They're tossing away a valuable and prestigious brand. There's a lot of brand loyalty that they'll lose. I've had good success with NER and favored their ropes to other brands in the past. Now it's time to re-evaluate that loyalty. If it's fully integrated with Teufelberger, I won't know whether I'm buying metric European or US ropes and maybe that's the issue with the sample 5/8" 3-strand I bought.

It seemed smaller in diameter than other 5/8” lines I have used. I checked it with a micrometer and it is 0.575” (whereas 5/8” equates to 0.625" or 15.9mm). It's actually a bit more than midway between 1/2 and 5/8.

I bought it from Defender and took a cut to the local WM to see if it matched their stock, and it did. So I figured maybe it's always been sized that way and it expands after it gets wet. (I have older NER 5/8” ropes that measure 0.66” to 0.67” but they have been wet so I’m not sure the dimension hasn’t changed since manufacture.)

I've already cut the rope I bought and spent a few hours making up new anchor bridles, so I'm not sending it back.