Tent Brands

Best Tent Brands

To see the offerings of all of the different tent brands on the market head over to the lightweight tents list.

Tents really are one of the more important pieces of gear in your backpack, especially in the fall, winter, and spring months. Below I've listed a few good tent brands that come up often as making a quality, lightweight tent, but the tent market is huge and it would be difficult to do justice to it here. Over at the lightweight tents list page you can see the entirety of the market, and if you're looking to go lighter check out the lightweight tarp tents list.

Best Tent Brands List

• Tarptent - Despite the name, this tent brand actually makes tents and not tarps, though it would be easy to confuse Tarptent products for tarps at first glance. They make mostly single wall tents that use trekking poles or single poles for support, have a big product line and are very popular with the lightweight backpacking crowd. One of their more popular products is the Contrail, a one person tent that weighs in at 696 g, or 1.53 lbs.
• Terra Nova - Holders of the Guinness world record for lightest double wall shelter in the world for their Laser Ultra 1 (Take a look at the lightweight tents list to see if it's true), Terra Nova is a tent brand that knows how to make a lightweight tent. If the Cuben Fiber of the Laser Ultra 1 isn't your thing check out their more conventional Laser Photon 1, which is a one person tent that weighs in at 670 g, or 1.47 lbs.
• MSR - A more conventional tent brand, MSR makes a few lightweight tents, though nothing that would threaten Terra Nova's Guiness record. Their Carbon Reflex 1 is a one person tent that weighs 970 g, or 2.13 lbs, and a good example of the MSR tent brand's product line.
• Big Agnes - With one of the larger product lines in the tent market, Big Agnes is a tent brand with something for everyone, including lightweight backpacking enthusiasts. To get an idea of what Big Agnes' tents look like check out the Fly Creek UL 1, which is a one person tent that weighs in at 850 g, or 1.87 lbs.

These are a few of the best tent brands on the market, but by no means the only tent brands to choose from. To see everything that's available, check out the lightweight tents list and for those looking to go lighter the lightweight tarp tents list as well.