New Arrival - Flames Creed Trailstar Clone

I recently sold a Trailstar Clone Tent /Tarp ( bright Orange ) as I wanted something a bit more subdued ( Khaki - my favourite colour ) .
Ordered from Aliexpress , arrived from China 12 days from the time of ordering £63 delivered .......

More pictures required....I mean......COME ONNNNN!!

1 shot willie said:

More pictures required....I mean......COME ONNNNN!!

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Tomorrow ……

Madriverrob said:

Tomorrow ……

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Welllll......if that is the best you can do

There is some good looking stuff on their site but I’m off buying Chinese stuff if I can avoid it. There are Swiss army champ clones and leatherman wave clones for under £13… how do they do that?

First pitch …. Couple of mods to make to the tie outs and will need seam sealing at some point … first impressions .

Looks good Rob.....offers great shelter by the looks of it....and plenty of room.

They are really versatile, will sleep three without an inner but will also take an inner as well . Very popular with the ultralight community

I can see why its popular with the ultra light community..........If I were a bit more flexible I would have a look at one
Looks to be well made looking at the picture......plenty of tie outs
Easy pitch and take down......like it!

A couple more pictures ( wouldn't load from my phone for some reason ).

Not the best pitch but they do take a few goes to get pitched nicely .

May be a silly question Rob, but are the inners easy to come by, and where.

Cheers,

Mike.

So the original Trailstars are made by Mountain Laurel Designs in USA .


They make an inner to fit .....


Buying original has both advantages and disadvantages and this has led to Chinese manufacturers like Flames Creed and 3FUL making clones . There are also a number of cloned tent inners that will fit available of Aliexpress or Ebay at around £40 , some of these fit better that others and it can be a bit of a chore finding the right size , shape , door orientation . I'm also hopeful that the inner from my Lanshan I plus will be a suitable fit .

There is a whole thread on a UK based ultralight forum around the pro's and cons of the genuine article versus the cloned version and how to get a good set up .........



Advantages of MLD:

Quality of MLD product versus cloned offering .
MLD inner is definite fit for MLD Trailstar .

Disadvantages of MLD:

Cost of MLD product versus cloned version .
Delivery time from USA
Import duty

Advantages of Flames Creed clone :

Cost .
Delivery Time .

Disadvantages :

Quality of product can vary
Requires a non specific inner or purchase of MLD product

Chris Townsend from TGO magazine is a big fan and uses his all year round


Some would argue that buying the genuine article is the best way to go and that is maybe so but for me ( at the price I have paid ) the Flames Creed clone offers me an option (primarily for summer lightweight backpacking ) that is hard to beat .

Note : It looks like MLD no longer make the inner which is probably why there is such contention about finding an alternative that fits !

There is also the issue of the way Chinese companies abuse the intellectual property of other country’s designers and manufacturers.. Not that I’m saying there is anything truly original about a tarp and inner, both have been around for decades in one form or another.

Quite right

Ystranc said:

There is also the issue of the way Chinese companies abuse the intellectual property of other country’s designers and manufacturers.. Not that I’m saying there is anything truly original about a tarp and inner, both have been around for decades in one form or another.

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Quite right .. I respect everyone’s ethical
position on this , if people have strong enough feelings then they are free not to purchase Chinese copies

I

Madriverrob said:

Quite right

Quite right .. I respect everyone’s ethical
position on this , if people have strong enough feelings then they are free not to purchase Chinese copies

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…it’s just that Louise has had her intellectual property rights infringed in the past and it’s a horrible feeling to know that there is very little you can do against a Chinese or Indian company who see British designers as being fair game. All we could do was take legal action against their distributors as well as another well known designer who had unwittingly put her name to the range of designs. It was messy, upsetting and expensive.