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- Jan 17, 2016
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So on a slight impulse I picked up this Yeti soft shelled cooler last year, like last May, the HOPPER, they call it, the HOPPER 20 or some such verbish-sounding noun (sense), 20 meaning the small one, or, like, the REAL small one now, or 20 meaning that it can apparently hold 20 pounds of ice, if you’ve got nothing but ice in your cooler. They’ve added some larger sizes (30 and 40 for I suppose the corresponding poundages of ice) for--I’m not really sure why, actually--larger people? I’ve been using it now for a year, primarily for day trips to the river or maybe two day- or (pushing its capacity to keep things cold) three day- trips in what we might call the “shoulder season”. It's definitely not the cooler for trips. Any longer than two and the HOPPER loses its essence, its soul, and you need to move to a double-walled hard shell if you want crisp vegetables and cold beer on like day 18. I'm a big fan of both, actually. Cold vegetables and cold beer. Especially on these hot summer days in Virginia when you come out to work on your strokes and learn to fall over.
View attachment AaCly31dPpwY0PmdnMG5hxdFDQj6SFTTw4WFWAlWg7xd2filrcHhMlVVWEspg_705Skpbmwwj7M7eRVNSa2D9xbKHGbisnHlWyHJ
I paid full retail price (minus like 20 u.s.d. for some kind of Gander Mountain Credit Card deal--a place I do not frequent, for the record), meaning I paid like 280 green US dollars for the thing, before tax. Probably in the end I paid like 294 green US dollars, which may seem like a lot of money for a soft cooler. (I once paid 50 u.s.d. for an LL Bean soft cooler because I heard they were pretty tough, and it did last most of one summer in my boat, for which I was grateful. But then I thought 50 bucks was a little steep for not even one season.) Regardless, many people, including my wife, are like: You paid whaaaa? For whaaa?
My second disclaimer is that I don’t mind paying for what we might call technologically specific quality products. I recognize that a lot of time and thought, trial and error, testing and tweaking, wet nights and hot days--I suppose a lot of history and human experience--goes into a quality product, and if that product seems really expensive to you that might be because you don’t really need it, or maybe you won’t really be using it to the full edges of its costly potential and can therefore easily spend less on something inferior. (I could never justify, for instance, spending however much money people are spending now on a state of the art TELEVISION. My God. It's a TV. I simply could not use the thing to its full gaming/sound/3-dimensional entertainment/internet on acid potential.) The gnawing sense of expense and regret could also mean the product is simply overpriced (I won’t mention the $100,000 canoe seen elsewhere on this site because I’m certain in someone’s mind that is a fair price for a handmade product), which is why way back at the beginning of this paragraph I added the emphasis on quality. Like a specific quality. I might here also add grudgingly that the expensive feel of quality might come from the reality that you’re dirtbag broke like myself and EVERYTHING seems crazy expensive and out of reach until you come up with elaborate philosophies to justify your whacko spending habits…
View attachment KXDCz0xbruFM_RH3iezZlG_j83iec9koc7uPsbmA_hfRTQLVmjmmBTTg2t5qqIIr1EZpVCkzN604cJZKifB-tCbmRQpcpQeqiuwQ
But so in the end quality can be sort of synonymous with high performance or maybe designed to meet specific needs arising out of specific circumstances blah blah blah and but so wow. Sorry. Rambling a bit. Suffice to say that in the end I don’t mind paying for really decent gear and as an example I appreciate being able in the 21st century to say, truly, that ALL weather is GOOD weather.
Anywho. I have found this summer that on my frequent swim trips to various local rivers I'm getting very directional and nearly hostile questions about my YETI HOPPER. Not about the integrity of design or quality of workmanship or durability of materials, which as everyone knows is absolutely hands-down top of the class. By far. Like best soft cooler ever. That's not even debatable. But about the price tag. What makes what is essentially a “day cooler” or an "overnight cooler" worth 300 bucks? Dude. In the dead of winter--at least around here--no one questions the $1000 price tag of a Kokatat Drysuit. A bomber drysuit in winter is probably more important than your boat, in terms of longevity and quality of life. But 300 bucks for a soft cooler?
Come on, dude.
And I’m like: I know, right? Way too much. Way too much for the ordinary summer canoeist drifting with his feet kicked up on the gunnels and a fishing line stretched all the way up the river to the last riffle. But then,
View attachment vveXTBptty4LnJ23bVs1FBL_WRgnBJnabJZGD46gFgme5vcQcKaPNcrlmGmyMzw81VoPkvAB78UHLpoKKe-KXghY6IWPmlDs7Mrk
I’m probably not your typical summer shandy canoeist. I like to as they say work on my skillz. And when the weather gets warm, I spend a lot of time upside down in my canoe, which, in case you hadn’t noticed, has a really big hole in it that tends to let in a bit o' water. Which said water then infiltrates any soft coolers present. I also spend an unfortunate amount of time raking upside down over rocks, sucking wind in the washing machine--which is why I tend toward soft coolers in my canoe, by the by--swimming my crap to the nearest rock to get back in and do it again. I spend a lot of summer time learning to better dance the dance of water and boat. To learn better what it means to fall over so I don't have to fall over as much. To learn better what it means to canoe. And in the summer, when the sun is high and the water is warm, what better time? to be able to reach through what is essentially a dry suit zipper sewn onto a big waterproof pocket (no losing your ice on the first flip) made out of commercial raft PVC and affixed with six points of attachment so it never moves against the hull of my boat no matter the earthquake weather and pull out from the deep blue ice some cold celery, or a cold cucumber quartered with a pinch of salt, or a tomato sandwich on a hot day, or a crisp salad with oil and vinegar and a cold spot of iced tea or a delightfully wicked Hopsecutioner IPA after being half submerged breathless in river water for hours: Priceless.
