You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I’ve seen it onto a one way downtown, like 5th ave, but in all my years I’ve never seen it at 11 ave onto 14st northbound. That’s a dual right turn and there’s no sign prohibiting it.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I’ve seen it onto a one way downtown, like 5th ave, but in all my years I’ve never seen it at 11 ave onto 14st northbound. That’s a dual right turn and there’s no sign prohibiting it.

It's funny, I don't think it would occur to me to do it there. Maybe it's because DT is 1-way to 1-way, or more likely just that 14 St is always busy (and if it wasn't busy I'd just use the rightmost lane)

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I’ve seen it onto a one way downtown, like 5th ave, but in all my years I’ve never seen it at 11 ave onto 14st northbound. That’s a dual right turn and there’s no sign prohibiting it.

I've actually turned right from the second lane on a red there before. I honestly wasn't sure if I should especially because of the red light camera but it was late at night and there was no traffic coming down 14th and I figured that I might as well just go instead of waiting three or four minutes.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by curves2000

I find this entire Canada Goose/ parka debate just fascinating in a lot of ways. It wasn't too long ago that the general "style" for people who wanted to look more fashionable was nicer peacoat style winter wear.

Ever since Canada Goose became more and more fashionable and parkas became again more standard wear for people in winter, the fashion has shifted. People are wearing large parkas with suits, toques with the little balls, big, mittens again. It's funny.

I think what has happened is that for a lot of us growing up in Canada, buying quality winter jackets was needed and we would buy them from stores like Bay, Sears, Eaton's , Zellers etc. They were higher quality items and they were warm.

What has happened across the board is that the family style department stores or where a lot of low income and middle class people shop, the quality of products have really come down. A lot of products are made overseas and the quality and value has gone down the drain.

So when some people, right or wrong, think that the bare minimum standard for a winter coat should be a $1000-1500 coat in order to stay warm, it's something that didn't occur back in the day.

Growing up, there wasn't a large group of kids with, adjusted for inflation, $300-400 winter coats in order to stay warm. They were wearing $80 coats.

When it comes to clothing and life in general, margin's are important and where a specific product is in terms of quality, construction, features and more. I always say it's usually better overall to buy a top of the line product of a tier 2 brand, than a entry level product of a top brand.

There is also a missing middle problem.

The $80 coat that people used to wear at reasonable quality doesn’t exist. You have the Walmart cheap stuff, the the outdoor fashion brands cheap stuff which is no better quality then Walmart but more expensive, the you have the outdoor enthusiast lines which are priced for their quality. MEC used to have their house line which filled this 80% of the quality at 50% of the price but that ratio kept getting worse over the years and now most of the line is 80% of the price at 50% of the quality.

The product category I used to buy no longer exists. This seems to be true about every product line. There is no more better than crappy reasonable price market segment.

[Wormius]

I don’t know about this. I think everyone you see outside, not freezing to death in their non-CG coats, is testament that you don’t need to spend $1200 to be comfortable in Calgary. Are there people that spend huge amounts of money on coats for their growing kids? There’s lots of low cost options. Heck, most of our stuff we just got from Children’s Place before the kids stopped growing. Maybe on the odd time we’d get gloves from MEC or Columbia.

[Sliver]

Yeah, you can get by just fine with a lot of coats at any price point. We all know that. And if your coat sucks, just layer up underneath. It isn't a big deal.

But if it's minus 30 you can throw on a CG over your short-sleeve shirt and by warm af, which is a luxury and a treat; I realize it's not a necessity.

It's no different than going to Cochrane for ice cream in your Corolla versus going in your Porsche. You get your ice cream both ways, but one of them puts a smile on your face and makes you feel special. Adds a little je ne sais quoi to your day.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by Sliver

It's no different than going to Cochrane for ice cream in your Corolla versus going in your Porsche. You get your ice cream both ways, but one of them puts a smile on your face and makes you feel special. Adds a little je ne sais quoi to your day.

Seeing as you openly admit to paying for comfort every chance you get I'm surprised the electric scooter doesn't have heated seats.

[PepsiFree]

I don’t know anyone who was saying you need to spend $1500 minimum to be comfortable.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Yeah, you can get by just fine with a lot of coats at any price point. We all know that. And if your coat sucks, just layer up underneath. It isn't a big deal.

