Outdoor Retailer officially ends today. While everyone else has hit the slopes at SLC, we’re headed back home. Read more for our recap of a few of the new products at ORWM and some of the trends we’ve noticed in outdoor gear.
It has been a busy show for the two of us at Daily Hiker that went to Outdoor Retailer Winter Market.
For those that haven’t heard of OR, it’s a twice yearly trade show dedicated to outdoor pursuits. Every major company in the outdoor world has a booth showing off all of their products for the coming seasons. At summer market, you’ll usually hear about the products coming out in the following spring. Winter market is where companies announce their fall lines. Retailers line up all their purchasing contracts for the season and it’s generally how your local EMS or REI get gear in their stores.
For the outdoor press however, it’s a twice yearly geek-fest to check out all the stuff that you’ll get to play with in the coming months. We’ve seen quite a few new companies at winter market and have some really cool stuff lined up for the coming season that we think you guys will enjoy. With that in mind, we thought that we’d show you a few of the new products coming out in the next year.
Columbia:
Columbia is launching an entire line of products utilizing what they call ‘Omni-Heat’. Much like an emergency space blanket that we’re all familiar with, Omni-Heat uses aluminum to reflect the heat of your own body back to you. Their PR person claims that this allows them to allow people to stay 30% warmer than traditional insulation techniques. This translates to much less bulky jackets that come in at much lighter weights yet still provide the same warmth as your traditional insulation layer.
Obviously, aluminum has a breathability somewhere near 0%. To get around this, Columbia didn’t coat the entire inside of the jacket with aluminum. Instead they used a pattern of dots for the aluminum and the rest of the material is breathable fabric. According to the company, approximately 70% of the surface area of the jacket is actually breathable fabric. We haven’t had a chance to test out any of these claims, but will hopefully be getting a sample to try out pretty soon.
CamelBak:
CamelBak is introducing a new twist on the traditional hydration bladder for cold environments. Dubbed the ‘PowderBak’, this vest with a built in 72 ounce hydration bladder fixes many of the issues people have with hydration in cold weather. Instead of keeping a large amount of water in your backpack where it can freeze, the PowderBak moves the water underneath your insulation. This way your body heat keeps the water from freezing and you have drinkable water all day on the slopes.
As an added bonus, the company also insulated the tube to prevent freezing in yet another location. The company expects the PowderBak to be available at retailers in September 2010. From what I’m told, it should be around $100 at retail locations.
Timex:
The big news from Timex at ORWM was their new GPS enabled watch. Due out in September 2010, the Ironman Global Trainer is aimed at being the end all be all training watch for nearly any pursuit. Compatible with a multitude of wireless sensors, this watch will provide a wealth of data that exercise stat geeks can use to fine tune nearly everything about their workout.
Aside from the gps, the watch also sports a heart rate monitor and a 15 hour battery life using the GPS. Once the workout is over, the watch can be attached to a computer and the data reviewed and cross referenced to your heart’s content.
The main drawback that I see is the size of the watch. People with small wrists may have problems wearing the watch. Timex will include a bike handlebar mount though, so this may not be an issue for bikers. Since the watch is large, the LCD screen allows quite a lot of data to be shown. From the brief look I saw, it should provide most of the data my hand-held GPS shows, but in a smaller form factor. Timex expects the watch to retail for around $300.
Wenger:
At OR Summer Market in 2009, Wenger introduced a new line of footwear. While I wasn’t entirely impressed with the shoes at the time, it was a pretty solid first attempt for a company that didn’t have 150 years of shoe making experience.
The company took a lot of the feedback from testers and went back to the drawing board for 2010. Wenger completely redesigned their shoe lineup and have come out with what appears to be a more mature lineup. Colorways were also redone in more subdued tones. Gone are the baby blue hiking boots and they’re replaced with more traditional browns and grays.
Additionally, many of the boots have had OutDry added to them. This waterproof breathable membrane is much like Gore-Tex with some pretty distinct advantages. From what we’ve seen, OutDry looks to be making some pretty huge inroads in the footwear and glove markets. It’s nice to see Wenger somewhat on the forefront of this trend in the industry.
We hope to have a couple sample boots to try out this spring and we’ll see how they stack up to the more established footwear brands.
Ruff Wear:
In 2010, Ruff Wear is introducing what they call a sleeping bag for your dog. The Highlands dog bed is a synthetic insulation filled sleeping pad for your dog. At 400 grams, it’s not going to break your back and the company even includes a handy stuff sack to help keep the bulk down.
The Highlands bed will retail for $74.95 and should be available sometime this year. We’re hopefully going to get to try one out in the near future, so keep your eyes out for a review.
The company is also coming out with a couple other products. A waterproof, stink free collar called the headwater will be available for $24.95. A new ultra light weight dog pack called the SingleTrak will be available for $89.95.
Fjallraven:
Swedish clothing/gear manufacturer Fjallraven (pronounced fee-yall-reven) may not be well known here in the US, but they have a huge history in Europe. For the full scoop on their background, stop by their website and they’ll give you the low down.
While the company doesn’t make super modern designs using the latest fabrics from Gore-Tex, they do make very functional clothing in an incredibly good looking classic design. Some of their clothing is made to be used at the North Pole, but the majority of their products are made for what you or I would normally see backpacking. From the quick look I saw, the clothing looks like it will last through a lifetime of use. While the clothing certainly can’t be considered cheap, it does seem like it will be durable enough to justify the prices.
Expect to see the company make a splash state-side this year as they’re introducing a lot of products on this side of the pond in 2010.
Trends:
Walking through the show floor, you can usually get a pretty good feel for where the trends are going to be in the next year as far as the outdoor world goes. I’ve noticed a couple things that look like they’re going to be popular. Companies are introducing a lot of retro products with classic looks from the mid 1800′s all the way up to the 1980′s. Expect to see a lot of retro styles coming out this fall as it looks like the products are going to be everywhere.
As far as the latest and greatest fabrics go, OutDry and eVent are trying to take a huge chunk of the market away from Gore-Tex. While eVent has been pretty popular in Europe for a few years now, it hasn’t made a huge impact in the US. This is about to change this summer or fall. Many of the apparel manufacturers I met with seem to be coming out with quite a few eVent based jackets. OutDry is also finally coming to market and they’re everywhere. Nearly every footwear company I met with was talking about the disadvantages of the Gore-Tex booties and why OutDry is better. OutDry gloves are also coming to market and we should hopefully have a pair or two to put through the wringer in the next couple months.
As has been true for the past couple years, wool is huge. This year expect to see quite a few new companies making even more products out of merino wool. Also expect to see wool in areas that you haven’t traditionally seen it before. We saw a couple soft shells with a merino wool liner that felt pretty nice. I/O Bio has a wool hoodie that feels just as soft, if not softer than cotton without any of the cotton drawbacks.
So, that’s the 10,000ft overview of Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2010. We’re heading back to Seattle having had a great time but with a lot of work to do. Expect a lot of cool gear to be featured here at Daily Hiker along with what’s going on in outdoor news. We have some pretty cool stuff lined up for the rest of this year including a trip around the world and a mountaineering trip up Mount Rainier this summer. As always, if you want to see something on Daily Hiker, please drop one of us a line. We’re always glad to receive any feedback we can.
