creating a new and fit outdoor

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creating a new and fit outdoor
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P l a n e t
OUTDOOR RECREATION’S FUTURE INCLUDES BEING A SOLUTION TO AN OBESE AND INACTIVE AMERICA.
J
BY THERESE IKNOIAN
ust like in our universe, where all
the planets circle and spin without
much attention to the other, so have
government agencies, private associations, non-profits and businesses all circled and spun when it came to their desperation over the country’s growing girth
and inactivity—and their seeming lack
of ability to stop the madness.
Type into Google the simple terms “obesity” and “epidemic” and what pops up are
more than 239,000 mentions, including an
ABC News piece from June 2004 that calls the
problem one of “misguided public policy.”
Indeed, madness. But maybe ABC hit
the nail on the head. The desperately spinning public-policy planets, you see, were
about to collide. In the last two years, un-
beknownst to most of us and still unbeknownst to the public, government agencies that rarely nod hello to each other in
the halls have been breaking bread—the
U.S. Forest Service, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, Department of
Interior, Bureau of Land Management,
U.S. Surgeon General, Health and Human
Services, National Park Service, even the
President’s Council on Physical Fitness
and Sports, as well as enough other alphabet-soup names to keep Campbell
happy for a very long time.
Why? They were desperate. Stern warn96
»OUTDOOR »SUMMER 2004
Madison, Wis.-based, retailer Rutabaga is
cultivating industry growth and activity with
its kids’ paddle clinics. In 2003 alone, more
than 1,100 kids participated.
ings to the public to get its butt out of the
chair and its hand out of the super-sized
fries had gone mostly unheeded. Physical
inactivity was rampant, and obesity had hit
epidemic proportions. No, these aren’t spectacular and sensational words. They are real.
“It is disastrous. An epidemic is a widespread outbreak that spreads rapidly,” said
John Librett, a health scientist with the
terests,…and we have never taken advantage of that as much as we can. The partnership of bringing together health and
fitness with outdoor recreation offers
tremendous opportunities.
“We think,” Norton concluded, “the outdoors offers the opportunity for people to
get hooked.”
COMPLETING THE TRIAD
So the first two sides of the triad are in place:
Public health agencies, and the land and
water agencies. The third and final side of
the triad, as we write this and as you read
» W W W. G E A R T R E N D S . C O M
Photos Courtesy of Rutabaga.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Physical Activity & Health Branch (CDC).
“In this case, the spread happened over the
last 20 years.”
After two years of meetings, of talk, of exploration, of listening to each other, of circling and eyeing suspiciously, if you will, to
figure out if everybody really was supporting the same goal, the Big Bang happened.
What the groups discovered is, gosh darn,
they did need each other to stop the spreading epidemic. Not only that, the answer was,
indeed, outdoor recreation.
Ker-Bang! Another universe is born.
“When you say ‘recreate,’ you raise positive responses,” Secretary of the Interior
Gale Norton told GearTrends®. “We offer the
opportunity for people to pursue their in-
96-105 Health section
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»OUTDOOR »SUMMER 2004
owner of paddle specialty retailer Rutabaga in Madison, Wis., which has run educational outreach programs for years (1,100
kids went through a class or camp in 2003
alone). “And it’s just the right thing to do.”
THE F-WORD: FITNESS
Note the terminology employed all along:
Physical activity. Activity. Recreation. Although some may slip, the MO is to avoid
the word “fitness” or even “exercise.”
We’re reminded of a cartoon we saw in
the New Yorker recently. A dad and his
young son are shown ambling through the
woods. In an obvious reaction to a comment from the child complaining about
how he didn’t like walking, the father kindly corrects him: “Oh, but we aren’t walking…. We’re hiking.”
“It is semantics,” admitted Melissa Johnson, executive director of the President’s
Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
and also a member of the Federal Interagency Work Group. “We are focusing on
the words ‘physical activity’ because it’s
something everybody can do, and it’s not
intimidating.”
