Summer adventures have come to a close, but there is still plenty of fun to be found be both locally and with a bit of travel. I found myself both running and crewing at some big events that required a flight and some overnights and left my favorite travel backpack at home to give the Outdoor Vitals KotaUL a try. I hadn’t heard of this brand, or this bag, but from their marketing video…
These days, when you are out and about, you are likely to carry your phone with you. Depending on how long you’ll be away from the power grid, you may worry about your phone running out of battery, and then you won’t even be able to use it as an emergency flashlight anymore! The ToughTested XIP 3300MAH Sport Utility Powerbank and LED Tube solves those problems. This compact power bank will fully recharge most phones…
Gaiters are funny. The word alone sounds like something only fishermen would understand, and does not seem like the thing runners would need. And yet, for those of us who have ever run in sand, loose dirt, dusty, dry loam, or any surface that might want to creep deeply into one’s socks, gaiters are a necessity. A couple years ago I tried out my first pair of gaiters before embarking on my first assault of…
This was my first experience using Bollé sunglasses and I have to admit I was unsure of what to think of them at first as I’ve never worn a pair of “sport” sunglasses. Sure I wear shades, but nothing as fancy as these before. My first impression during the unboxing was the noticeably higher quality of both the lens and frames. I currently run in cheap $5-$25 sunglasses – and they “work” for the most…
Camelbak is one of those brands that has become ubiquitous – and sort of a catch-all phrase. In the same way you don’t “look something up on the internet”, you Google it. Everyone has a “CamelBak”. The brand is still going strong and making quality packs for all athletes in outdoor sports. One of their new packs, the Octane 25, is their day-use, mid-sized pack, great for a variety of adventures. I got my hands…
Yaktrax® have been around for enough years, and have enough brand recognition, that their name is used interchangeably to just mean “traction”. It’s the equivalent of saying “Google it” instead of “research it”. They’re well-known and for good reason: they just plain work. I got my first pair of Yaktrax in 2014 for a winter running trip to Boulder, CO and they had their inaugural run up the iconic Flatirons. I’ve used them in…
For four years, I have been wearing My Soxy Feet athletic socks for all my races and training runs. I started wearing them on a whim, finding them on social media. I ordered one pair to try and have never turned back. My Soxy Feet are high quality fun athletic socks, built to endure a hard workout/run. They are thicker than I was used to wearing. I thought they would only work for winter running.…
This time of year fosters feelings of thankfulness for our health and the presence of loved ones, and we can feel grateful for the abundance of all we have. However there is one area where I will never feel satiated: pockets. Women’s clothing in particular tends to favor seamless aesthetics over functional storage space, leaving me nowhere to put my belongings and nothing to do with my hands. While noble strides are being made on…
It’s easy for gear from this well-known brand to move to the top of anyone’s favorites list because, well, they just make good-quality stuff. There’s a reason it’s popular: it looks good, fits well, and gets the job done. Patagonia knows what they’re doing and they do it well. It’s easy to scoff at the higher prices because paying almost $50 for a shirt or $60 for shorts seems steep, but let me tell you…
FITS is a premium sock brand resulting from the collaboration of third and fourth generation textile manufacturers to create the absolute best fitting sock in the marketplace as a response to an industry-wide epidemic of ill-fitting socks. Utilizing only the best raw materials available, FITS incorporates innovative, proprietary engineering and technology to create the most comfortable, best-fitting sock in the world. The result: a product line that embodies the crucial connection between fit and performance. Drew: I…
