OutDoor 2008 - What's New For 2009

Another year rolls by and the global terror community misses yet another chance to wipe out the outdoor retail and manufacturing trade in one fail swoop. Oh well, I guess there’s always ISPO Mr. Bin Laden.

That’s right it’s July again and retailers and manufacturers from across Europe descended on the town of Friedrichshafen, Germany to view the latest re-jigged incarnations of clothing, equipment and climbing gear, for launch spring/summer 2009.

As with the rest of the services and manufacturing world the buzz words for recent trade shows have been ‘Environment’, ‘Recycling’ and ‘Carbon Footprint’. Call me cynical but I find this pretty ironic when you consider the equivalent of a couple of small rainforest's worth of paper changes hand – much of it destined for the bin – in the shape of brochures, catalogues and price lists. Not to mention the continued over production of product – principally made from that seemingly endangered species, oil! Surely the view should be taken that whilst it’s obviously a good thing to construct product from recycled materials, it would be far better to just make less product in the first place, anyway I digress…

Despite the swathes of corporate drawl and same old, same old there’s always a few gem like products gleaming through the morass of replicated predestined landfill. Obviously there are many products worthy of a mention but below we have highlighted a few noteworthy items which may just be of interest to you – our customer base.

Black Diamond
Due to the extensiveness of the range and pro-activity of their R&D department, it’s always a challenge trying to remember what’s hot and what’s not from BD. So this year I made a few notes. On the harness front BD have obviously sat up and taken notice of Arc’Teryx’s new ‘Warp Technology’ range and ‘borrowed’ a few of their design ideas to create the Ozone and Aurora, a pair of nice looking men’s and women’s super light (300g) and comfortable sport style harnesses, retailing at £75.

One area BD had let slip over the last few years was their crash pad line; this has had a complete overhaul for 2009. All the pads have had their covers redesigned and appear to be made out of much more hardwearing materials. Unfortunately the foam didn’t look like it matched the quality of the outers, although this could been due to the fact they were show samples, so we’ll have to wait for their release to see if they are the real deal. Finally, and most notably in my view, were their two new Via Ferrata sets. Essentially the ‘Easy Rider’ and ‘Iron Cruiser’ sets use the same webbing rig with two varying styles of self-locking biners. The webbing rig is the interesting bit; utilizing as it does two, rather than one, rippers making each individual clip far stronger than all other sets available. These are also excellent price points at £50 and £60 respectively.

Bleaustone
Not a major player on the retail scene, as they do much of there business direct to climbing walls and through export. Nevertheless this is a top BRITISH manufacturer, making some of the best climbing holds and fingerboards in the world. Despite the setback of a factory fire earlier in the year, the boys from Bleau are up and running again so our stocks should be well serviced from this point on. Taking on a suggestion of ours from last year, Bleaustone have added a cool looking set of Rock Ring style training aids to their range, which should be available later this year and look like they are going to retail at £35, which is £5 cheaper than the Metolius equivalent.

Boreal
After enjoying their country’s summer sporting domination in the football and tennis, the boys from Boreal have set to work revamping their mountain and alpine boot range, incorporating some nice cosmetic tweaks and bringing a far more commercial appearance to a boot range which always had the spec and pedigree, but lacked the snappy shelf appeal of many of their competitors products. On top of the cosmetic tweaks many of the boots have been lightened up and most notably the alpine boots (Triglav & Nelion) now come with the option of either a Boreal or Vibram sole unit similar to that used by Scarpa and La Sportiva. Both offerings are the same price at £170 and £180 respectively.

No big changes on the rock boot front apart from the addition of a stiffer new Velcro shoe (‘Blade’), which offers a more supportive and edging orientated fit. This is a welcome addition to the range, with the majority of Boreal’s shoes being of the softer inclination.

DMM
As you would expect DMM had a few interesting new additions to their pantheon of metalwork, none more so than the new ‘Torque Nuts’. An extendable – using the method utilized by 4CU’s – piece of passive protection, which appears to be a cross between Wild Country Rockcentric’s, Hex’s and Wallnuts. They also have a nifty new innovation in the shape of the ‘Shadow Secure’, a snap gate biner with a tiny locking mechanism inside the gate, watch this space. Finally we got to see the new range of brass RP style nuts, entitled I.M.P’s (Immaculate Marginal Protection), which look like they are going to be top draw and a fair bit stronger than the original RP’s.

The usual quality new offerings from DMM


Edelrid
The guys and gals from Deutschland had a busy time of it last year, winning the design award for their Madillo folding helmet as well as launching a whole host of new rope models, belay devices and harnesses. As such they were always going to struggle to catch the imagination for another year. That said they did have one particularly interesting new harness which was certainly innovative. The ‘Loopo’ is a sport climbing style harness which is super lightweight, and comfortable, but most notably has an unusual fastening method. Essentially the patented TRIAD-System stitching used by Edelrid allows the harness to be constructed with no buckles. The procedure of tying in adjusts and completes the harness making it stronger and reducing weight. I liked it, although the price of £62 may put one or two people off?