Ironic, indeed, coming from the head
of an agency that was partly responsible
for putting a bad taste in many of our
mouths for—yuck—exercise and—double
yuck—organized PE classes. I for one remember the complete embarrassment of
hanging from a pull-up bar, surrounded
by snickering and sneering classmates because I couldn’t even do ONE pull-up,
nope, not a one. Even the jocks among us
»
this, is being invited to join the party: Outdoor-oriented businesses. Without the
businesses involved—the retailers and educators, as well as the manufacturers, all
of whom truly touch the public day-in and
day-out—this process could and would
stall. If you attend the Outdoor Retailer
Summer Market in August, the Outdoor
Industry Association’s Rendezvous in the
fall, or stay tuned in during the late summer or fall of 2004, you too could and
should get sucked into the vortex that is
swirling faster and faster.
“The outdoor industry can help meet
our need—to get people active—and help
meet their need—selling products that
help people have a good time,” said the
CDC’s Librett, who is the co-chair of the
“Federal Interagency Work Group on Public Health and Recreation,” which is the
body that was formed when all the various
federal agencies came together. The group
has been called everything from “historic”
and “ground-breaking” to “unprecedented”
and “phenomenal” simply because of the
diversity of its members, including indirect
participation from groups such as the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), all of
whom now see a common goal.
The bottom line is, the industry and its
business members can’t afford to not take
part, pointed out OIA President Frank
Hugelmeyer, who with his staff has been
heavily involved from the early stages of
the talk-a-lot process. The OIA has helped
bring key people to the table, to keep the
focus on outdoor recreation as a solution,
to provide needed research about the outdoor industry’s ability to help stop the exponential growth of inactivity and obesity (the “Exploring the Active Lifestyle
Report” was published in January 2004),
and to work with legislators on funding
(the Get Outdoors Act was introduced in
April 2004 and could provide $3 billion).
“We see ourselves as the experts,”
Hugelmeyer said. “We are a solutions
provider. There are all these groups out
there wondering what to do, and we are in
the health and wellness business. We are
affordable, accessible and fun. It’s time to
start promoting from that standpoint.
“If we don’t take advantage of the market
and the opportunity,” Hugelmeyer added,
“it will be in our lifetime that the outdoor
lifestyle—and your business—will shrink.”
Why? Because much of the outdoor
market is getting older, is not ethnically
diverse, is highly male and is, to put it
bluntly, becoming a dinosaur. And we all
know that Rex ain’t stomping the planet
anymore.
“The goal is that 10 years from now I
have customers,” said Darren Bush, co-
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton
speaking at the first
“Get Fit with US” event
in Minneapolis.
likely found some part of that “president’s
challenge” fitness test in school to be a
truly sucky experience. Now, however, the
President’s Council is changing its tune
and stepping up big-time. Its more inclusive “President’s Challenge” (www.presidentschallenge.org)—updated over the
years to include things like hiking, paddling and orienteering—has awarded
110,000 people for participation via the
new website rolled out in July 2003.
“The President’s Challenge has grown
up,” Johnson said. “Our message today is,
there is a connection between public lands
and physical activity. We want to promote
the use of public lands and parks.”
Let’s be clear from the start: Although
couched differently in the wordplay called
semantics, whether physical activity (defined as any bodily movement, Librett explained, even walking to the fridge) or exercise (which he said is any planned or
structured activity), the end result can be
and is hoped will be, yes, fitness. Wait,
there’s that F-word again. Here’s why it’s
not a word to spit at: Fitness is nothing
more than a series of components that are
improved or maintained through some
kind of activity. Officially, the components
include cardiovascular endurance (that’s
the lung power), muscular strength and
endurance (there’s the muscle power),
body composition (percent of muscle vs.
fat), and flexibility. These days, some also
add balance as a component.
