For example, looking at a wind-stopper gilet / vest thingumy. Quechua / Decathlon version – £30; North Face £70

any difference in quality, or marketing? Got to say, North face stuff I’ve had has always been good

Most of it is plenty good enough but some of it is tat.
HTH

Yes there is a difference. Is it worth the extra £40 (or whatever)? Depends.

I think you pay £40 for the knowledge that you can actually pronounce the brand name!

+1 to Finbars comment, great value kit IME

North Face is not necessarily representative of a good brand…

Sometimes you can find decent stuff under the running brand, like Ronhill for example, for less money.

In my experience, having used loads of different brands and worked in retail selling outdoors stuff, there is bugger all difference between a lot of Decathlon gear and more spensive brands. As flatfish says, some of it is tat, but quite a lot is of decent quality and equal to most brands. North Face isn’t a particularly brilliant brand anyway. Mid-range at best, overpriced mostly, imo.

Considering most stuff is made in big factories in China etc, there is often no difference in quality. The difference in price reflects the brand identity more than anything else.

And as for ‘bike’ brands; some stuff is a complete rip off. Just big prices slapped on bog standard kit, with a load of marketing hype convincing people to shell out loads.

I’ve used a lot of Polaris kit – cheap and works….

http://www.polaris-apparel.co.uk//category-6255/product-22278//RACELITE-GILET,-BLUE/BLACK,-XS.html

Well it’s all depends how much money you throw at it.
The cheapest stuff from quecha is crap lets face it. And the more expensive sometimes lack a decent cut. Now it all depends how much you value the cut. The origin of the fabrics sometimes is unknow too.
But some other is actually decent. The merino top I have bought is good enough for 25€ (well as good as merino can be I wouldn’t ride in wool anyway).
If you want to buy decent stuff from quecha/tribors/kipsta/btwin/kalenji, you’re going to be around the same price than any other brand to be honest (for example here cheapest MTB is 299 whereas cheapest mtb in a LBS is 330 € so not much in reality). It’s the tat and very cheap stuff that they use for com/marketing that is nasty.

I was looking for Gilets for ages – as I lost my endura “Flood” sale one.

All seemed to be a mad price for bugger all fabric. Ended up getting a Ron Hill one from Wiggle for £23 which is great apart from the lack of a pocket to roll it up into like I could with the endura.

If it is built like their tracksters you’ll need napalm to destroy the thing too.

sports direct have ronhill running water/windproof tops and gillets for £6, look suspiciously like Alture nightvision’s, only 1/15 of the price.

Nothing wrong with Ronhill – quality stuff – I have some microfleece tops that would be 2x if they were North Face. Plus if you decide to go rambling or running you will be half kitted out already…