So many of you are brand loyal to certain companies.  When it comes to reels, what caused you to first try the brand you love so much? What influenced you to choose the brand?

How do you choose what reel to get when they are all so similar on the shelf and it is too expensive to buy one each and try them out?

Years of trial and error/experience. Or you can just take my word and buy SHIMANO.

Pure sex appeal.

Shimano had a commercial showing 6-7' sharks being caught on a 1978 Shimano Bantam 100 Super Gear upgrade with rosewood handles.

Have you ever caught a shark?

i just used trial and error... first reel was a a shimano and i just didn't like it.. then i bought a citica hoping for a better experience but i was disappointed yet again. So i went out and bought a quantum accurist and  was happier than ever with it.. its been quantum ever since...

i picked up a few and played with them. ebay and the classifieds here are a good place to get some experience for cheap. i bought a few from ebay to start until i settled on quantum. as far as opinions go...you are the only one who knoes what you like. try a few or borrow a few before you go and dump money into something you dont like!

Any of the big name reel manufacturers (Quantum, Shimano, Pflueger, Diawa, Abu Garcia, etc) make a decent product in my opinion. You buy one brand because of information and opinions you gather, you get used to that brand and like it's quality, and this leads to further purchases of the same brand. I buy a brand that I know will perform. Others may perform just as well or better but I buy what I know to be a good product.  However, this doesn't mean I won't buy another brand later and try it out if my research shows it is worth trying.  

No brand loyalty here. If the reel has a good track record I'll use it.

You can't buy a $20 Shimano/abu/daiwa and expect great things just because of the brand.

It's always best to try them... if you can find someone with what you want, they will usually let you try them out for a spin.

Back when I bought my first high end rod...  there were only a couple choices.  I didn't know anyone personally using high end gear so I bought blind.  Most of the talk was of Loomis IMX, so I tried one....  and then another and another and another...    

That was in the early 90's.  these days I don't have to save 2 months lunch money for a nice rod or reel so I buy something new (usually a reel) every month or two and sell what I don't like.  

I use more Shimano reels than other brands, but not because I'm "loyal"...  they just happened to make a few models that fit my hand and my preferred features/specs better than the others I have bought recently.

Good sales started me out, If there was a reel on sale with good reviews I would buy it, then from there found which brands work better for me. Trial and error.

my first 'real' reel purchase was a flooger president 6725 for my UL.

ALOT of people talk about their smoothness and over all good construction. they were right.

i saw sports authority had a 6740 w/ 7' M action rod combo for $50. i snagged that one.

wanted to get into casting. again , alot of people suggested the shimano citica because its cheap , built good and has a decent resale value.

no brand loyalty here. my next reel will probably be a abu cardinal 501/2 just to check it out.

i will not go out and buy a reel ive never heard of just because it looks cool. i will go home and look up on what other people have to say about it and if everything checks out , ill snag it up.

back in the 90's watching my FAV BASS PRO Denny B. always Flipping a JIG with his Daiwa S Rod and TD-X Reel and that reel was so sexy to me.. I saved up and bought me two with xmas money.. and Have fished nothing but Daiwa since. my first set up was a 6'6 MH Interline rod!!!! (Still have it you know the rod that uses only a guide to get the line inside of the blank!) and 7'6H Daiwa S rod and TD-X reels!

"back in the 90's watching my FAV BASS PRO Denny B. always Flipping a JIG with his Daiwa S Rod and TD-X Reel"

Ditto...  I have used Team Daiwa reels since I first bought a td2 pi back in the early 90's when I was 14.  I still have that reel and it is still going strong.  I strongly doubt I will ever use anything other than Daiwa.  Now rods that is a different story.  I started with Team Daiwa rods as well, then went to fenwick and then loomis,  but have since switched to custom built rods built on St. Croix blanks that I build myself.  I have even modified a couple of my older TD-S rods to better suit my style of fishing, and still use them today.

i have no loyalty. i just dont buy crap

rods: g loomis, st. croix, rogue

reels: shimano, daiwa