Basejumper.com - archive

After reading about the Super BASE, I got to wondering.... How often do equipment makers take the opertunity to jump compeditors gear? It sounds like vertigo got the chance to do this. I just wonder if this is common. Maybe this is a stupid question I was just curious.

If I was a manufacturer, I'd make it a policy to buy every new piece of competitors gear as soon as it hit the market, just to keep up with new innovations in the industry. It'd be a definite component of my R&D.

As far as I know, Basic Research is the only company that has actively done anything like this, and I don't think they have a formalized policy or anything like that.