But if it's minus 30 you can throw on a CG over your short-sleeve shirt and by warm af, which is a luxury and a treat; I realize it's not a necessity.

It's no different than going to Cochrane for ice cream in your Corolla versus going in your Porsche. You get your ice cream both ways, but one of them puts a smile on your face and makes you feel special. Adds a little je ne sais quoi to your day.

I have had the same experience (sans whatever “je ne sais quoi” happiness) with my $100 Eddie Bauer down jacket - and it’s objectively better because of price, size, and weight. I mean, maybe if you did have a really horrible coat prior then the contrast would make you become evangelical about CGs and try to justify the hell out of it.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I have had the same experience (sans whatever “je ne sais quoi” happiness) with my $100 Eddie Bauer down jacket - and it’s objectively better because of price, size, and weight. I mean, maybe if you did have a really horrible coat prior then the contrast would make you become evangelical about CGs and try to justify the hell out of it.

Haha that's cool. I'm actually not a CG enthusiast, really. I mean, I'm on year three with it and I don't think I've ever brought it up. I just had nothing much to say the past couple days and was having fun.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I have had the same experience (sans whatever “je ne sais quoi” happiness) with my $100 Eddie Bauer down jacket - and it’s objectively better because of price, size, and weight. I mean, maybe if you did have a really horrible coat prior then the contrast would make you become evangelical about CGs and try to justify the hell out of it.

Subjectively better.

[Wormius]

Most definitely objectively better. Maybe “subjective” if we’re discussing man-made lake communities.

[topfiverecords]

What is the best jacket for a December day out on the lake?

[pylon]

LOL, I haven't bought a winter jacket in 20 years. Every 3 years we order everyone a new Parka or winter jacket from one of those places that makes logo'd company attire along with hockey Jerseys, coffee cups, pens etc....

The coats they supply (Stormtech) are ridiculously good quality, stupidly warm and I've yet to wear one out. I wear them everywhere. Skiing, winter hiking, chain sawing firewood in the winter.....If I ever have to go to buying my own winter coats, I'll just order a blank one from an industrial place for like 1/8th the cost. However my down filled classic black parka from 2004 still gets regular use so I think the remaing 5 I have should keep me covered until I'm dirt covered.

I laugh when I see an $800 HH or Canada Goose jacket in a store, when my $135 industrial grade winter coats which look damn near identical, is made better and is pretty much indestructible.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by pylon

I laugh when I see an $800 HH or Canada Goose jacket in a store, when my $135 industrial grade winter coats which look damn near identical, is made better and is pretty much indestructible.

They’re definitely not made better nor do they look nearly identical. A lot more care goes into cut and overall fit for a CG or HH jacket that a Stormtech, and the materials and finishing are better. There’s also the fact that CG is actually made in Canada, whereas stuff like Stormtech and Eddie Bauer are made in China for significantly cheaper labour.

Not saying it’s worth the extra $1000 (my winter jacket is $250 and amazing) but kind of in line with Wormius saying people justify expensive items in all sorts of ways, I also find it funny when people justify cheap purchases in all sorts of ways.

Even a completely uneducated slob who has never worn a shirt in their lives could tell the difference between a $10 t-shirt and a $100 t-shirt, for example.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

This might be the most Canadian argument ever. 3 pages and 100 posts debating winter jackets and parkas.

[PepsiFree]

Shout out to the loser who created an alt account named “CPCult” just to send me an abusive message. Hard to imagine being that lame.

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Shout out to the loser who created an alt account named “CPCult” just to send me an abusive message. Hard to imagine being that lame.

Macman's Lawyer has been busy recently too. He uses the same firm as flames_gimp.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Shout out to the loser who created an alt account named “CPCult” just to send me an abusive message. Hard to imagine being that lame.

LOL. Share away! I love a good PM rage. I searched the member list, and this user doesn't show up, so perhaps they aren't approved to post, but can still PM? Weird.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Are you sure it wasn’t actually “CGCult” and an angry Canada Goose supporter? Or Canada Goose hater maybe? I haven’t been following the debate close enough to know which side you’re on.