Think about it a moment. What happens
when you backpack? Or climb? Or paddle?
Your breathing and heart rate go up at least
a little, which improves your lung power.
You use your muscles and that means a
gain in strength. The activity can change
your body composition, i.e. less fat and
more lean muscle. As you maneuver uneven surfaces or keep from tipping over,
you put a check in the balance column. You
also stretch your muscles, which ones and
how much depends on the activity. In other
words, you gain fitness.
For enthusiasts, gaining fitness may not
be the goal of participation, although it’s a
pleasurable result. For the inactive, out-ofshape and overweight majority of the American population, the pleasure and enjoyment are the carrots, while gaining fitness
also becomes an unexpected result.
“An enthusiast doesn’t one day wake up
and become an enthusiast,” pointed out
Hugelmeyer. “They may start as an inactive person.”
Secretary of the Interior Norton told
GearTrends ® she believes the outdoors
could, indeed, hook the inactive person. And what happens for the outdoor
industry?
» W W W. G E A R T R E N D S . C O M
Photo Courtesy of OIA.
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Industry and government
representatives participate in
“Get Fit With US” event.
BUSINESS IS AS BUSINESS DOES
More sales. Sure, that’s a result. However,
the retailers and other industry experts that
GearTrends® talked to who already offer or
have insights about education, classes,
workshops, outings and other activities say
that sales are secondary. Selling the activity and participation are No. 1.
But it all feeds off itself in a never-ending circle: If more people do these things,
they get more fit. Because they’re more fit,
they want to do it more. Because they want
to do it more, they want better product to
be more comfortable and the industry sells
more gear. With better gear, participants
are more comfortable, and they do it even
more and try something else. Now that
they’re doing more things more often, they
get more fit. Because they are now more
fit and more comfortable, they tell their
friends and even take their friends, family
and kids with them. Their friends, family
and kids get more fit and more interested,
so the kids grow up as fit, outdoor participants. Because they grow up as outdoor
participants, the industry expands since
more people are buying more gear to enjoy
it more and are interested in protecting
parks and public lands. That results in more
opportunities for more people to do these
things. If more people do these things…
You get the picture.
“If we can introduce someone to the
outdoors, it’s a point of entry,” explained
John Mead, president of Southern California retailer Adventure 16, which actually uses the F-word in its “Trail Fitness”
category. “If you can draw a new customer
in, they’ll say, ‘this is kind of cool, I’ll take
that next step.’ We look at it as an opportunity to attract a whole other group.”
Lisa Voorhees, owner of the women’s
specialty store Sporting Woman in Denver,
Colo., founded her business 13 years ago
on this very philosophy.
“We’re more focused on getting people
out there doing things, than on selling
something so they can get out there and
do things,” she said of the store’s range
of program offerings from snowshoeing
and triathlon-training to wildflower hikes
and cycling. “We really see it as a longterm investment in a relationship with
our customers.”
She herself leads three or four snowshoe
hikes every winter, ones they now even divide into levels because of the interest, and
Voorhees said she can see participants’ confidence blossom, among those who are already active in another way, but also among
those who are inactive.
100 »OUTDOOR »SUMMER 2004
“And then they come back in
and they want to rent snowshoes, and then they want to
take friends out, and then they’re
back in to buy,” she said. “And
it all happened in a way that
wasn’t threatening.
“It creates repeat customers
for the store, but it also creates
repeat customers for the experience,” Voorhees added.
Rock Creek Outfitters in Chattanooga, Tenn., has its finger in a whole
range of pies that attracts all types and
ages. President Dawson Wheeler said the
store got involved with the city’s department of recreation on an outdoor initiative called “Chattanooga Outventure” and
now runs boating programs from whitewater to kayak touring. That all started by
doing some simple programs for inner-city
kids but grew to include all demographics. That venture reached 3,000 kids last
year, he said. Every week the store also offers two-hour boating and rolling classes
for free, either at the university pool or on
the lake. They also sponsor trail runs and
a three-state bouldering competition, as
well as slide shows and various talks.
