2008 Winter Gear: OR

So there I was, an assistant editor fresh off a plane from Santa Fe, headed to the 2008 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market to do daily blog updates for Outside, when I got a text message from Outside Buyer's Guide Editor Sam Moulton.

“In bed with the flu. Can you be me for the rest of the day/evening?”

"Sure. Of course," I replied.

I double-checked his schedule. He had an appointment every half hour until 5 p.m. He barely had time for lunch. I had set his schedule up for him. "Karma," I thought.

OR brings more than 850 companies to Salt Lake City each winter and summer so that reps can show off their newest gear to thousands of journalists, distributors, importers and exporters.

It’s a four-day gear extravaganza where you can boulder with Chris Sharma, check out the new Gore-Tex Windstopper jackets while real snow swirls around you, and try to catch one of the dozens of cameras GoPro gives away every afternoon. Booths sprawl across two floors of the Salt Palace Convention Center. It's massive. As a first timer, I needed a map.

I hustled from meeting to meeting, working my tail off to stand in for Outside’s top gear guru. Everybody wanted to talk to him, so my day consisted of this conversation on repeat:

“Hey, where’s Sam?”

“He’s sick in bed with the flu. I’m him today.”

[Insert look of suppressed disappointment here along with some variation of “Oh, well okay, awesome! Let's show you the line then...”]

Lucky for me, the reps took extra time to describe everything  in detail.  By day three, Sam had fully recovered.  And I finally had enough time to make these videos to give you an inside look at how Outside learns about some of the gear we test for our biannual gear guide. —Christina Erb

Thousands of reps, journalists and gear wranglers flew into Salt Lake for the four-day market last weekend. The show brought together smaller companies like Carve Designs, Flylow Gear, and Crumpler along with industry giants like The North Face, Mountain Hardwear, Marmot, and Arc'teryx. Flylow, a freeride apparel company, showed off its stylish handmade, cattle branded $25 Tough Guy gloves while Mountain Hardwear unveiled $300 ultra-deluxe heated Red Savina gloves.

Hundreds of new, waterproof, breathable ski jackets lined booth entrances, including Helly Hansen's eco-friendly $325 Ekolab jacket.

Merrell's translucent jacket, The Gatherer, was one of the show’s most interesting concept pieces. The $99 lightweight, 100 percent nylon shell allows the wearer to stuff it with insulating materials such as newspaper, leaves, moss, and yarn, making it a good option for both creative types as well as people who like to carry emergency lightweight jackets in the backcountry.

Since early 2007, Scapegoat has rocked Outside’s pages four times with its Almanac, Rosti, Coaster, and McLean jackets. The owners showed up at OR with their first-ever women’s fall line, and the jackets (I tried on a couple) are among the best fitting I’ve ever worn: Less puff, more figure. Guys, think Christmas.

On the more techy side, Mammut will release its X-Zoom headlamp, the first-ever LED light with a zoom feature, 110m of range, and 190 hours of burn time in September.

Skis and snowboards were hard to find at OR as most of them will be unveiled at the SnowSports Industries America (SIA) show this week. Salomon did display its $925 Czar, big fat skis that come with a 620 Rocker shape and a 111m waist. Skier Mark Abma influenced the design by requesting sticks that would allow for more flotation so he could concentrate on huge powder jumps—and with a name like Czar, guess where they’re considering officially unveiling them to the public this fall? Da, my little Babushka!

Deuter, a 110-year-old German backpacking company and maker of the first-ever Shield Back System, displayed its redesigned Guide 35+ alpine pack. The $110 pack comes with removable back stays and foam sheets, a removable hip belt, side ski loops and attachment points for ice tools.

Outdoor Retailer Photos: Part II

The "punch" luge at the Outside Gear of the Year party.

Outside editor Chris Keyes with the GOTY winners from Mountain Hardwear.

The Redwood Creek Winery party, where guests sampled award-winning open-fire recipes.

Hot Buttered Rum kicks out the acoustic jams at the Keen party.

The wind-powered props outside the Salt Palace. This year the press room also went paper-free; instead of massive press kits, writers were provided with a flash drive and could download the desired materials.

The chalkboard at Saturday night's Horny Toad party.

Outdoor Retailer: The Photos, PT 1

The ice sculpture at the Gear of the Year Party

Demo Days

Inside the Salt Palace

The paddling tank

Tent City

Outdoor Retailer Trend: Custom Gear

Customizing specific features of your gear used to be something you did after you got it home from the store. Rigging something up here, lashing something on there. But it’s not that easy to, say, add pit zips to a soft shell jacket. Until now. Lots of gear manufacturers are jumping on the customizable gear bandwagon. And they do the work for you. Yes, you can put away your sewing kit.

