Pop Up Tents
Tents are a foundational part of any camping trip. From small one person tents to full cabin size family versions, there is something for just about everyone when it comes to sheltering while getting away from the rat race. Pop up tents represent a very popular solution to one of the biggest complaints surrounding any tent – the frustrating act of setting them up.
The Scenario
A family decides to plan a camping trip for the weekend. The parents hustle home after work on Friday and everyone piles into the car. They drive for a few hours to get out of town and to the place they are going to camp. After a long day, everyone is a bit tired and grouchy. The car is unloaded and everything laid out.
Then it is time to put up the tent. The battle first starts with laying out the tent fabric in the right way in the dark. Then one starts hunting around for the poles. Which ones go together with which? Are we missing a pole? Before you know it, mom and dad are arguing and the trip is off to a less than stellar start. After a good bit of frustration, the tent finally goes up in at least a passable form. The next morning, it has to be taken down to fix problems that could not be seen when it was dark.
This is a fairly typical scenario when it comes to camping. It also represents one of the biggest complaints about tents. They are incredibly difficult to put up in the dark or after a long drive to a camping spot. The pop up tent solves this problem with an ingenious design.
Pop Up Tents
A pop up tent is a light, simple to set up tent. It comes in a carrying bag in which it is compressed into a flat shape. This configuration is usually in the form of a flat circle. When the tent is pulled out of the bag, it quickly expands into the final shape of a full tent. One then secures it to the ground and it is ready to provide shelter. When the trip ends, the tent is simply cleaned off, compressed back to its flat shape and stuffed back into its carrying bag. It is truly as simple as that and a huge improvement over dealing with the old “insert the pole” process.
The single biggest positive of the pop up tents is it is so simple to set them up. Products that explode in popularity with consumers are those solving a major problem with previous designs. This is exactly what we see happening with the pop up design. Instead of going through the difficult and frustrating process of trying to put up a tent in the dark after a long day, our camper can simply untie a bag, pull out the tent and watch it expand into a completed tent in less than five seconds. This is the kind of advance camping enthusiasts will snap up right and left if given the opportunity.
Pop up tents also have the added advantage of being very popular with parents. These tents are such a snap to assemble, parents are buying two. The first tent is for the kids and the second is for the parents. The kids can play and carry on without driving the parents nuts, which is the key to family peace on a camping trip!
The only real disadvantages to pop up tents are the options available. Until recently, most pop up tents were small, to wit, they only slept one or two people at most. The sheer popularity of these tents, however, has been such that there is a movement afoot to offer larger sizes.
Pop up tents dominate one market in particular when it comes to the camping niche. The market is people looking to take weekend camping trips. Time is of the essence on these trips, so most people don’t want to spend time hassling with tents. They don’t really need the heavy duty tents because most of the weekend will be spent outside the tent hiking, fishing and what have you. The only purpose of the tent is a place to sleep, so a quick and simple shelter makes perfect sense for the occasion.
The pop up tent is in many ways a revolutionary product. Just like all great product advances, it solves a problem most consumers have with its predecessors. Instead of spending time becoming frustrated with the set up process, pop up tent owners can set their shelters up in less than five seconds and get on with their trip.