Gear
Archive
A lightweight companion for preppers and smart hikers alike
We want one of these on our wall. Stat.
Our first impressions of the all-new 2016 Toyota Tacoma
Google's virtual climbing projects are getting most of the press, but Mammut beat them to the punch—by nearly a year
The company's response was fast. And honest.
Electronic shifting comes to mountain bikes. Hallelujah?
The best backpacks and organizers for your GoPro-centric life
Take the appropriate precautions so you can concentrate on your ride, not the pain coming from your inner thighs
Pedaling to work is a lot more fun with the right setup
Have a blast while keeping your bike tire side down
Lowepro just made the new go-to adventure photo pack that features four-season protection and enough storage for a pro camera setup
A resourceful, cozy escape overlooking Puget Sound
This may be the coolest set of bike tools we've ever seen
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.
Sick of carrying a heavy cooler into rugged or hard-to-reach spots? Igloo has you covered.
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.
Rollerblade: A roller skate with soft, linearly arranged wheels offering fast, smooth glide.
Tech binding: A lightweight binding system that transformed backcountry skiing and put telemarking on the path to obsolescence.
Gear companies know how to make packs lighter, jackets more waterproof, and skis burlier. The only problem: young people couldn’t care less.
Jacques Cousteau: A French explorer and arguably the most prolific marine scientist and ocean conservationist of the 20th century.
Double Plastic Mountaineering Boot: A highly reliable style of footwear that prevents frostbite in alpine environments.
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…
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.
Lifa Shirt: The first commercially available base layer made from polypropylene, released in 1970 by Helly Hansen.
Sports Bra: A groundbreaking invention that lets women participate comfortably in a range of vigorous athletic activities.
SUP: Short for stand-up paddle-board, a stable floating platform that combines the cool of surfing with the practicality of a spin workout.
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.
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
Denali Jacket: A popular performance fleece garment made by the North Face and commonly seen on mountaineers and college students.
Chip timing: The practice of using a small wearable transmitter to track race participants’ times at regular checkpoints along a course.
Dropper Post: A mountain-bike component that can be raised or lowered with a button mounted on the handlebars.
Crowdfunding: A method of raising capital to launch commercial ventures in which small individual donations are made through an online platform.
Utility bike: A bicycle built for hauling children, gear, or grocery bags full of organic quinoa and local honey.
Tough-ass pants: A term for rugged work trousers that are particularly good at handling abuse.
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.
You can now use clipless pedals with sneakers when you want to ditch your bike shoes
Bill Bowerman: A legendary Oregon track coach who cofounded the shoe company Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964; 14 years later, it became Nike.
A tubeless tire tool that will fix holes too big for sealant
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.
Nalgene bottle: A durable, wide-mouthed vessel originally designed to hold chemicals.
Doug Tompkins: Businessman and crusading conservationist who cofounded the North Face and Esprit.
Heart-Rate Monitor: A device that measures a wearer’s heart rate; particularly useful for monitoring exertion in athletes.
The world's leading design center for outdoor footwear—everything from featherweight climbing shoes to hard-shelled mountaineering stompers—is a small city in northern Italy where craftsmanship reigns.
Double Vacuum: A technology dating back to 1892 that suspends one container inside another, leaving a small amount of air between the two to insulate the inner contents from external temperature changes.
Lifetime Warranty: A company’s promise to repair or replace an item that breaks.
USGS Topographical Map: A detailed representation of a landscape, created by the United States Geological Survey, and a rare example of something every bit as beautiful as it is useful.
Pack Raft: A small inflatable raft that can be rolled up to fit in a backpack.
Polarization: A lens technology that cuts glare created when light reflects off materials like plastic and glass.
Surfboard Fin: A structural element, usually made of wood or fiberglass, attached to the bottom of a surfboard to aid maneuverability.
Jack O’Neill: A former commercial fisherman widely credited with inventing the neoprene wetsuit.
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 rapid sequence of radical innovations, such as appeared in cycling between 1984 and 1987, the sport’s Age of Enlightenment.