On Monday, June 10, 2019 at 4:36:32 PM UTC-6, wrote:
I like the Softie line of chutes and fly with one now. And I agree the folks at Para-Phernalia are great to deal with.

But--the manufacturer is one of the few (only?) in the U.S. to set a 20-year life on their products (see below). It can be challenging to get any chute that's more than 20 years old packed--even when it's in superb condition--thanks to the efforts of Allen Silver. Do a search on this newsgroup for (much) more info. But I suspect it will be even more difficult to get a rigger to pack a 20+ year Softie. I wish I'd known this before I bought mine.

"Independent testing of aged nylon materials has proven that its strength degrades over time, therefore, Para-Phernalia, Inc. and Free Flight Enterprises have established a 20-year service life from the date of component manufacture for the Softie Pilot Emergency System and the Preserve line of emergency parachutes."

Chip Bearden

They really are comfortable parachutes to wear. And the riggers seem to like them when repacking them. With that in mind, when shopping for a used parachute, I use the rule of thumb "$100 per year left of "useful life" (20y - #yrs old the parachute is). Given that, I was able to purchase a used Softie long that was 4 years old, for $1600. I thought that was a fair price.