Hey everyone!
I’m brand new to the hiking scene and have spent the last few weeks watching gear reviews and finding out about trails to do - which is how I found you guys!
Just wanted to check which online gear shops you guys use that are based in SA as well as which ones are not based here, but are reliable to ship here?
For non-local:
Before the global supply issues I have previously ordered gear from Amazon (great because there are no import duty surprises and it gets here by courier). But currently they have very little stock coming this way, because the world is a little wobbly.
I’ve also ordered stuff off Aliexpress without any issue, if you can stomach the uncertainty of waiting for months for stuff to finally arrive, and the gamble on import duties.
Drifters is always solid. Decathlon has great price/quality ratio if you can find the right things (Fleeces, down jackets, rechargeable headlamps, eva mattresses are stand outs)
Wish Orca would start doing online sales, as in person they are great to deal with.
If you want overseas things that aren’t on Amazon I tend to use a consolidated shipping company called Stackry (There are a lot of these, can’t remember why I chose this one but it has worked out so far). They give you an address and locker for 45 days, so you can ship individual things to them then pay them to compress it down to one packaged. Not the cheapest but works pretty well. I try not to do too much of it as it makes me feel like I’m slowly burning the world down around me
Drifters is only a pleasure.
I recently bought some gear from Naturehike; good service, but I still have to test the quality.
Another vote for Mountain mail order too.
If you order from international retailers, make sure you factor in shipping tariffs, import duties, other levies and VAT. Prices balloon very quickly, especially with textiles (40% import duty I think). Unless it’s an absolute bargain or something you cannot find locally, I’d always rather support a local retailer - after sales service, ready supply of goods and local job creation are all good reasons
