Is the UK behind the curve?

[GadgetUK437]

Discuss.

Been looking at what is made in the UK, and it all seems shorter, heavier and with more crap suspension.
(than our colonial cousins across the pond have at their disposal)

[Sunndog]

yep embarrassingly so, its not surprising when you consider the amount of open access forest they have. But its hard to believe you cant get a (us standard) 11 foot hammock or 1.1 silnylon tarp with doors off the peg in this country.....lord knows why DD or UKH dont offer these

[bopdude]

We're definitely behind our American cousins, for choice, supply and the biggest, cost. I do wonder how no company in the UK has or can match out nearly match them.

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[Sunndog]

Even if it cost more to us than to a merkin you'd think our lonely two companies would at least make an effort.....how far behind the times are DD's tarps for example

[Bowlin]

It's possibly got to do with the relatively low level of demand in the UK and the cost and difficulty (Hammock stuff is apparently rife with patents and copyright etc.) of producing/ researching new stuff. I doubt that the relatively small hammock producers in the UK have the funds/ budget to take a chance on producing something new without knowing that there is a ready market for it (conversely I doubt that the UK market is worth the US manufacturers bothering with).

[bopdude]

That's a fair point, we are a strange breed, but we're on the increase

[Stevie]

I imagine it's much easier in the USA for cottage industries to grow. They have such a rich population and with that comes both a great supply chain and a huge market to sell to.
That being said, there are UK companies out there doing great things just now. TW Hammocks and Zombie Hammocks to name a couple. With the growing interest level in hammock camping coupled with the cost of import duties I don't think it'll be long until we see a big player from the UK paving the way.

[bopdude]

Let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

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[Sunndog]

Theres spotty dog hammocks too. 11 foot long yeah....but no SRL, 6mm climbing cord suspension, full size climbing crabs in the shop and knotted loops in their tree straps......amature hour imo

Stevie mate, what great stuff are zombie doing or TW getting made right now?

[Stevie]

Neil at TW is always trying new things and trying to push boundaries . I certainly believe he's streets ahead of most manufacturers, certainly those in UK where his Tarps are concerned. He has several different options (not just those on his website) with various different features. They come in lots of shapes and sizes and are small, compact and for the most part lightweight. His hammocks too are innovative such as the bivvy hammock with the detachable bottom layer which can be used as a tarp. He has experimented with different materials to try and produce cold weather hammocks. His hornet design is IMO one of the best hammocks I've slept in and again there's some great features such as the head-end hole to enable users to adjust the hammock without having to get out. Lots of exciting things to come from Zombie too. Their hammocks from what I can gather are very similar to the WBBB without the expense. There's others on here much more informed than me to speak on them but I'm excited about them nonetheless. 😉

[Sunndog]

Tw stuff will push the boundaries of yer rucksack straps! 1.5-2kg for a hammock is a non starter for backpacking imo.
Lightest tarp they show is 500g for a plain rectangle (no doors). A warbonnet superfly is only a few grams more
And how much is made in the uk?


Zombie hammocks, i know uk hammocks used sell their stuff....now they just show a big mess of a facebook page that i cant make head or tail of....amature hour again
i cant stand facebook and imo anyone trying to run a "business" from a facebook page is probably only playing at it. At least thats the impression given to the customer


i'm not generally such a misarable bleeder but theres just no excuse for agile little companies such as we have here to be so far behind the times
Its not as if they cant buy fabric or use a sewing machine is it, theres no black magic in a cat cut tarp

[Woodland]

Even if it cost more to us than to a merkin you'd think our lonely two companies would at least make an effort.....how far behind the times are DD's tarps for example

Which two of the UK companies are you referring to Sunndog?

I personally don't think we're too far behind over here.

[Stevie]

Sunndog, that was quite a rant. With the rise of the digital age means that social network marketing is more powerful than ever and has seen many companies move to Facebook to promote their products. Just because you personally don't like it, that does not reflect the opinion of all 'the customers'. For example, Coca Cola has a Facebook page with 96 million followers - they're hardly 'playing at it'. Far be it from me to tell people what to post, it's an open forum (within reason), but I think you should consider the impact of HOW you say things. A great many people on here may have purchased and covet items from the companies we are speaking of. This is not a platform to slam businesses. To that end please be respectful and mindful when posting going forward.

[Sunndog]

DD and ukhammocks are the only proper full time uk manufacturers of hammock gear that i know of mate. I don't count TW because because all their stuff seems to be made abroad somewhere
So they are just the same as buying the random parachute hammocks from ebay or amazon imo (i forgot about snugpak before, but i'm guessing their stuff is made in china too?)

You can kit yourself out with uk made gear and be quite comfortable. The problems arise when you want backpacking suitable gear or a decent tarp

[Sunndog]

Sunndog, that was quite a rant. With the rise of the digital age means that social network marketing is more powerful than ever and has seen many companies move to Facebook to promote their products. Just because you personally don't like it, that does not reflect the opinion of all 'the customers'. For example, Coca Cola has a Facebook page with 96 million followers - they're hardly 'playing at it'. Far be it from me to tell people what to post, it's an open forum (within reason), but I think you should consider the impact of HOW you say things. A great many people on here may have purchased and covet items from the companies we are speaking of. This is not a platform to slam businesses. To that end please be respectful and mindful when posting going forward.