Way too much money. Tough as crap. Waterproof. And after year one my Yeti Hopper looks just like it did the day I bought it. I'm totally impressed.
View attachment T_O3SIiqEhzHIiRzRtm9LQVtOzscifY-7GqMjtn15RA0qxGWqvrtQNmJs90AlrEe04-N2CLb6oLNKtY4Oxn3kdbvvZ_Q0rJp0AiR
View attachment AaCly31dPpwY0PmdnMG5hxdFDQj6SFTTw4WFWAlWg7xd2filrcHhMlVVWEspg_705Skpbmwwj7M7eRVNSa2D9xbKHGbisnHlWyHJ
I paid full retail price (minus like 20 u.s.d. for some kind of Gander Mountain Credit Card deal--a place I do not frequent, for the record), meaning I paid like 280 green US dollars for the thing, before tax. Probably in the end I paid like 294 green US dollars, which may seem like a lot of money for a soft cooler. (I once paid 50 u.s.d. for an LL Bean soft cooler because I heard they were pretty tough, and it did last most of one summer in my boat, for which I was grateful. But then I thought 50 bucks was a little steep for not even one season.) Regardless, many people, including my wife, are like: You paid whaaaa? For whaaa?
My second disclaimer is that I don’t mind paying for what we might call technologically specific quality products. I recognize that a lot of time and thought, trial and error, testing and tweaking, wet nights and hot days--I suppose a lot of history and human experience--goes into a quality product, and if that product seems really expensive to you that might be because you don’t really need it, or maybe you won’t really be using it to the full edges of its costly potential and can therefore easily spend less on something inferior. (I could never justify, for instance, spending however much money people are spending now on a state of the art TELEVISION. My God. It's a TV. I simply could not use the thing to its full gaming/sound/3-dimensional entertainment/internet on acid potential.) The gnawing sense of expense and regret could also mean the product is simply overpriced (I won’t mention the $100,000 canoe seen elsewhere on this site because I’m certain in someone’s mind that is a fair price for a handmade product), which is why way back at the beginning of this paragraph I added the emphasis on quality. Like a specific quality. I might here also add grudgingly that the expensive feel of quality might come from the reality that you’re dirtbag broke like myself and EVERYTHING seems crazy expensive and out of reach until you come up with elaborate philosophies to justify your whacko spending habits…
View attachment KXDCz0xbruFM_RH3iezZlG_j83iec9koc7uPsbmA_hfRTQLVmjmmBTTg2t5qqIIr1EZpVCkzN604cJZKifB-tCbmRQpcpQeqiuwQ
But so in the end quality can be sort of synonymous with high performance or maybe designed to meet specific needs arising out of specific circumstances blah blah blah and but so wow. Sorry. Rambling a bit. Suffice to say that in the end I don’t mind paying for really decent gear and as an example I appreciate being able in the 21st century to say, truly, that ALL weather is GOOD weather.
Anywho. I have found this summer that on my frequent swim trips to various local rivers I'm getting very directional and nearly hostile questions about my YETI HOPPER. Not about the integrity of design or quality of workmanship or durability of materials, which as everyone knows is absolutely hands-down top of the class. By far. Like best soft cooler ever. That's not even debatable. But about the price tag. What makes what is essentially a “day cooler” or an "overnight cooler" worth 300 bucks? Dude. In the dead of winter--at least around here--no one questions the $1000 price tag of a Kokatat Drysuit. A bomber drysuit in winter is probably more important than your boat, in terms of longevity and quality of life. But 300 bucks for a soft cooler?
Come on, dude.
And I’m like: I know, right? Way too much. Way too much for the ordinary summer canoeist drifting with his feet kicked up on the gunnels and a fishing line stretched all the way up the river to the last riffle. But then,
View attachment vveXTBptty4LnJ23bVs1FBL_WRgnBJnabJZGD46gFgme5vcQcKaPNcrlmGmyMzw81VoPkvAB78UHLpoKKe-KXghY6IWPmlDs7Mrk
I’m probably not your typical summer shandy canoeist. I like to as they say work on my skillz. And when the weather gets warm, I spend a lot of time upside down in my canoe, which, in case you hadn’t noticed, has a really big hole in it that tends to let in a bit o' water. Which said water then infiltrates any soft coolers present. I also spend an unfortunate amount of time raking upside down over rocks, sucking wind in the washing machine--which is why I tend toward soft coolers in my canoe, by the by--swimming my crap to the nearest rock to get back in and do it again. I spend a lot of summer time learning to better dance the dance of water and boat. To learn better what it means to fall over so I don't have to fall over as much. To learn better what it means to canoe. And in the summer, when the sun is high and the water is warm, what better time? to be able to reach through what is essentially a dry suit zipper sewn onto a big waterproof pocket (no losing your ice on the first flip) made out of commercial raft PVC and affixed with six points of attachment so it never moves against the hull of my boat no matter the earthquake weather and pull out from the deep blue ice some cold celery, or a cold cucumber quartered with a pinch of salt, or a tomato sandwich on a hot day, or a crisp salad with oil and vinegar and a cold spot of iced tea or a delightfully wicked Hopsecutioner IPA after being half submerged breathless in river water for hours: Priceless.
Way too much money. Tough as crap. Waterproof. And after year one my Yeti Hopper looks just like it did the day I bought it. I'm totally impressed.
View attachment T_O3SIiqEhzHIiRzRtm9LQVtOzscifY-7GqMjtn15RA0qxGWqvrtQNmJs90AlrEe04-N2CLb6oLNKtY4Oxn3kdbvvZ_Q0rJp0AiR
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