Notch, is the brand really that bad?

Casey Snyder

Casey Snyder

Location
Midwest
I have several Notch products (Gear Bags, Throw Weights, RopeRunner Pro, Fusion Tether etc) and they're all great and decent quality.

I do however stay away from their saddles, handsaws, carabiners, and throwline cubes.

Do people mostly hate on the "generic version" feeling Notch has or have they seriously done bad by this community?
 
Casey Snyder said:
I have several Notch products (Gear Bags, Throw Weights, RopeRunner Pro, Fusion Tether etc) and they're all great and decent quality.

I do however stay away from their saddles, handsaws, carabiners, and throwline cubes.

Do people mostly hate on the "generic version" feeling Notch has or have they seriously done bad by this community?
Click to expand...

I like NOTCH as does my crew however we don't use their saddles . I have heard their warranties suck . Told one of my guys their gear isn't for professional use .


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I have a few Notch products and feel they're a fair value. My impression is that people don't like Notch due to their business practices. For the most part, I view them as the Walmart of arborist suppliers. (And I'm no Walmart fan, but I do shop there infrequently for certain items.)
 
I haven't had problems with any of my notch stuff except my steel geckos I got for free those sucked but they were free so I can't really complain to much.
 
I got 3 Notch Rooks. Pretty happy with them, but I know they were made by Rock Exotica. I just insist on reputable manufacturers, and get spooked by Chinese or Taiwanese life support gear. I’d probably use their wedges, bags, and rigging lines if the price is right and the reviews are positive.

I think I have a Notch rigging ring.
 
Jonny said:
I got 3 Notch Rooks. Pretty happy with them, but I know they were made by Rock Exotica. I just insist on reputable manufacturers, and get spooked by Chinese or Taiwanese life support gear. I’d probably use their wedges, bags, and rigging lines if the price is right and the reviews are positive.

I think I have a Notch rigging ring.
Click to expand...
I have some 9/16 rigging line that I'm pretty sure it's the kraken I've been really happy with it like 3+ years old and in better shape than my 2 month old pelican ape.
 
Jonny said:
I got 3 Notch Rooks. Pretty happy with them, but I know they were made by Rock Exotica. I just insist on reputable manufacturers, and get spooked by Chinese or Taiwanese life support gear. I’d probably use their wedges, bags, and rigging lines if the price is right and the reviews are positive.

I think I have a Notch rigging ring.
Click to expand...

If it’s not RE or RNR, it’s most likely made in Asia. We all climb with life-support made there, even if it’s not a whole saddle: rings, Ds, buckles, webbing, etc.
 
Vicente said:
I have some 9/16 rigging line that I'm pretty sure it's the kraken I've been really happy with it like 3+ years old and in better shape than my 2 month old pelican ape.
Click to expand...
Kraken is an Atlantic Braids product, still made in Canada, I believe.

I launched an arb gear mobile retail recently, partnering with a company specializing in all things cordage. We received a sample of a particular cordage from China, and it was of a superior construction and coating to anything I’ve seen from other manufacturers.

I don’t like giving China money, personally, but I’ve gained a new understanding of the pains companies feel from sourcing products- many US and western facilities are a good bit behind the capabilities of Asian manufacturers. Granted, how they got there is not cool in many respects. That’s the hard part, right? I want customers to have the highest quality gear, which is often coming from there, but I don’t want to support the economies of countries whose actions I abhor. But then, I support the US economy and don’t always support its actions, so…

As long as I’m buying from trusted names, I know that they are constantly managing the manufacturing, because they’re liable for any failures. I don’t personally buy random hardware or life support gear from Amazon or anywhere else. Until I know something about the company, I don’t buy from it.
 
Don't trust their stainless steel portawraps. I've used trained grounds with a 1/2" rope, half wrap, and rigging ring and still the piece will take a dead stop and send me for a ride every time. Utter shite.
 
Crimsonking said:
If it’s not RE or RNR, it’s most likely made in Asia. We all climb with life-support made there, even if it’s not a whole saddle: rings, Ds, buckles, webbing, etc.
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CMI and SMC are USA made, DMM and ISC manufacture in the UK, ART is in Germany, AustriAlpin in Austria, and I believe Petzl still makes a lot of their gear in France.

I can't speak to textile components, but a lot of hardware is still made outside of Asia (although probably with Asian raw materials)
 
Notch is a Platte River Equity company. If you want a Quickie, you'll have to buy from Notch or Climbing Innovations (which is longer and made for the HHX). I try to buy elsewhere because PRE does not appear to represent the demographic and values that I personally support, but I bought their orange climbing wedge this week because I needed a climbing wedge and it was there. Very nice wedge too. TreeStuff - another PRE branch - seems to be off these days too, and is now very different from its founder's vision. I like some of what TS is doing, including their "ratemyprune" Instagram posts, their CEU video series, and ongoing support for TS parties and tree-o-caching. It's just a bit haphazard to call them on the phone (no answer, bored dude from different department who wants to talk for a long time, good service, etc.), and the adverts are really standard treebro these days. Sherrill is what it is - big box tree cutting store. If I need something shipped ASAP and GAP doesn't have it, I might ask Sherrill since they are in the southeast like me.
 
I've had great customer service from treestuff in the last year, whoever was pulling stuff on a could of my last orders had an off day, called tree stuff quickly got someone to replace the first item, then went to stick my new rope in the shop noticed they sent a 10 instead of 11mm called they sent me a new one.
 
Boomslang said:
CMI and SMC are USA made, DMM and ISC manufacture in the UK, ART is in Germany, AustriAlpin in Austria, and I believe Petzl still makes a lot of their gear in France.

I can't speak to textile components, but a lot of hardware is still made outside of Asia (although probably with Asian raw materials)
Click to expand...
I can’t speak on dmm, but ISC hardware has been seen in Asian factories. I’m unsure about petzl.

Otherwise, thank you, I did forget some.
 
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