Found a stat about tent weight that caught me off guard

I was digging through some old camping gear catalogs from the mid 90s my dad had in a box. Turns out a basic 4 person tent back then weighed over 12 pounds on average. I carry a 3 pound backpacking tent now and never really thought about how much heavier things used to be. Anyone else ever look up how gear specs have shifted over the decades?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancycooper6d ago

A buddy of mine tried to use his dad's old 90s tent on a backpacking trip last summer and regretted it before they even got to the trailhead. He said it weighed more than his food pack and took forever to set up with all those loose poles. He ended up buying one of those modern ultralight two person tents the next week and swore he'd never go back.

taylor.sean5d ago

Honestly it's wild how much that tracks with basically everything else from that era. I remember my parents had this monster of a microwave from the late 80s that took up half the counter and weighed like 40 pounds, but now you can get a tiny one that does way more. It's like we just accepted crap was heavy and awkward because that's how it was. Tbh I think a lot of innovation just comes from people finally saying "why are we still dealing with this" and someone actually fixing it. Ngl makes you wonder what we're carrying around today that people in 20 years will laugh at.