“First and foremost, we believe in outdoor recreation. People have profound
changes in their lives through experiential
education in the outdoors,” Wheeler explained. He also pointed out that the definition of outdoor recreation adventure is
very abstract (“An adventure for an 80-yearold woman might be crossing the street.”),
so they work hard to keep their own biases and experiences out of the mix so the
programs are really just about getting outside or learning about getting outside. The
more people and the more young people
who get outside and get more fit doing it
means a better market for them, he said.
“It’s an aging market. Our current market is going to be too old to go outside…or
they’ll just own all the gear already…so we
have to get families and young people involved,” Wheeler said. “But the key is persistence. You have to be willing to run these
programs with two staff members (even if)
one person shows up. You can’t cancel.
We’re just bulldogs. We don’t back off.”
Any retailers who don’t do something
like this, he added, “could stand to become dinosaurs.”
One of the goals, said Rutabaga’s Bush,
is to make it undesirable and unacceptable not to be active in some way—like
the way the seatbelt campaign made it
“socially unacceptable” not to wear a seatbelt and like the way the anti-smoking
campaign has made it “ugly” to smoke.
Voorhees, Wheeler and Bush get asked
about their programs by other retailers who
don’t have such things and many respond
wistfully, saying they “can’t” do it, usually
because of perceived expense or time. Yes,
they agree, it does take time and there is
some cost, but the investment doesn’t have
to be huge if managed creatively.
“The most frequently asked question I
get,” Voorhees said, “is, ‘what do I get out
of it?’ That’s not the perspective I have.
There are other great values, and they may
not all be immediately tangible.”
“GET FIT WITH US” OUTDOORS
As a business member of the outdoor industry, you may not have heard a whole lot
already about this outreach to transform
the outdoors into a health-care or recreation initiative. Or you’ve just heard bits
and pieces about vague “outreach programs,” or a few whispers or fragments
about government meetings.
The real coming-out party was an OIAsponsored event on June 5 called “Get Fit
with US,” which although staged as a part
of National Trails Day in the Minneapolis
area was really less of a public event as it
was an announcement in public—a political rally, if you will—to show anyone who
listened (and, frankly, each other) that the
agencies were working together. Not only
that, it became a pivotal moment that expressed the agencies had moved from talka-lot to doing. Together.
“It was potentially unprecedented in the
number of agencies getting together and
talking about fitness and public recreation,” said Myrna Johnson, OIA vice president of government affairs.
One photo (above) of the group on a
10,000-step walk together showed, sideby-side, all the alphabet-soup representatives, including OIA’s Hugelmeyer, OIA
Chairman of the Board Lee Fromson, National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner
John Keys III, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale
Norton and Mike Phillips of the National
Recreation and Park Association.
The whispers about tapping into the outdoors as health care and a way to get America fit are now all set to become a rumble
» W W W. G E A R T R E N D S . C O M
Photo Courtesy of OIA.
“It’s more people, more places and more
sales,” Hugelmeyer concluded.
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as soon as August and, potentially, could
become a roar by fall or winter. At the OIA
Industry Breakfast on Aug. 12, which kicks
off the first day of Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, a series of speakers will address some segment of this very theme—including George Miller, D-Calif., who
introduced the Get Outdoors Act to the
House, and CDC scientist and avid outdoor
participant Librett. Also, the OIA will present the first-round of tangible, practical information for retailers and manufacturers
about what they can do, especially as related to the so-called “gateway activities”
of hiking, paddling, biking and camping.
