I appreciate good design, typography and photography. That’s why Moonlight Gear from Japan is for me the most stylish online gear shop. But is good design enough to create a cutting edge UL list?
If you need to freshen up what this is all about, read the Introduction!
Moonlight Gear is a four year old webshop from Japan. As they came out in June 2010 I immediately loved the look of their website and the spotlights they did on some of their products - little Mini-Reviews that high-lighted kit of note. Also the personal notes under each piece of gear in the shop show that the owners use the gear themselves. Their range is wide and they carry many ultralight brands, and support Japanese gear makers and selling their gear. Also, instead of offering every single piece of gear ever made they hand-pick equipment they know will be great, making the life of customers easier. All ingredients which help to distill this OSS List:
| Item | Name | Weight in gram | Price in € |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backpack | Laufbursche Packsack MLG Edition | 182 | 21.000 円 |
| Sleeping bag | OMM Mountain Raid | 385 | 26.500 円 |
| Mattress | Klymit Inertia Ozone | 346 | 12.900 円 |
| Shelter | Terra Nova Ultra Bivi | 60 | 38.000 円 |
| Pot | See Stove | ||
| Stove | Batchstovez FOSTERS ULTRALIGHT COOK KIT | 176 | 6.000 円 |
| Cutlery | Wildo Spork | 12 | 525 円 |
| Knife | Adventure Medical Kits SOL Core Lite | 39 | 3.500 円 |
| Lamp* | Petzl Tikka XP | 85 | 54,95 € |
| Trekking Poles* | C.A.M.P. Xenon 4 Trekking Pole | 280 | 69.95 $ |
| Shoes | Luna Sandals Venado Goat | 194 | 9.800 円 |
| Fleece | Westcomb Highlander Hoody | 206 | 24.500 円 |
| Insulation | OMM Rotor Smock | 220 | 22.000 円 |
| Rain pants | and wander Fry skirt | 73 | 13.000 円 |
| Rain jacket | OMM Aether Smock | 180 | 36.000 円 |
| Boxers* | Houdini Airborn Boxers | 64 | 44,95 € |
| T-Shirt | 363equipment THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN | 128 | 5.000 円 |
| Longsleeve | ibex OD Henley LS | 180 | 14.000 円 |
Total Weight: 2.630 g
Total Price: 242.445 円 or 1.735,36 €
My thoughts on the list:
- I’m stunned by the price. If you’re writing prices with five digits it quickly feels like this will be expensive. The surprise came as I threw it into a currency converter which told me: Yep. This is the cheapest list.
- Did I mention that this is the lightest list yet? It’s closer to SUL!
- Nice backpack!
- The sleeping bag might be a tad cold for 3-season use, though you could use the insulation top to pimp it
- Nice to see a bivy as a shelter choice (also adds some warmth to the sleep system)
- Solid choices for knife, cutlery, stove and headlamp
- Great choice for footwear, might need some Tabi socks in Spring & autumn, though
- Solid and also very stylish garment choices
- Overall a fine almost-SUL list
The other OSS lists thus far:
| Trekking-Lite-Store.com | 6.157 g | 2.288,80 € | 0,47 € per gram |
| CampSaver.com | 5.316 g | 1.993,80 € | 0,52 € per gram |
| Globetrotter | 8.995 g | 3.272,20 € | 0,36 € per gram |
| Partioaitta | 7.354 g | 2448,15 € | 0,33 € per gram |
| Bergfreunde | 4.657 g | 2.440,10 € | 0,52 € per gram |
| Walkonthewildside.eu | 6.143 g | 2.349,45 € | 0,38 g per gram |
| Backpackinglight.dk | 4.994 g | 2.464,35 € | 0,49 € per gram |
| Racelite.de | 5.884 g | 2.145,05 € | 0,36 € per gram |
| Ultralight Outdoor Gear | 4.549 g | 2.796,69 € | 0,61 € per gram |
| Bergzeit | 5.559 g | 2.430,00 € | 0,44 € per gram |
| Outdoorline.sk | 5.392 g | 2.056,70 € | 0,38 € per gram |
| Aventure Nordique | 6.044 g | 2.121,40 € | 0,35 € per gram |
| Moonlight Gear | 2.630 g | 1.735,36 € | 0,66 € per gram |
| AVERAGE | 5.667 g | 2.349,39 € | 0,45 € per gram |
Disclaimer: The One Stop Shop Series was Carsten’s idea and he gave me permission to translate his posts to English and contact a few more shops around the world. If you can read German, you can head over to his blog and read the posts in German.