I was on the Backcountry.com site a little while ago looking at the Stoic Somnus bags because I think I'd like a center zip and the Somnus has received some pretty good reviews.

I noticed that all of them are "Temporarily Out of Stock." I started a live chat session with a "Gear Guru" and was told that the Stoic brand is being discontinued and there may be no more Somnus bags.

Has anyone else heard about this?

Yep. My friend's roommate worked for Backcountry as a product designer. Stoic is going bye-bye.

I hope it's not true as it was good value brand that produced some decent gear.

sad, they made decent lightwt stuff for the price.

As far as I understood the rep I was talking to he said they were going to have one more season. Either way too bad.

Maybe they are moving back to the "backcountry.com" Goat Brand? I can't imagine they are ending their product line all together.

I am certainly glad I bought my titanium cook pot and spork when I did.

I hope they do another full season, maybe I can still get one of the Somnus bags before they become extinct.

That's a shame. Stoic branded products are great values. :(

Nooooooooooo. I don't have the money to stock up on more merino shirts. :(

sadly the marketplace seems to be trending more towards brands with "outdoursy" perceived associations, rather than the actual value of the product ...

i suspect the majority of the marketplace is blinded by logos and branding ...

Stoic where blinded by the ghastly colours of some of the kit they are selling.

I have a forest green Stoic Wraith wind shirt that I like very much.
I would prefer that they stay around.

More than half my hiking clothes are the Stoic brand. I may not look so cool wearing their gear, but they sure are practical for backpacking.

Maybe they will relaunch under a different name,

I bought a Hadron which looked fine on the website but in real life the colour was like something out of a 80's disco.

It's hard to sell to the fashionable Irish walker these days. Probably what forced them out of business :-P

There not going out of business, a rep told me that "there going in another direction".

It's far from fashion which bothers me but the Purple hadron was too much, us Irish aren't in to crazy colours :-)

Edited by stephenm on 10/12/2012 21:33:43 MDT.

Michael,

Backcountry are probably bringing the gear out under a different brand name.

Friends,

Stoic is going the way of the dodo. It appears that it is best for Backcountry.com to focus on selling the best gear with the best guarantee.

From what I have been told, this is Stoic's last season. Having known for a while, I didn't feel right to post about a brands discontinuation until officially announced (which has yet to be seen).

I've also been told that future products will be "collaborations" with other brands, much like Backcountry.com did several years ago (IMO, the BC.com stuff blew Stoic out of the water, at least build-wise).

Stoic has one of the best designers in the game working for them, who has commented on this forum in the past. Looking forward to seeing the great things that Bill H and crew will be working on in cahoots with other brands.