I’ve found that Mountain Safety Research tends to arrive at an impressive iteration of a product and then stick with it. Most outdoor gear companies tend to gradually ruin their best products with incessant cost-cutting and penny-pinching, but they should take a page from MSR’s book.
That said, when you refresh your products, it’s a good idea to look at what your peers are doing. MSR’s Hubba Hubba NX backpacking tent, which was redesigned for 2022, could’ve used a few more minor changes to keep it from feeling outclassed by its increasingly strong competition.
Blowin’ in the Wind
The Hubba Hubba NX is available in one-, two-, and three-person versions. I tested the two-person version and took it out for a week of hiking in Texas’ Big Bend National Park, from chilly forested mountains to 95-degree desert hikes.
MSR cut 10 ounces—a significant amount of weight—off the…
