
Show HN: Rent camping gear and get it delivered up to 1 hour before the trip - jmzbond
https://www.lastmingear.com
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RokStdy
Design nitpick: The alert every time you add something to your cart is really
annoying. What if I want to add 4 backpacks and 3 water purifiers, etc... I
click add, get a pop-up, click ok, then add again, rinse repeat....

Maybe instead just use a floating div to appear, say xyz has been added, and
then fade away after a second.

~~~
jmzbond
Great point, we had added that as a stop gap measure, because not all users
realized they had to scroll down to checkout the cart. From an overall design
perspective we kind of need to revamp the entire first part of the flow, so
this is great feedback. Thanks!

~~~
RokStdy
Upon re-reading my comment, it sounds more critical than I had intended. I
really like your site's clean design aesthetic. Great work.

p.s.

Please never come to Arizona. That will remove my last excuse for not going
camping (purchasing a bunch of stuff, that I may never use more than once).

~~~
jmzbond
Thanks! It's very far from perfect and we know, have some great ideas but man
I will say, I never thought UX/UI would be so hard when I got started.

Lol at your PS, if we go there, promise to not tell you =)

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jack-r-abbit
I've seen a few people running this type of thing (in a much smaller scale)
via Airbnb. They seem to mostly cater to people visiting the area that want to
camp in Yosemite or similar but don't want to travel with all their own gear.
I've thought about doing that since my gear sits in a closet most of the time.

Of course this is different. I like the idea. Good luck.

~~~
jmzbond
That's right travelers are a segment of our users! The majority though, are
folks who are not very outdoorsy but going for the first time and not
interested in spending a ton of money upfront.

I know there are a lot of businesses sprouting in this arena, many of which
are focused on the p2p aspect. One of the reasons we've so shied away from
that is because we're worried that the very underlying behavior we're
incentivizing is buying more stuff--once you figure out you can monetize it
and make a profit. Not everyone can buy an apartment as an income generating
property, but everyone can buy a tent.

At some point it might equilibriate out and have a net impact of lower
consumption anyway, but it's harder to go this route when our mission is
purely focused on reducing unnecessary consumption and changing cultural
perception of need to buy.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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jpetersonmn
As others have mentioned the UI needs some work. Pop-up messages, not knowing
what stuff costs as I'm adding, etc... Honestly if I was in the market for
something like this (overall I like the idea) I wouldn't use this service
since the UI is clunky. I would think if their website is this clunky, how
clunky is the overall service going to be. Is my stuff going to be on time,
will the order be correct, etc... IMO, building the website should be the
simplest part of the operation overall. Nice idea, keep working on it. :)

~~~
jmzbond
Totally fair and we're working on it. I think part of the challenge for us is
that we're not really an e-commerce business in the traditional sense. And so,
while we may want to preserve some of those elements (pricing, pop up
messages, etc.), we're also trying to do it in the context of optimizing for,
very fast requests (no sign up, no sign in, <60 seconds to request
something... last minute business and all), pay what you want model, etc.

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask, do you think having customer testimonials
eases some of your fears of clunkiness? Or do you tend to think, well anyone
can "make up" a testimonial? I ask because what you're pointing out is a very
real concern of mine. Once people have tried our service, they LOVE it (we
have near perfect 10s on NPS across the board), but there is a bit of
hesitancy at the beginning, which could be caused by many different factors
I'm trying to isolate.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Having been tasked (in a former life) with adding questionable "customer"
testimonials to a company site, I now place exactly ZERO faith in customer
testimonials on sites. YMMV

~~~
jmzbond
Gross! So sorry to hear that... But good feedback for us. We have a limited
social media presence and no Yelp (because for whatever reason the Yelp gods
hate us and there seems to be no way to talk to a real person there), but I
know this will help, especially Facebook reviews. Will work on nurturing that.

Thanks!

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VLM
Might I humbly suggest recreational items like fishing rod? In CA something
that dangerous might have a seven day waiting period or need a permit so
donno.

~~~
jmzbond
Great suggestion thanks! People are always fishing out on the piers here. Yes
we want to expand in other categories, for outdoors gear and even beyond! Our
vision is to make renting anything as viable as buying it, in order to try to
reduce unnecessary consumption and make our lives less cluttered.

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davidw
You might consider having packages like "family of 4 with two kids package",
which includes the tents, sleeping bags, and everything else.