The OIA will also present a taste of follow-up research to the January 2004 release of “Exploring the Active Lifestyle”
research. That research will highlight demographics and target markets, which
may help businesses decide where they
can find the highest return on their potential investment. It will be part of a “tool
kit” to help retailers take part in and become part of the solution, Hugelmeyer
said. The theme will continue at the OIA
Rendezvous event, this year Sept. 30 to
Oct. 3 in Colorado. Alliances will also be
announced, and at the Outdoor Retailer
show the industry will hear for the first
time details of the framework being drafted to position the outdoors as where America can get healthy.
“We need to do this,” said Mead, “to
bring new customers into the outdoors.”
ONLY THE BEGINNING
The first part of the path has been paved,
but it may not lead directly to the wilderness for all participants. For some, the
first step may be in urban parks, for example, or on recreation trails and bike
paths in their cities. The path that leads to
the outdoors may also take many, many
years to be completed.
“We really won’t know if we’re making
any significant difference for at least 10
years,” speculated Kristen Nelson, program manager for the U.S. Forest Service
and co-chair of the Federal Interagency
group. She used her background as a
wildlife biologist to illustrate the situation: “It only takes one generation for a
wild species to forget its wildness, and this
is almost like that. We’re getting to that
same place where a generation is losing
its ‘wildness.’”
If you as a business want to see visible
and significant returns next year or even
two years from now, that isn’t likely to
happen, all the insiders say. That’s because
what is being built, brick-by-brick, is a
permanent shift in the cultural perception
of lifestyle, a refocusing that even everyday life can be active. And this will take
time. With a slowing of the spread of the
epidemic called obesity (partly with less inactivity) will come a healthier public and
one that is more inclined and more interested in making outdoor experiences—
what fuels the industry’s livelihood—a part
of their lives, whether daily, on weekends,
or only a few times a year.
“People have to think like farmers, not
like miners,” Rutabaga’s Bush said. “It does
require making an investment and perhaps
not getting anything back for awhile.”
The “misguided public policy” that ABC
News blamed partly for the obesity epidemic can be manipulated. But only if
every active member of the outdoor industry doesn’t wait to be sucked into the
whirling vortex. Rather, all can leap in of
their own accord to participate fully as one
of the creators of the new universe.
» To access our trade-only resource center or to
give us feedback, go to GearTrends.com.
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»GEARTRENDS »SUMMER 2004
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W W W. G E A R T R E N D S . C O M » 1 0 1
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taking
care of
SUBTLE INNOVATIONS IN THE SMALL CATEGORIES
LIKE HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENERGY FOOD ARE
ADDING UP TO A POT OF GOLD FOR RETAILERS.
business
s
ometimes, it pays to look beyond the obvious and major trends that everyone
jumps on and hopes will drive consumers into their store. It’s the sneaky trends—
the ones involving smaller and less expensive accessories—that can add stability to the ups and downs of a fickle market. Without much fanfare, accessory companies that target the health and safety market are making significant changes to
their products. And while these changes are not earth shattering, they could quietly drive additional sales with the proper attention and merchandising.
ROAD TO RECOVERY
Matching first-aid kits to end users with
specific advanced certifications is a growing trend in the first-aid market. A good example is Adventure Medical Kits’ newly
re-designed Professional Series. The Professional Series includes the WEMT/WFR
kit for Wilderness Emergency Medical
Technicians and Wilderness First Re-
sponders and the WAFA/WFA kit for those
trained in Wilderness Advanced First Aid
and Wilderness First Aid.
Both kits are organized into five distinct compartments: personal protection,
trauma, tools, medications and everyday
use. The everyday use compartment in
both instances is removable so it can be
taken along on day trips away from a base
B Y B O B W O O D WA R D
camp setting.
For its Ultralight Series,
Adventure
Medical Kits
has added the
new Ultralight
Pro kit. New
additions to
the kit include
a SAM splint
and pocket mask. This kit was created at
the request of Yosemite Mountain Guides
and is currently in use by guides in its various climbing programs.
