Alright Kray, you've convinced me. As I said, I was willing to give them a shot (everything deserves a shot).
At the Somerset fly show yesterday I found a pair of G3's that was a reasonable "deal". Not earth shattering. I only intended to buy them if I found the deal of the century. I didn't (err, I did, but that one didn't have my size). But the 2nd best deal in the place was still a good $75 below typical retail, had my size, and it was Jonas, who I wanted to support. Still, by far, the most expensive wader I've ever bought, but I got em. I rationalized that I'd probably end up doing it by season's end anyway, and I'd probably throw $75 Cabelas bucks at em. Can spend the same, and save the Cabelas bucks for something else.
We'll see how they last. I will state that they have a built in advantage, and I have to take that into account. My LLBeans are showing wear, but still holding up. So, for as long as possible, I have 2 usable pairs of waders and plan to use them both. The Beans will be my bushwackers. The Simms will be my "big stream" wader. This means they will see far less abuse than my typical waders have, at least for a while.
With Simms waders and boots and a shirt or two, I will be a walking Simms catalog. While still swearing below my breath that their stuff is too much $$$$, lol.
I also picked up some Aquaseal and Revivex. Before spring, I intend to give the Beans the king's treatment to squeeze every hour of life out of them that I can, so that I can delay putting the Simms through bushwacker duty as long as possible. They are just too expensive to abuse....
I will say they are real nice. Perfect fit, nice pocket configuration, and the material has that "quality" feel. The only negative feeling so far is the weight of my wallet.