Gear
Archive
We give the big outdoor brands a lot of love at OR—and for good reason. This year, however, we also wanted to highlight the little guys.
A lush hideout just a few miles from the city
The coolest outdoor toys don't always cost a fortune
In Jay Blahnik's first extended interview since Apple hired him to help launch the Watch, the company’s director of fitness for health technologies insists activity tracking is overemphasized, elite athletes have a sitting problem, and the real breakthrough apps for the device will probably be created outside of Cupertino.
If you want clean, safe water in the backcountry, this is the only purifier you should be buying
This may be the coolest car-camping stove we've ever seen
Columbia just reinvented the rain jacket, and it works great
Lighter, softer, and more stylish than we thought possible for a performance top
Gear companies from around the world released their brand-new summer 2016 products this week at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City. We pored over all of it, and these five products—from a brilliant new water filter to a totally reinvented waterproof jacket—were our top picks for Gear…
In a time when “enduro” has become a tired epithet, the Nomad virtually reclaims the genre with downhill manners equal to any big bike and a weight that rivals many trail machines
Don’t feel like making friends with bears and raccoons? Keep your campsite locked down with these simple tips.
Tough-ass pants: A term for rugged work trousers that are particularly good at handling abuse.
SUP: Short for stand-up paddle-board, a stable floating platform that combines the cool of surfing with the practicality of a spin workout.
A tubeless tire tool that will fix holes too big for sealant
What do world-famous pilots like Jeb Corliss and Joby Ogwyn have in common? They all wear suits sewn by Tony Uragallo, a garden-loving designer who helps daring men zoom through the sky.
Dropper Post: A mountain-bike component that can be raised or lowered with a button mounted on the handlebars.
Utility bike: A bicycle built for hauling children, gear, or grocery bags full of organic quinoa and local honey.
Chip timing: The practice of using a small wearable transmitter to track race participants’ times at regular checkpoints along a course.
You can now use clipless pedals with sneakers when you want to ditch your bike shoes
Crowdfunding: A method of raising capital to launch commercial ventures in which small individual donations are made through an online platform.
Tech binding: A lightweight binding system that transformed backcountry skiing and put telemarking on the path to obsolescence.
Direct to Consumer: A business model in which a company sells its products via its own website, catalog, or store, reducing retail markup and passing the savings along to the consumer.
Bill Bowerman: A legendary Oregon track coach who cofounded the shoe company Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964; 14 years later, it became Nike.
Base-Camp Duffel: A large, 155-liter bag often seen loaded on yaks in Nepal’s Khumbu region for a few simple reasons: it can take a beating, it has straps that convert it into a backpack, and mountaineers know that it can carry all their gear.
Royal Robbins: Climber, businessman, and archetype for the modern clean-climbing ethic, which espouses the use of removable protection instead of pounding pitons into rock.
Lifa Shirt: The first commercially available base layer made from polypropylene, released in 1970 by Helly Hansen.
Rollerblade: A roller skate with soft, linearly arranged wheels offering fast, smooth glide.
Gear companies know how to make packs lighter, jackets more waterproof, and skis burlier. The only problem: young people couldn’t care less.
Sports Bra: A groundbreaking invention that lets women participate comfortably in a range of vigorous athletic activities.
Double Plastic Mountaineering Boot: A highly reliable style of footwear that prevents frostbite in alpine environments.
Camouflage: A varying pattern of earth-colored prints designed to obscure the wearer from view, worn by hunters and members of the U.S. military
Jacques Cousteau: A French explorer and arguably the most prolific marine scientist and ocean conservationist of the 20th century.
Denali Jacket: A popular performance fleece garment made by the North Face and commonly seen on mountaineers and college students.
The raw materials that make up the tools for hiking, running, paddling, skiing, and cycling. These 36 building blocks are indispensable to the design and function of gear, from mankind’s first wool layer to the latest lab-born membranes. (Some things just look better in print. To see this in all…
The Perfect Size Wheel: An elusive and controversial hoop that allows mountain bikers the ability to optimize progress over rocky terrain.
Swiss Army Knife: The world’s first consumer multitool, designed by cutler Karl Elsener with two blades, a screwdriver, and a can opener.
Founders of the Recreational Equipment Co-op (REI), which the couple started in their West Seattle home in 1938 as a way to help climber friends gain access to cheaper ice axes and harnesses by ordering bulk gear from Europe.
Jeremy Jones: A pioneering big-mountain snowboarder and snowboard designer.
Telescoping front forks and articulating rear frame triangles that absorb bumps and shocks.
Gone are the days of rangers in fire lookout towers. Now, mountain-top cameras are being used to spot smoke and flames.
The brand of zipper that is likely keeping your britches up at this very moment. Headquartered in Tokyo, 81-year-old YKK (short for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, which translates as Yoshida Company Limited) was founded by Tadao Yoshida, who started making custom zippers to take advantage of breaks and…
Westfalia: A breed of Volkswagen camper van prone to expensive repairs, yet beloved by those who own them and coveted by road-trip dreamers everywhere.
A category of gear that came into being in the late 1960s as more and more skiers ventured beyond resort boundaries.
Hummer: The civilian version of the military’s Humvee off-road vehicle, which was produced by AM General from 1992 to 2006.
Jeep: A four-wheel-drive vehicle first produced for the U.S. Army during World War II.
The surprising tendency for technical products and trends from the outdoor world to find their way into mass culture.
Dutch Oven: A large cast-iron pot and the campfire cooking vessel of choice for pioneers, cowboys, and river guides.
Little Things: Those items that mark the difference between a miserable experience and a joyous one—pit zips on jackets being a prime example.
