Good, solid, HONEST advice, backed up with sheds of experience.
The sort of outdooserists that pour scorn on the likes of Decathlon for being shit are the type of outdoorserists that spend nowhere near enough time *actually* outside to justify that opinion.
Over 75% of my outdoor gear (and there’s a LOT of it) comes from eBay.
Buy shit buy twice
Have a ‘Swiss Army Knife Mindset’ (multiple use items)
Pack in ‘systems’ depending on activity, duration, and weather
Remember that 99.9% of the idolised influencers trying to persuade you to buy that thingy were given it for free
Anecdotally – there’s a small outdoor clothing manufacturer near Manchester UK that spent a long time evolving the very best belay jacket ever made. Many a high profile sponsored awesome alpinist bough that jacket (aka the Zeta) with their own money and wore it when the chips really were down in the mountains … but just didn’t let their sponsors see !!
oh, and learn from experience (preferably you’re own) !!