This is a very good question and should generate some good chatter. I, for one, am not "hung up" on name brands for my fly fishing equipment. I have way too many rods and reels now and that is just a part of this sport. I have reels with the "big name/well known" brands on them and I have reels with absolutely no names on them. I have fly rods with the "big name/well known" on them and I have fly rods with absolutely no names on them. For my everyday fishing I use a 9' 5wt that was developed by a small company and it has no name on it and I could care less about where it was assembled. This rod just feels good in my hand, casts effortlessly, very light in the hand and just does everything I want from a fly rod. I have had others ask to use it and they are impressed until they discover it is not a "big name" brand. The reel on this rod has no name on it and is smooth as butter. I get the same responses from others who have used it. They are very impressed until they discover it has no "big name" on it. Fly rods and reels, to me, are just tools and nothing more and as long as these "tools" are of good quality and perform well for me, I will continue to use them. I do not "hang out at the fly shops" and participate in "show and tell" with equipment. I just go fishing as much as I possibly can and enjoy the sport.
If a person is a well known guide and makes their living by doing this, then they probably have a sponsor and they need to promote their sponsor's gear because the sponsor is saving them a ton of money for equipment plus the sponsor may be doing some free PR for the guide. The clients of the guide will probably break more rods and reels then one could afford to replace, so, the sponsor takes care of that and, therefore, the guide needs to use the big name brand products and needs to promote them.
This is a really loaded question and the answers will be many because it all depends on who and what the person using the equipment is using it for. I think a person getting into the fly fishing sport will start out with no name equipment or at least the "bottom priced" equipment to see if fly fishing is something they want to do and then they will progress up the price range with their equipment until they find what works for them. Some fly fish because the sport allows them to "rub shoulders" with someone who they feel will be able to do something for them and they want to be using the "big name" products just for show. Some just like to be "walking billboards" and "talking" fly fishing. Some are guides and this dictates what equipment they will be purchasing and they feel that the higher priced equipment shows their clients how good of a guide they are. Then you have fly fishermen like me, who just enjoys the rivers, the surroundings, the peace and quiet, the challenge and the solitude. I do not need top end equipment to enjoy what I enjoy the most from fly fishing. I just need equipment that is comfortable to fish with all day and equipment that gets the job done and I can afford.
I honestly feel that there is a "corner" in the fly fishing equipment market now that more equipment companies need to address and that is good quality at an affordable price. I feel there are a lot of fly fishermen, like me, who started out with less costly equipment and as the years went by, they have purchased the higher priced equipment and are now back to using the mid-priced equipment because they can no longer afford the "top-end" and have discovered that the mid-priced equipment will produce the same results as name brand equipment but affordable. There have been too many experiments performed where a very good caster is handed a top brand expensive rod and a mid priced rod and neither is marked and the very good caster struggles to be able to tell the two apart.
It all boils down to purchasing and using what you can afford and purchasing equipment that works for you.
Everything I have stated so far is just my feelings and thoughts and is not meant to ruffle anyone's feathers. To each their own as long as they enjoy using a fly rod and reel and enjoy the sport.
Warren
Fly fishing and fly tying are two things that I do, and when I am doing them, they are the only 2 things I think about. They clear my mind.
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