r/REI

Inspired by that recent post here about people retuning gear after the season I stopped by REI on Friday and magically found the 2 pieces I needed to go solo backpacking! My wife and I normally go together, so all of our gear is for 2- big Agnes ultralight 3 person tent and double sleeping bag. It’s a great setup, but when she couldn’t go backpacking last weekend I ended up carrying all of it for a single overnight to the Olympics and it was too much.

So, when I walked in and found a basically brand new ultralight REI bag for $138 and a quarter dome tent for $100, I was thrilled.
Just want to say thanks to Reddit for the inspiration to go check it out.

I recently picked up this Arc'teryx jacket at the REI Re/Supply a few months ago for a really good deal. It's an older model, though, that was discontinued in 2021, if I'm not mistaken. It's The Arc'teryx Zeta AR. And I was able to finally take it out in the rain this weekend, but almost right away the water would just stick to the jacket and bleed through and wet out all over. I have heard that, since this is an older Gore-Tex jacket, it also has PFAS in it, so that's one of my concerns.

I know that even briefly wearing it, I'm slowly spreading PFAS to my other clothes and so on. But I don't want to speed up the process of that (even if it's very, very minor). Because of that, I don't want to put it in a washing machine and dryer.

I know that to properly reapply the DWR finish again, I should wash the jacket with a special washing detergent for it and then, once it's wet, spray on the DWR coating and then heat-treat it in a dryer.

But I'm wondering if anyone else has any ideas or suggestions on how to wash this jacket properly that's not in a washing machine. I was wondering if maybe washing it in a bucket and then spraying on the coating and then heating it with a hair dryer would work, or would that be dumb? If I'm forced to use a washing machine, I will. But I have never done this before and was looking to get some feedback from people who have.

My gamma mx arrived today from Arcteryx and the mailer bag was torn open upon UPS delivery, and of course the jacket got stained. I can’t understand why they use such a cheap flimsy mailer to begin with for a $400 more jacket?! I’m furious. I even double bag or use box when I sell my used clothes on Poshmark… this is unbelievable!!!

I’m about to do it

They are definitely not on the super modern side, it is 65/35 cotton polyester split and not the new lightweight stuff rei uses. They have a metal button at the top, and plastic buttons for the pockets. They are convertibles, the side zips aren't the ones that go all the way up to the knee.

I know rei does not sell these in store anymore, but I was hoping someone would know what I could type in to find them secondhand instead of trawling through endless "vintage rei convertible pants" searches.

Thank you in advance