SLATHER UP
Whether you believe there’s a trend to global warming or not, the most significant
trend in sunscreens is the addition of oxides. There are newer oxide formulations
appearing in some sunscreens, and the old
clown-face zinc oxide is being blended with
other ingredients in other screens to avoid
the white-face or white-nose look.
Calling titanium dioxide “the hottest new
thing in the sunscreen industry,” Rocky
Mountain Sunscreen is rolling out Faces
50 with a no “set up” time formulation.
From the second the screen goes on the
skin, the company says it starts to protect.
Faces 50 works primarily on UVA ray penetration and is highly water-resistant.
Incorporating traditional zinc oxide, Proderma’s new Prism with ABS-ZN-45 technology is an aloe vera-based sunscreen that
comes with a 30+ SPF rating. All UVA and
UVB bands are covered by the screen which
is also water-resistant and includes vitamins
102 »OUTDOOR »SUMMER 2004
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healthandsafety
A, E and C as well as pear tree extract—we’re
getting hungry just writing this. The company says the hypoallergenic screen dries on
the skin in less than 10 seconds and comes
in single-use one-third-ounce containers and
1-, 2-, 4- and 6-ounce multi-use containers.
Dermatone Laboratories has focused its
attention on a new non-greasy, waterproof,
sweat-proof, fragrance-free, long-duration
sunscreen that doesn’t sting user’s eyes—
sounds like nirvana. The result is SPF 45+
clear Endurance Dry Gel geared for sales to
athletes in training and active outdoor users.
Four proven sunscreens are combined
in Endurance Dry Gel to block 97.8 percent of the sun’s UVA and UVB rays. The
gel uses an alcohol base that evaporates
rapidly on application leaving the active
sunscreen bonded to the skin. Aloe vera
and vitamins A and E are also part of the
screen’s formulation. SPF 45+ Endurance
Dry Gel will come in 2.5-ounce tubes.
In 4-ounce containers, Kinesys’ new Daily
Moisturizer gives a hint of an emerging
trend in this category. The moisturizer is
oil- and alcohol-free and carries a SPF 15
rating. Of course Kinesys spray-on sunscreens—also in fragrance-free combinations and small bottles great for packs and
glove compartments—offers easy application (great for balding spots on heads too).
Newcomer Protech so far has one product—a rich and creamy SPF 30+ sunscreen
that has the feel of a daily moisturizing
face cream. More products are on the horizon that the company says will be skin
care with protection.
BETTER THAN SWATTING
The move away from promoting 100-percent DEET formulas continues to be a
trend in the bug repellent category. Proderma offers a new 30-percent DEET,
water-based spray that lasts for six hours.
It’s been tested and proven to protect
against both the West Nile virus and Lyme
disease, according to the company.
Sawyer has a slightly different take on
the DEET situation. It uses DEET in its
new Family Insect Repellent in what it
calls a “low DEET absorption formula.”
Using a polymer delivery system, the
formulation time-releases the DEET over a
24-hour period. As a result, DEET absorption is, according to Sawyer figures, 95 percent less than that of traditional repellents.
LOW-CARB ENERGY BARS
Latching on to the national, and growing
international, trend to low-carb foods,
Clif Bar introduces the Clif Builder’s bar,
a crunchy energy bar with 20 grams of
protein from soy and nuts. “Protein bars
were once mostly the domain of body104 »OUTDOOR »SUMMER 2004
builders,” Clif’s Steve Grossman said,
“now they’re available for anyone who exercises outdoors.”
Apart from the 20 grams of protein, Clif
Builder’s also have 23 vitamins and minerals. The bars contain no trans-fats or hydrogenated oils and there is no wheat, dairy
or bio-engineered products in the ingredients. They’ll come in chocolate, peanut butter and cookies n’ cream flavors.
PowerBar’s new low carb snack bar
comes in female or male-specific versions.
The PowerBar Pria Carb Select bar contains only 2 grams of so-called “impact”
carbs and delivers 170 calories. Fortified
with 10 grams of protein, the bar also has
23 vitamins and minerals including calcium,
folic acid and antioxidant vitamins C and E.