Stevie, your post wasnt showing when i made my last one
yes it was a bit of a rant to be be fair

Moving to facebook is not the same as starting from facebook though is it?.....the coca-cola company is hardly comparable

yes me not liking facebook is a personal thing. But i'v seen it so many times before with different types of business that it just seems to be too easy to set up a facebook page and make it look like a profesional bussiness, even if you have never sold a single item (i'v had that happen before) or are just plain crap at making it....Non of that is directed towards zombie hammocks though

speaking of zombie hammocks though, maybe i was a little harsh but i AM a potential customer of theirs and wether i like facebook or not anyone in retail will agree that their selling platform is a mess(it contains one dead link from the 19th of may 2015) compared to say DD hammocks
I don't see how other people owning or coveting their products has any bearing on that tbh


.......adam

[Woodland]

DD and ukhammocks are the only proper full time uk manufacturers of hammock gear that I know of mate.

DD's manufacturing is not done in the UK, their products are imported.

UK Hammocks are the only relevant company producing UK made hammocks at present.

This is a really great topic as this is really the reason that the forum was set up in the first place, and Sunndog's comments are very welcome as they illustrate what's actually going on with the UK hammocks scene. Three great examples of hammock manufacturers who should go down in history are Hennessy, Warbonnet and UK Hammocks. They produce fantastic gear and the reason is because they all started by making their own gear for their own use. That's why they are more comfortable, more durable, the setup is easier and the quality is so much better.

Some time after hammocks started really surfacing in the US, as you would probably predict, a number of people saw that they could make money from hammocks as they were gaining credibility as a serious solution in the light weight camping market. There were plenty of good quality manufacturers but people started importing cheap gash to sell to people who didn't know any better. Unfortunately, seeing what was happening over in the States the cheap importers got in first over here.

There are a lot of people who bought substandard hammocks who were very pleased with them, and who wouldn't you be if you'd only ever slept on the floor in a tent, and people went round telling other people how good they were. I've got quite a collection of hammocks and often find that when I introduce someone to a higher end hammock they are surprised about just how much better they are. But if I hadn't they would never have known because they are so used to hearing about how good the lower end hammocks are. There are so many people who talk from a position of ignorance, wanting to sound like an expert because they own a hammock, who are really just giving bad advice and holding back the real cottage manufacturers, the people who make good gear because they care about hammocking.

We may be a little bit behind but we started a little later. Of all the manufacturers across the pond we have one of the greats here with UK hammocks.

If anyone wants to know any more about the companies above or any of the others ask, I'm in touch with a lot of them regularly, most of them occasionally and have spent a few years dealing with a couple of them.

Moving on to Zombie. To stop the endless random speculation and bizarre opinions that keep surfacing, here's the story behind them.
The name was a friendly tongue in cheek dig at the preppers. The company was formed by a guy in the UK who has been regularly hammock camping for over ten years and has watched the industry grow across the pond and subsequently over here. After successfully selling a lot of hammocks over here he turned his attention to starting his own brand, filling in what he saw as a gap where his ideal hammock would fit. Being a family man he decided to avoid the route of borrowed funding and self fund it.
The first products were launched in June 2015 and not long after he received a letter saying that he had breached a patent, changing the hammock to suit the sender would have meant changing the design beyond recognition and so he decided to start again.

From New Years Day 2015 until June he spent every spare minute of every day sat at a sewing machine trying different ideas and then taking the results into work to try. Around that he did three months night work on top of his day job to fund the project. The whole purpose behind Zombie was to create gear that was as good if not better than the best that is available in the US, put the UK on the hammock map and show the UK hammockers just how good hammocks could be and hopefully draw people away from some of the gash gear that's floating around.

Since withdrawing their original model they have been working pretty bloody hard, researching what people would like and are just about ready to find funding to put their next hammock into production. There's still quite a lot of work to do to get it right though. Around this, they are working on three new tarps, two of which have been computer designed because of the complexity of the progressive cat curves, the other of which will hopefully be cuben, and also looking into some very cool insulation solutions. The Facebook page is not only to remind people that Zombie are still there but also as a means of communicating with people to get feedback and ideas, which as I understand is working very well indeed so you never know, they may actually be able to give the hammocking public exactly what they want.

Are you catching on yet Sunndog?

The same guy, around all this, set up the first UK relevant hammock forum (with a good deal of help from some very good friends). You'll notice that Zombie is played down on here, because the forum was a result of the same passion to promote great hammocking as Zombie itself, not as a money making or promotional tool. I had to do about five nights work to pay for it, I've just had to pay the annual server and domain fees again. At the weekends last May I was finishing work 62 hours after I started to get the money to pay for these two projects so when you say 'there's no excuse to be so far behind the times', none of the UK companies need to excuse themselves to you. It's cost me more than £1000 to provide this service for you and my company has had over £12,000 put into it which I had to go out and earn.

I'll be blunt, I think that when it's finished you're going to like it, assuming that I can get the funding and the time, but there really is a huge amount of work that has to go in to get it right. Throughout this topic you're really arguing both sides of the argument.