Chill Gear: Cool Stuff for Cold Days
(© Yaktrax)
Yaktrax
It doesn’t matter how deep the treads run on your winter shoes — rubber will still slide on slick surfaces. But with a pair of Yaktrax strapped to your soles, ribs of steel coil bite into ice and snow to provide reliable traction. Think of the Yaktrax as a sort of urban crampon, but without the spikes.
The light-duty Walker model is good for casual, confident steps across icy parking lots and sidewalks, while the heavy-duty Pro (pictured) is designed for active outsiders. Taken on a test run, Yaktrax Pro allowed for natural strides while jogging on patches of ice and dry pavement alike. Even the Museum of Modern Art, crediting the Yaktrax design, has acknowledged these traction devices are good for the sole. Just be sure to peel them off your foot before you shred your way across a nice hardwood floor.
Shop: Yaktrx
For more info: Yaktrax
Happy December! This post serves as a reminder to check out the Osprey Media Blog. Osprey had some great media hits in the first week of December. Some highlights include:
• Men’s Health featuring the Exos 46
• Backcountry Magazine highlighting the Variant 37
• American Way Magazine including the Variant 28 in their Holiday Gift Guide
• Backpacking Light’s long-awaited review of the Exos - video posted on the Media Blog
Here is the address to the Osprey Media Blog:
www.ospreymedia.blogspot.com.
In late November Osprey’s Exos 58 was presented with a 2008 Best of Adventure award from National Geographic Adventure Magazine. Attached is the press release announcing this prestigious award. Go Osprey!
love to run? love to train? the SOLE DK+ works with the Nike+ system to make sure you can use your favorite shoe
and favorite insole with this revolutionary training tool!
It is really simple. Basically, the customer purchases the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, ( http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/?locale=en_cabut ) but instead being forced to use it in a Nike+ shoe, they can pop it into the compartment in the bottom of the SOLE DK+ and use it in any shoe. The SOLE Custom Footbed DK+ only provides a compartment to use the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit technology.
At Summer OR 2007, we had one of the previous Nike+iPod designers stop by our booth and was really impressed. He reiterated to us that most other Nike+ iPod Sport Kit technology (such as the cases that attach to the laces) places the Nike+ sensor at the wrong angle and hence measures the movement and impact of the foot inaccurately, therefore not giving an accurate reading. With the SOLE DK+ compartment, if calibrated with the footbed, actually gives you as accurate of a reading as it would in a Nike+ shoe.
The main caution when using the NIke+iPod Sport Kit with the DK+ is that putting something the size of the sensor under the arch can be uncomfortable to those will small or flat feet.
For more information check out our website
http://www.soleonline.com/products/footbeds/signature/dk-plus/
I was born in Madison Wisconsin and grew up in this hipster college town before leaving to get a degree in geology from The University Wisconsin Oshkosh in 2007.
Between living in Madison, Oshkosh, and then in Indianapolis I have been in the outdoor industry since 2001 working in multiple quality outdoor gear shops for the last seven years. I got my start at Erehwon in Madison WI and since then I have also worked at Fontana which is also in Madison, Mountain Bay in Appleton WI, and The Extreme Outfitters in Carmel IN. Through this time I have met a lot of awesome people and have been to a lot of great places doing what I love.
I have many outdoor interests from sea kayaking every summer in Gitchigumi, tele skiing in Big Snow Country, Fly Fishing Wisconsin waters, to ice and rock climbing across the continent. Through all of this I managed to Become WFR certified and an AMGA top rope cite manager. I have also written an ice climbing guidebook to a Michigan classic area located within the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I would have to say that ice climbing is what I am most passionate about. I started ice climbing in 2001 on a trip up to a local quarry in Wisconsin with a few people that I worked with at Erewhon, I was hooked for life. If I remember correctly I bought tools the very next day! This experience changed my life, as this is when I fell in love with climbing and started to fill up the odometer on my car with climbing trips, and I haven’t looked back since.
Although I love to travel to the mountains for new adventures, I am a Midwestern kid at heart, always was and always will be. So If you ever want to hang out on the side of a cliff, drink a fine single malt 16 year old Scotch and have a good time, I’ll be there waiting for you to arrive.
