team, hire more enginerds, product testers (hey, I’m unemployed!) and build quality goods that we gear users and abusers want to be in. And when that piece of gear wears out, one that we can go back and purchase again and the only changes to it have made it stronger, lighter, better and not fucked with the underlying awesome nature that made it such a hot product to begin with. And colours other than black are pretty sweet.

I am going to mimic what has been stated previously–especially by christoph. I want my gear to have an “athletic fit”—not too tight and not too baggy. I also want fabrics that are lightweight, breathable (softshell and or breathable waterproof fabrics like Neoshell Gore Arctive , etc), durable, and have enough vents and pockets to get the job done. I typically have been buying “mountaineering” brand gear (Arcteryx, Black Diamond, Outdoor Research, Mountain Gear, Stio, Cloudveil, Patagonia, etc) since they have had the combo of features that I have found the most attractive. I haven’t purchased any of their outerwear yet but I like the offerings that Westcomb, FlyLow and Strafe Outerwear are coming out with, specifically their Neoshell stuff. In general, I want lightweight, high performance gear that works in the backcountry. Style is much less important to me. I can easily pick up decent, relatively heavy, resort/freeride oriented gear with decent style at a cheap price–and it works well for me at the resort. It is well designed, lightweight, breathable, backcountry gear that I covet–and am willing to pay a bit of a premium for.

I am a pretty big fan of bibs, and there are some really nice bibs that have come out on the market. However, some bib designs baffle me—they cover the chest but have poor coverage in the back. I am not sure what design objective those were supposed to meet—but they don’t keep deep powder out of my underwear—-and I don’t like them at all!

As for price point, I am often OK with smacking the credit card down with a $350 to $450 outerwear purchase—but I usually wait for an end of the season sale to minimize the pain. The astronomical price point for some Arcteryx gear ($650 for a jacket????), which I love, has forced me to seek out alternatives. So far, Black Diamond outerwear, when it is on sale, has been working out well for me. I am open to almost any brand….as long as they have the right combo of features that work for me.

The obvious ones have been covered, waterproof/breathable fabrics, low weight, only the needed features, etc.

I’m basing my opinions on many pieces of Burton AK gear starting from the beginning of that line to more recent pieces from Patagonia (a couple of M10 jackets and my GF’s kit) and my current touring kit is an Arcteryx jacket (Rush?) and Theta SV bibs. I have a love/hate relationship with the bibs and the jacket is sufficient but not worth full price at retail.

There are a couple of things that have been missed though.

Large chest pockets on the jacket make for a nice place to stuff large gloves for things like transitions or fiddling with stoves. In a pinch they could fit skins that have failed due to temps. They should be mesh backed to keep whatever is in the pocket warm and to allow the pocket to double as a vent. No need for pit vents if the pocket zipper is big enough.
There should be a hood that fits well over a helmet but still fits well on a bare head. I don’t wear a helmet on a rainy approach trail but I wear one often on windy ridges.

The bibs don’t need to be very high, the real purpose for me is to increase the overlap between layers to keep the weather out and to eliminate the bunching at the waist. In this regard my Arcteryx bibs are good but they are severely lacking in pockets. I want pockets in the chest for snacks that I want to keep warm against my body and also a pocket for my transciever. There are available guidelines out from AIARE and other avalanche professionals about how a pocket should be made to be a good alternative to a harness. I also want cargo pockets that are big enough for snacks or car keys that I can get into with the jacket on (not on the upper part of the bib) but these pockets should fold flat when they’re empty so a harness sits well over the top of them.
I want to be able to vent my bibs with a jacket on but still have full length zippers. My current bibs are tough to vent from the top because you have to dig way up under the jacket to get to the zipper pulls.

Snowboarders need to get over the idea that a reinforced cuff is for skiers only if we’re skiing uphill and kicking ourselves in the ankles with crampons (I’m looking at Burton on this one :nononno: ). It would be nice if cuff size were more adjustable to easily fit over all boots but pull snug to keep crampons from doing damage.

Most of the descriptions in these posts describe Flylow’s Chemical pants. That’s what I own and I don’t think I would ever switch unless you make them cheaper!

@FloImSchnee wrote:

I would never wear a bib for splitboarding, as it will simply increase sweating.

Definitely disagree. It all depends on the bib and your layering system. Some bibs are even hard shell lowers and soft shell uppers which aids breathability. I’ve used my Patagonia Six Chuter bibs in the backcountry, just wish they were a very slightly looser cut.

Set up distribution in Canada (Western, ie: Canuck Splitfest).

Flylow’s sound like good quality, but no options in Canada that I could find.

@rughty wrote:

Most of the descriptions in these posts describe Flylow’s Chemical pants. That’s what I own and I don’t think I would ever switch unless you make them cheaper!

Functional hoods are a bonus. By this I mean make sure you can get the damn thing over your face and head when need be. I really don’t want frost bite on my nose because it zips up too tight over my chin and mouth and leaves my nose exposed. Use a heavy weight denier because at the high price of gear, it should last for a while. I made the mistake once of buying a hybrid soft shell/hardshell thingamajig and had it literraly ripped off of me in some spruce trees.