To try and say that Cabelas waders are on par with Simms goes to show how delusional you must be. Please seek professional help.
Cabelas quality is rather broad. They have some crap. They have some real good stuff. It's priced that way too. Mostly they have other makers in the industry make their stuff and brand it Cabelas, then sell it a few bucks cheaper. The maker then is offered goodies for the name brand stuff, like a slightly higher margin, or prime location placement in the store.
So Cabelas wading boots, for instance, will be made by Chota, Simms, and the rest of the usual suspects who make wading boots. Usually it's pretty apparent as it very closely resembles a model already made by those companies. And the quality is only slightly less than that same model as well, and the price slightly less.
Yes, Simms stuff is nice. Is it $700.00 wader nice....maybe. If they REALLY hold up yes. If it is another example of being fooled again by marketing and trends then NO.
I'm currently a walking Simms factory and I AGREE with you, lol. I'm not impressed with my boots and will likely go back to Chota or someone like that. Construction is great but the tread just wears down too fast. It's my first lug pair of wading boots so maybe they're all like that. With felt, the felt always lasted forever, and the uppers would be the first to go. With the Simms I'll be flat soled before the uppers go, but that happens pretty quick.
The waders are the best waders I've ever had, but I paid $400 and change for them. Are they TWICE as good as all the $200 waders out there? We'll find out I guess. I've never noticed much of a comfort difference in waders, provided your staying within the "decent" quality breathable category. The difference is longevity. So in regards to cost, if it costs twice as much, it better last twice as long. My experience among a number of brands of waders says it'll last nearly EXACTLY twice as long. Which makes it neither a bad nor a good buy to go with the expensive stuff. I'll let ya know in 2 years whether the Simms G3's hold serve on that. But in hindsight, with invasives and all that, if I were starting anew I'd probably get 2 cheaper pairs. As it is, once a pair gets "semi-leaky", they become the "invasive stream" pair.
I do just love their ebbtide shirts though, and have a bunch of them and wear them all the time. They aren't expensive.
