How rough are y'all on clothing? I remember specifically a pair of khaki pants I bought in 7th grade (circa 1998?). I wore those through middle school, high school, college, and they finally ripped this summer while I was building a barn (they were caught on a nail). During those years they went from church type wear, to school wear, to wear anytime, to yard work, to work on the truck, to construction wear. They didn't change roles because they were worn out but rather because of various stains that they ended up getting. I believe my mom purchased them at K-Mart for $12. They lasted me 14 years and would've lasted longer if not for that silly nail.
I say that to say this. Those pants cost me less than $1 a year. With TAD pants you'll have to live more than 100 years to get that kind of value. I still own and wear a lot of things that I owned or purchased in middle school and high school (It's just another perk of being blessed with extremely good taste and style
). Sure, I understand the "cry once" saying but I think that's quickly becoming an excuse for charging a lot for snazzy gear. I laugh every time I see the $135 bead or the $85 match case that TAD sells. That tells me how quickly they will charge for something based on the perceived value of American Made craftsmanship. I'm all for supporting American products but I have to remember that I'm an American too and I need to support myself, and my American family, first.
However (
this is the important part) I have never owned any TAD clothing so I can't speak to the quality or value or anything else other than the opinions I have already given. What I can tell you is that I've owned plenty of other gear from other manufacturers and I haven't been disappointed, and I haven't cried either. So if you buy TAD gear you probably won't be disappointed, you might even walk a little straighter because you're proud of your great gear that nobody else knows about. If you do decide to go another direction you can always check out REI (great, amazing return policy on new stuff or the Scratch and Dent used gear sales) or geartrade.com (used gear from private sellers or returned gear from online retailers). I bought a $110 Ex-Officio fleece for $9 from gear trade, I plan on getting 20 years out of it for a dollar/value ratio of better than $.50 a year (you'd have to wear a TAD jacket for 400 years to get that kind of value btw). I counter the "cry once" argument with "Why cry at all?"
