Columbia Spring2012 Gear Preview

I'm heading down to the Bay Area today for Columbia Sportswear's Spring 2012 preview event. It's a two part event that starts in San Francisco with dinner, drinks and presentations of next year's Spring line at the California Academy of Sciences. The next day, Columbia's taking ten of us journalists down to Yosemite for a four-day backpacking trip to try out the gear we checked out the night before. It's tough, but hey-it's a job.

I've checked out Columbia's Peak to Peak shell and I've had a tester report on their Neo Wind women's jacket for Backpacker and my Trek Tech column and I've been impressed. I can't wait to see what they've got in store for next year.

This week's going to be huge. I'll be testing out gear from Salomon, Easton Mountain Products, and Magellan as well, so I should have a lot to report on when I get back I'll try to blog and send out pics and reports on Twitter (follow me at @trektechblog)  as long as I have reception to keep you guys posted on what's up.

In the meantime, I'll have a few more posts popping up while I'm gone-I talk up slacklining and Gibbon Slackline Kits for spicing up your barbecues and review a few slim (yet tough) iPhone cases to keep your PDA safe on the trail.

Stanley Nineteen13 One-Handed H20 Bottle: A Good Idea, Poorly Executed

Unscrewing a cap while driving is a sketchy affair, and I’m sure that trying to open a stainless steel bottle on a bike has led to more than one disaster. 

Stanley’s Nineteen13 One-Handed H20 Bottle ($18-$22) caters to commuters with a unique push-button spout. The idea is that the bottle is completely sealed until you push the big button on its side, which opens it up to allow water to flow freely. Great for people who need to steer and drink at the same time. 

The Nineteen13 sports stylish graphics (that winged bear is a great mascot), a stainless steel body, carabiner loop, and cup holder/bike cage-friendly fit. It also comes with a lifetime warranty, which so far is proving to be pretty handy.


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Update: Stanley contacted me to swap out my bottle with a new one to redeem the One-Hander and see what went wrong with my bottle. Impressed with their QC department's response. Here's the update.

Indosole: Walking a Green Mile

According to sandal company IndoSole’s website, there’s one motorcycle for every eight people in Indonesia. With roughly 237 million people there, that’s a lot of bikes. And a lot of discarded tires. IndoSole is working to keep some of those tires from winding up in Indonesia’s landfills.

IndoSole Sandals ($45) are made in Bali using fair trade practices, employing locals and re-purposing used motorcycle tires - 2 pairs keeps 1 tire out of Balinese landfills - to fabricate the soles. The only fuel-powered machinery that’s used in the process is the motorcycle that’s used to gather the tires.  They’re about as organic as footwear gets. Here's a video about the production proccess.

IndoSole Production Process from IndoSole on Vimeo.

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Energy Goo, Minus the Goo

For athletes whose training goes past the one-hour mark, bringing along some spare calories and electrolytes is a great idea. Gel-style food like Gu and Powergel is generally regarded as the standard because it digests quickly and stores well in a pocket. There are drawbacks, however — having a sticky wrapper make a mess of your hand or pocket for the rest of your run/ride is never pleasant, and while it goes down easy, slimy nutrients don't always satisfy. Here are my favorite non-gooey options for eating on the run, all of which are available in Redding sporting goods stores.
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