~~~
jmzbond
Great point! We will test this concept in the future, some people want the
convenience of a total package, others want to customize so they can "make do"
and shave off some money somewhere.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Maybe make it so that adding the package to your cart actually just adds all
the items. Customization then takes place by deciding which of those items to
remove from the cart. It might work as a good "upsell" as people realize they
need more things than they first thought.

Edit: Case in point. I was looking to get a Sparkfun Kit[1] but they were out
of one item that made the whole "kit" out of stock. Down at the bottom they
have a link to a "wish list"[2] that lists all the individual items in the
kit. And a big button at the bottom of that page that says "add it all."

[1]:
[https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12060](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12060)

[2]:
[https://www.sparkfun.com/wish_lists/96686](https://www.sparkfun.com/wish_lists/96686)

~~~
jmzbond
That's a really good idea, thanks! And definitely thanks for the example!

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kstrauser
Like most campers, I already have an REI account. If I'm leaving town, I have
a car lined up that I can drive to REI to pick up rental gear. Why should I
choose you?

(I think this is a really cool idea! You're going to be asked the above,
though, so this might be a good time to practice your answer among friends.)

~~~
jmzbond
Get this question all the time (same deal with Sports Basement). 3 things:

1) Would you rather spend an extra 60 minutes renting gear from REI or having
gear arrive at your place when all your friends do and then leave all
together?

2) We're cheaper than REI

3) REI is not open 24/7 like we are. This is actually why we're so focused on
being a last minute business, because people today are really really last
minute. There are numerous instances where this happens:

Coworker A: "Hey really psyched about Tahoe trip this weekend!"

Coworker B: "Oh crap, can't go, and forgot to tell you earlier, I'm the
worst!"

Coworker A: "What?! We're leaving in 2 hours!!"

Coworker B: "Yeah, don't worry I'll find my replacement, hey Coworker C, want
to go on this trip? It'll be super fun and I already paid!"

Coworker C: "Yeah sure!"

Coworker C: ~oh... don't have any gear~

Also, if you're calling yourself a "camper" already and have an REI account,
we're probably not right for you because you probably go frequently enough to
make buying gear worth it. Check out this calculator we built on that:
www.lastmingear.com/protips/buy_vs_rent

~~~
kstrauser
1) Good point (although 60 minutes at REI seems a bit on the long side).

2) Make your pricing model more obvious. When I can't see prices before
checkout, and you're heavily marketing last minute delivery, I assume I'm
about to be sticker shocked.

3) That's a great point! You should emphasize that up front, because that use
case hadn't occurred to me. My first thought was "they cater to poor
planners", not "they'll help me be the spontaneous guy I want to be!"

~~~
jmzbond
1 - In SF traffic? ;) 2 - Great insight, have not thought about this before,
will work this in 3 - Fascinating, clearly we need to do better with this
value prop

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wayanon
I like it, my thoughts while using the site:

1\. How about a shopping cart or something to show what's in your order across
the top?

2\. Something that gives an idea of cost much earlier on for each item, even
if it's just suggested.

3\. How do you manage hygiene?, e.g. if a sleeping is delivered and it's
musty/whatever - what happens, do I still have to pay? How are things cleaned
after use? Is there a deposit?

4\. Other items for sale as well as hire, like charged power packs, a magazine
or two?

5\. Random game/sport items - frisbee, inflatable beach ball etc.

6\. Jerky?

~~~
jmzbond
1) This is part of our big design UX/UI challenge and we're still thinking
about how to fix it. So this could be part of it. Thanks for the suggestion!

2) This one is hard. Ultimately we have a pay what you want model, so I worry
that having suggested prices up front turn people away before they get to the
final page and realize it's pay what you want. Will test further

3) There's no deposit because we want as a side goal to not hinder access, and
deposits do that (especially for our gear, since it can be quite high). That
said if you return something in bad condition, you are liable for repair
and/or replacement cost, depending on how bad it is. We will have BIG warnings
up for Burning Man =) (and may do deposits then...) Generally speaking for
hygiene, all of our gear that you might actually have an "inner" part of your
body up against is well shielded. For example: sleeping bags we have liners
that we can wash. For snowsports gloves, we only carry the kinds that have
liners and outer layers.

4) We actually include this whenever you rent something that needs it! For
example, the grill has a propane, the headlamps have batteries

5) Yes definitely! We want to start with bigger ticket items first and then
hopefully expand to lots of other goods even in other categories. Right now
these items are too "cheap" for many people to consider renting. As in,
they'll feel awkward renting it.

6) Like... free jerky for every rental? We do surprise some customers randomly
with free chocolate =) But jerky might be too limiting since there might be
vegetarians. (I guess, sorry vegans about the chocolate)

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yellowapple
Three things:

First, the pop-up dialogs are annoying. Just show the number next to the +
button (and add '-' and 'x' buttons to decrement and delete, respectively),
and update it whenever I + or -. That's all the feedback I need.

Second, there's mention of product images, but they're not showing up for me
on the latest Firefox.

Third, there should be a price estimate for each product I add in the product
selection screen.