The 48-gram size Pria Carb Select comes
in peanut butter caramel nut, caramel nut
brownie and cookies n’ caramel flavors.
For men watching their carb intake, the
new ProteinPlus Carb Select bar has 22
grams of protein and only 2 grams of those
“impact” carbs. Each 70-gram bar delivers
260 to 270 calories. It comes in chocolate
peanut butter and double chocolate.
Responding to the trend toward more
healthy snacks for kids, Clif Bar’s new Clif
ZbaR is certified 70-percent organic. Natural sugars and organic cane syrup are used
in place of refined and highly processed
sugars. The bar is made with rolled oats
and soy and has essential nutrients including vitamins A, C, B6, B12, iron and calcium. ZbaR’s come in chocolate brownie,
peanut butter and caramel apple flavors.
With children’s obesity an issue in the
news, Clif ZBaR complies with the California Senate’s progressive Bill 19 which
guards against childhood obesity by limiting the fat and sugar levels in snacks sold
in the state’s elementary schools.
In sports drinks, PowerBar has joined
forces with noted cycling coach Chris
Carmichael to create the PowerBar Beverage System. The system includes two powdered drinks—PowerBar Endurance, a hydration electrolyte drink to be used before
and during athletic activity, and PowerBar
Recovery, a post-workout drink with a dash
of protein for speedier recovery. PowerBar
Endurance is designed to deliver maximum
carbohydrate delivery and fluid absorption
during physical activity. It contains a 7-percent carbohydrate in a concentration with
glucose, fructose and maltodextrin. Endurance has, according to PowerBar, the
highest sodium content of any carbohydrate sports drink on the market. Following a long workout or race, PowerBar Recovery replenishes glycogen stores and
re-hydrates. Recovery powder contains 8percent carbohydrates combined with pro-
tein and electrolytes.
CLEAN & PURE
The trend to
built-in filtration
units in standard
water
bottles
continues. Using
hollow-fiber
membrane technology developed for kidney
dialysis, Sawyer’s new waterbottle filtration system contains an Innova filter. The Innova filters down to 0.2
microns and is suitable for water sources
not containing viruses.
Water that might contain viruses needs
to be pre-treated with iodine or chlorine
first. Following treatment, the Innova filter removes the chlorine or iodine taste
along with heavy metals at a rate, according to Sawyer’s tests, higher than any
charcoal or composite filter on the market.
Answering the need for large volumes of
filtered water, Katadyn introduces the new
Base Camp Microfilter. The Base Camp
employs the same pleated glass-fiber
media cartridge used in the best-selling
Hiker Microfilter. The filter attaches to
The Base Camp Water Bag, which can
hold up to 10 liters of water. Fill the Water
Bag, then hang it up and the water flows
through the filter into whatever container(s) selected by the user. Users can also
use the Water Bag to get hands-free use
of their microfilter.
To make it easy to pump filtered water
directly to hydration pack bladders without removing the bladder from the pack,
Katadyn’s new Hydration Pack Filter
Adapter system is made up of two connectors and a quick-connect device.
SOME BOUNCE IN YOUR STEP
These days, every time you turn a corner
into another show aisle, you stumble
across another after-market insole company. All have their own stories about why
theirs are better, and the market is booming since more customers seem to think
they should immediately jettison the standard one and get another.
One new feature we found was from
long-timer Spenco, which is debuting a
new Performance Gel line. It includes insoles as well as heel cups, metatarsal arch
cushions and arch supports. Each is made
with a dual-density cushioning system for
impact absorption and a thermoplastic
rubber gel that the company says gives
44-percent energy return.
» To access our trade-only resource center or to
give us feedback, go to GearTrends.com.
» W W W. G E A R T R E N D S . C O M
96-105 Health section
7/12/04
9:45 AM
Page 105