More Gear From Winter OR

mh ardica470 0109
The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market has come and gone, but the gear reports continue, with some exceptional stuff coming our way over the next few months.

Popular Mechanics has listed their 7 Best Outdoor Gear Picks for 2009 with some great stuff shown off at OR. Some of the things making their list include the new Ardica Jacket from Mountain Hardwear that has gotten a lot of buzz thanks to the fact that it comes equipped with a battery pack that not only heats the jacket, but also recharges your electronic gear. A new minimalist camp stove from Snow Peak.

The Outside Blog has more picks from the Gear Junkie as his “best of show”. Things that caught his eye include a new Expedition watch from Timex that includes the usual altimeter, barometer, and so on. The new Koven Plus jacket from Cloudveil also gets high marks.

The folks over at Trailspace.com continue to update their Outdoor Retailer blog, and today they have a nice look at some of the new electronic gadgets that we unveiled in Salt Lake City. They take a peek at the same Timex watch mentioned above, as well as new GPS devices from Lowrance and a roadside assistance service from SPOT that will be launched in the spring.

Finally, check out the Outside San Diego Blog for some more thoughts and insights into gear and the show itself. There are daily summary reports from three days on the show floor, as well as a wrap up of the overall event, and trends that we can expect in the months ahead. Good stuff!

Kraig Becker

3 thoughts on “More Gear From Winter OR”

  1. Bloggers and writers have to fill pages with content even if it’s pure hype. There really wasn’t any innovation at this OR. Lots of tweaks and knock-offs but nothing to get excited about. Seriously, it was a boring show and the most commented aspect was on the low attendance.

    Timex = yawn, way too big and an altimeter IS a barometer. MH jacket = another technology not ready for the real world (think MET5). CV jacket = knockoff. G3 binding = knockoff

  2. That Timex watch looks rather ugly from all the shots I saw. Seems huge, but seeing it person may make a difference.

    The heated gloves/boots/jackets that I’ve seen have never worked quite right and seemed to be aimed at the non-core audience generally. I’m a fan of MH stuff usually though.

    I’ve heard the same things in regards to attendance. OR themselves was saying a 5% drop, but I heard it was bigger than that from others. I had more than one person use the words “very quiet” in their description of the how it was in SLC over the weekend.

Comments are closed.