[leadin]No matter their utility, suspended tents look darned cool in Instagram photos. So, it’s not much surprise that the market is growing.[/leadin]
Levitat is a new entry into the suspended tent market, and it appears in many ways to follow the design lead of tents from the Tentsile brand that launched a couple years ago.
GearJunkie has reviewed multiple Tentsile models and has even awarded the brand for its innovation in melding hammocks and dome tents into a new kind of shelter category for the outdoors.
Levitat’s take includes the Hugger model, which uses the same kind of three-side design as Tentsile. It puts users in a soft-bottomed hammock tent. The brand’s videos are short and thin on information, and the website gives few specifics.
The tents are big — nearly 13 feet along each side of the triangle, according to the brand’s catalogue, and they sleep three people. Much like Tentsile, they use three heavy nylon webbing straps to attach to trees and have ratcheting devices to tighten the webbing.
The brand says it weighs about 18 pounds. They come with a polyurethane coated rain cover, insect mesh windows, and a 610D tear-resistant floor. The tent can support 880 pounds.
Levitat departs from Tentsile’s design with its hoop construction, noting in an email the design makes it “easier to access the tent’s four doors via two sets of stairs.” It also has two windows. Tentsile uses several different configurations of doors and tent poles in various models.
It also comes in a bunch of different colors, from bohemian patterns to desert and military-inspired designs.
The brand will launch on Kickstarter in May. While the design looks interesting, it really does seem like a Tentsile knockoff in many ways. However we appreciate competition and diversity, and hope the brand’s work expands on the field and improves the market. Until seeing them first hand, it will be hard to judge the merits of the new brand.
You may save a few bucks getting this new brand (pricing hasn’t yet been listed), but other than being an early adopter and supporting a start-up, we’re not sure why you’d forego the customer support and peace of mind that comes from buying an established brand (and the pioneer of the field) in this instance.
Check out more of the Levitat tent on Facebook.