Take Big Sky’s award winning Evolution tent ($299.95). This two person, two door tent isn’t new, but the customization options keep expanding. Add the rainfly that has a porch feature for $40. Or upgrade from aluminum poles to carbon fiber poles for $110. Stakes, storage bags, guy lines…it’s all completely a la carte. Get exactly what you want, and skip the rest. After all, who doesn’t have a bunch of tent stakes lying around already? Check out all the new options at bigskyinternational.com.

I mentioned the NuCanoe in a previous post. It’s not for the fast and light set, but if you’re into fishing, this boat’s for you. Every boat from NuCanoe starts with the same wide hull; then you pimp it out from there. Add another seat if your buddy’s coming along, or remove it if you’re solo. Attach fishing rod holders so you can sip a cold one while trolling along. Add a small motor so you troll along a little faster. And add a cooler to keep your cold ones (or, maybe, live tackle) cold.

Lastly, Beyond (formerly Beyond Fleece) wasn’t at this year’s show (someone correct me if I’m wrong), but the company’s awesome customization efforts should be lauded anyway. In three weeks time, you can have one of the best soft shell jackets on the market completely customized to suit your needs and style (all done online). The Cold Fusion X starts off at $199. Pick your colors at no charge. Add pit zips for $15 and an interior pocket for $15 more. Add a hood for $30 or thumb loops for $10. The combinations are endless. Then give them your measurements and sit back and wait for the delivery guy.

If anyone else noticed uber-customizable gear at Outdoor Retailer or elsewhere, please comment below.—Kate O'Mara

OR Roundup: The World's Largest High School Reunion

No one can deny that there are some fine-looking specimens at OR. And that's just the people watching. As Drew Simmons from Pale Morning Media told me, “This is like the world’s largest high school reunion. You never know exactly who you’re going to see or what you'll do.” Right on, Drew. In the 30 seconds I had to OJ Simpson my way from one end of the hall to the other between appointments, I saw Jimmy Chin’s People-magazine-approved-most-beautiful profile as he chatted with an editor, Lynn Hill explaining the underparts of a pooch to her toddler son Owen, and Dave Hahn coolly taking it all in, as if OR were a welcome change from his life as an über guide on Everest.

As for gear, OR is the worst kind of window shopping—you want it all, but in a mere four days, you’re never going to see it all, which causes serious anxiety for editor types like me. That’s why at Outside we blitzkrieg, sending an army of editors to divide and conquer. (A shout out here to Megan Michelson, former Outside Assistant Managing Editor who masterminded the appointments and Dennis Lewon, Gear Maestro, who oversaw Operation Outside Editorial.)

My beat at the show was mostly travel and women’s style and gear. I could go on for pages listing the many attributes of all the products from Eagle Creek to Prana but, frankly, the specifics of each are still melting together in my head like one giant stew of style. A few quick standouts: Keen’s new Harvest Series recycled rice bags and backpacks, the buttery texture of Contourwear’s tops, the Manhattan-meets-ashram style of Ailin, the superhero look of Kaylands’ Ice Dragon ice-climbing shoe, the innovation in Moving Comfort’s sports bras, and the graphics on Mission Playground’s line of custom surfboards. Stay tuned for Spring Buyer's Guide 08 for full disclosure on these and more.

My number-one all-time most coveted item at the show? A custom paddleboard by Joe Bark. Good thing I live high and dry in New Mexico because that behemoth would have been a beast to carry home on the plane. —Stephanie Pearson

Outdoor Retailer Roundup: Day 1

Equal measures madhouse, gear-o-rama, and endurance marathon, it’s hard to keep all the details in order after a day of appointments, but here’s a few things that hooked our interest on Day 1…

The rock-climbing company Five-Ten is unveiling a new series of fashion-forward shoes, dubbed the California line. Of the batch of downhill mountain biking, skating, and free running shoes, one of the two that caught my eye was the BA5IC, which looks like the Vans of old updated to the 21st century. The canvas kicks sport Five-Ten’s proprietary Stealth sticky-rubber soles, but this shoe is the first with red sticky-rubber instead of the traditional black, and they look fantastic. The DAESECT freerunner shoe is also an eye-catching mix of muted blacks and maroon highlights that’ll definitely appeal to fans looking for a touch of style to their tech footwear.