~~~
jmzbond
Thanks! Re your first point, do you think it would be annoying to you to see
some items with an increment of 1 and others with an increment of 0? I.e., is
it better to have separation between items that you can select vs. which
specific items you have selected?

Hmm... will test the images problem.

Third point is one we're thinking about how to address in the context of our
pay what you want model.

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joelhaus
Loved shopping at Campmor growing up, but definitely appreciate this concept.
Scouting trips were typically once a year, but need reduced over time as did
camping trips.

May also want to check out growth opportunities with other charities. Used to
participate in an annual event called Kayak for a Cause with a couple of
hundred people. 85% of them needed a kayak for one day... not exactly
something everyone is going to purchase.

Good luck!

~~~
jmzbond
Wow have definitely never heard of outdoor events for a cause but that's a
great partnership model. Will definitely look into it, thanks!

Re: kayaks, if we expand there, we're loving this folding kayak
[http://www.orukayak.com/](http://www.orukayak.com/) (no affiliation in any
way, and we're not getting kick backs! =P)

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jhwhite
It seems like there's customization options that should be present. Like for
backpacks, there's different sizes. What if I'm going out for a 3 day trip as
oppose to a week long trip?

And for sleeping bags, different bags are rated to different temperatures.
I've got two bags, one for warm weather camping and one for cold weather
camping.

Is all of this suppose to go in Optional Specifications?

~~~
jmzbond
At the moment yes. Most of our customers are new to outdoor sports and don't
know what specifications they want. They're also generally going car camping
and only in the summer, so it's usually not a big deal at all. Putting it up
front will freak them out and make choosing harder. The way it works now, if
you are experienced enough to know exactly what you want, you can tell us.

I do agree though that this part of the flow isn't perfect, so we'll work on
this. Perhaps for different items, giving examples of what optional
specifications people COULD write in? E.g., temperature for sleeping bags,
capacity for backpacks, etc.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
In some ways you do want to freak people out a little. There are people that
are a danger to themselves because they haven't the first clue what they are
doing. They don't know that they need a good cold weather sleeping bag and not
just some "sleepover sack" from Walmart. People can die when they don't know
what they are doing or what they need. The stories I've heard from a couple
SAR friends of mine... _shudder_

~~~
jmzbond
A well balanced freak out certainly =)

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Thrymr
> Q: If I wait until the last minute, will you have items available?

> A: It's never happened yet!

I don't think that says what you mean it to say.

~~~
jmzbond
Oh my you're totally right. Supposed to say, "We've never run out of items
yet, because we are a last minute business and having inventory is our job."
Something like that. I'm always hesitant to make 100% promises on stuff like
this because if a big corporate event happens then literally we might run out
regardless of what back-ups we have in place.

~~~
djloche
Make a 100% guarantee. Something like "we'll have the gear you want, delivered
when you want, or your money back AND we'll give you credit to rent the gear
on us at a later point to make up for it."

Internally, make it your policy to go above and beyond to make sure even if
there's a huge corporate event, that you still have the necessary gear for
everyone else that has paid. Your job is to deliver and have the gear. Making
it happen in unusual circumstances is part of the business.

~~~
jmzbond
You're totally right, you and the gentleperson below. Done!

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27182818284
I like this idea, it is too bad you're not in my area, I would have tried it.

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therobot24
Yea they shouldn't have the user wait till the order form to find out that
they're only in SF.

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jack-r-abbit
To be fair... it is in the FAQ right there on the front page.

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therobot24
Yea i only briefly glanced at the FAQ - wouldn't necessarily classify it as a
'wall of text', but it was bunched together enough to make me not want to read
through each line

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mbrownnyc
But will it work in the zombie apocalypse?

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jmzbond
=D

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ngoel36
Site is down for me

~~~
jmzbond
Sorry about that, I just tried it and it works, can you try again?