Grivel
Both Grivel’s new Carbon Composite range of ice tools and their new trekking/mountain poles looked good and we’re looking forward to a nice cold winter to help with sales [he said naively]. Also of note was the Bumblebee Men’s new steel tipped plastic snow shovels (due out this winter), which look really neat and won, I believe, the silver design award in their field.

Mad Rock
Whilst there was the usual selection of wacky footwear and equipment, Mad Rock had seen sense in one area and come up with a new version of the once loved Mugen. For those unfamiliar with the original Mugen it was a great, simple looking shoe which ticked all the boxes of a true classic, whilst amassing a hardcore following. The new ‘Mugen Tech’ (£70) offers many of the same fit qualities and features, but doesn’t look like it’s been paint balling – unlike the 06/07 version. The MT has been built out of leather so one bone of contention may be that of upper stretch, although only time will tell. There was also a low budget training style slipper (‘Maniac’) for £50 and a nice looking ladies version of the Flash Velcro (£60).

Petzl
French karabiner innovation seems to be running along similar lines to DMM at the moment (I wonder if there’s a connection?) as the new and smart looking Petzl ‘Attache 3D’ has an I Beam flavour to it – not that that’s a bad thing – and is 50g lighter than the original. There is also a new toothed belay plate – the ‘Verso’, and upgrades to the ‘Ascension’ and ‘Croll’ ascenders, other than that it was mainly colour changes to the existing harness range.

POD
As the revolution continues at POD 2.0 they are looking to consolidate current pack styles for the oncoming season/s, so no major developments in the near future, although we are told that come winter 2009 there is likely to be a number of brand new packs throughout the range. For spring 2009 however we will have to content ourselves with a plethora of POD accessories, fronted by a large array of smart looking dry and stuff sacks.

Below we see the Bleaustone Rock Rings in all their finery



Rab
As is often the case with Rab, a range presentation for the summer season is never a major event with their busiest time of the year being winter. That said one garment stood out as a true winner and looked like a fantastic piece of Alpine/winter mountaineering kit. The new ‘Momentum’ eVent jacket is seemingly a cross between the Rab Latok Alpine, Crux Flak and the Haglofs LIM Ultimate jackets. In that it has the usual good fit, abrasion resistance and essential features of the Latok, the clean minimalist look of the Flak but also the lightweight versatility of the LIM Ultimate, making for an awesome piece of technical winter clothing. And all this for the incredulous price of £160!

Scarpa
Unlike their country’s football team there seems a far more cohesive synergy to Scarpa’s ongoing development. Without any ground breaking new projects in the offing there was still a quite contentment on the Scarpa stand, with the ongoing consolidation of their excellent new(ish) rock boot range and the addition of a new synergistic series of trail running/approach lightweights, incorporated into the already existing Alpine X range. Being more specific the stand out models noted were the ‘New Force’ and ‘New Force Lady’ Velcro rock shoes, which are an all-day comfort offering, forged from the same aesthetics mold as the Booster, Mago, Stix etc. These are set to retail at £70.

Wild Country
Finally, the Tideswell massive were there in force and had a few interesting innovations for the forthcoming season. Amongst the increasing panoply of lightweight DMM-like Far Eastern produced biners and Red Chili rock shoes there was a couple of new helmets and a Wild Country crash pad series. The helmets were bracketed twofold; firstly there was the ‘360’ – a price point helmet (£40) which was unlikely to give the ‘Gear Guru’s’ wood, but will no doubt be of interest due to the price. Secondly there was the Alpine Shield, which was a markedly more interesting proposition. The following blurb is taken from Wild Country’s press release:

The world’s first true modular helmet…
The awesome new Alpine Shield takes an innovative and stylish approach to creating the ultimate in adaptability and the perfect year round helmet. This modular design adopts a two-in-one approach, combining a lightweight in-mould EPS/polycarbonate helmet with an exclusive ‘Alpine Shield’ cover which can be quickly attached to give enhanced protection.

Worn uncovered this helmet is perfect for all-round cragging; supremely light and with an optimal fit via ‘quick-click’ volume adjustment, soft EVA pads and a super secure, quick release chin strap.

Worn covered, by adding the bonus ‘Alpine Shield’ shell – providing 30% extra stone and icefall protection – it goes further than any other helmet of its type. Meaning this fully featured model becomes a true winter lid and one of the lightest choices around.

The innovative Wild Country 'Alpine Shield' helmet



I guess this is another product that only Father Time knows to be a success or not, but the unique features and price-point of just £60 give it a great chance. The new Wild Co. crash pad range looked ok but didn’t really offer anything new in the way of innovation compared to its peers, and also seemed pretty pricey at £150 for the standard pad (‘Big Air’), and £135 for the smaller pad (‘Touchdown’).

Roll on next year…