The shoe icons Merrell have also made some truly bold forays into the apparel industry, with simple, fashion-forward lines for Fall ’07 and Spring ’08 that meld together fabric treatments like Cocona and Gore-Tex laminates with designs that are more urban than woodland. The Aeroblock fleece is ridiculously comfortable, ridiculously soft, and nicely priced. They’re also using fabrics like organic cotton, and a unique meld of copper with merino wool, as well as carrying over little details from the shoe department like using Vibram rubber for the zipper holds.

Nau, meanwhile, continues to excel. Leaping from the designs of the previous year, the next batch of high-performance, high-quality clothing reflects a slightly military design influence, while combining an inventive use of high-tech fabrics to deliver amazing performance and durability for people who consider fashion as important as function. They’ve also recently opened their first batch of retail stores, and initial reports on their success are quite promising. Expect to see more out of them in the coming months as their eco-conscious and altruistic pursuits continue to push this industry in bold new directions.

Another trend carried across almost every manufacturer at OR this year: an eco-friendly approach. From using all-natural treatments processes like Cocona to harvesting locally-grown all-organic cotton for t-shirts to constructing 90% post-consumer recycled sleeping bags, it’s clear that the outdoor industry continues to follow that growing trend. Even smaller Canadian operations like Kamik footwear--buy a pair of their whimsical rain goulashes, send ‘em back to the company when they’ve worn out, and they convert the product into a cute pair of black booties for kids (an earth-friendly gesture that grows out of Kamik’s years-long commitment to using eco-friendly philosophy, from avoiding the use of fossil fuels to using recycled water as coolant).—Nathan Borchelt

Outdoor Retailer: Outside's Gear of the Year Party

The summer Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City, held this week from August 9th to the 12th, is now in full-swing. It's quite a spectacle: parties, seminars, press conferences, book signings, film premieres, etc. But the main attraction, of course, is the gear. Hundreds of companies debut their new Spring/Summer 2008 product lines. As with the last two days, I'll once again spend most of today weaving in and out of booths, getting the scoop on the latest boats, tents, bags, packs, and hiking and running shoes.

Last night, sandwiched in between a Canoe and Kayak-sponsored kayak tug-o-war (held in the show's indoors paddling tank) and a Roots concert (sponsored by Jansport), among many, many other events, we had our annual Gear of the Year party, at which we officially recognized the companies who crafted winning gear from our Spring/Summer 2007 Buyer's Guide. Last night's event was a bit more special than most, as it also doubled as our 30th Anniversary Party. But, as with the show, the spotlight was still the gear. I had the unlucky responsibility of actually having to announce some of the awards. That was the low point for me—let's just say I'm no Dane Cook. The high point: how loud the rowdy crew of Minnesota-based Granite Gear cheered when their backpack, the Nimbus Meridian, flashed on the big screen.

I'd love to tell you more about the event, but my first appointment of the day is about to begin. Plus, I hear there's a very cool portable coffee press designed by a couple of engineers from Stanford, and I'm in some desperate need of some more caffeine.

—Sam Moulton

Outdoor Retailer: Open Air Demos

The first two days of Outdoor Retailer, better known as a gearhead's wet dream, are dedicated to getting field-test experience with some of the newer gear on the market. Plus, it’s a welcome dose of sun before spending the next three days in the air-conditioned confines of the Salt Palace in downtown Salt Lake City. This year’s Demo was held at the Pineview Reservoir, about an hour from downtown Salt Lake near Ogden. Easy access to the water made it a great spot for checking out a few of the canoes on the market.

The Nu-Canoe came out just after last year’s OR so this is the Bellingham, Wash., company’s grand media unveiling…and at first glance, it’s an odd sight. It kind of looks like a bloated sit-on-top kayak, with a wide waist and seats positioned like those in a canoe. But when we got the tandem version on the water, it performed remarkably well—especially considering we don’t exactly qualify as anything close to skilled paddlers. The aim, the company says, has been to create a boat that isn’t intimidating, one that you don’t have to worry about rolling—and they’ve largely succeeded. It felt as stable as an oil rig, but proved surprisingly maneuverable. This craft also synchs up with what we anticipate to be a big trend here: the ability to customize your gear, paying only for what you want and need. We’ll have more on this trend later. Buy the main hull and you’ve got a platform for up to two seats in various positions, mounting placements for fishing rods, space for tents and customized coolers, placement for a small outboard motor, and the ability to carry up to 500 pounds, which makes it a great expedition boat. This boat would be ideal from fishing trips, boating with dogs, or for families that are skittish about tipping. It does weigh about 90 pounds—a weight they hope to trim by eight or so pounds. But once you get the boat in the water, it feels weightless.

We’ll have much more from the Outdoor Retailer Show, keeping you posted on all the latest gear innovations. Stay tuned. —Nathan Borchelt and Kate O'Mara