Spot Cool Stuff is freshly back from the Summer Outdoor Retailer convention in Salt Lake City where, along with approximately 20,999 others, we ooo-ed and ahhh-ed over the latest tents, backpacks, kayaks, shoes, bicycles, roof-top carriers, portable disposable toilets (yes, really), sunglasses, jackets, pocket knives, hammocks, energy bars, hiking GPS units and an assorted sundry of outdoor gear and gadgets.
Many products at the OR Show were newly released and several will not be available to the general public for several months. What were the coolest new items we discovered? Here’s a roundup of our 12 favorites—and a sneak peak at some products we’ll be reviewing more fully in the future:
Continue →
Question: What’s the single best designed piece of running equipment?
Answer: It’s a pair of gear you already own—your bare feet.
Most running shoes, it turns out, do more harm than good. The problem is that these shoes are designed to “protect” your feet in a way that they weren’t meant to be. When encased in an excessively built-up running shoe the muscles, tendons and ligaments of your lower extremities will atrophy. That’s because your shoes are doing the work that your legs and feet should be doing.
The other problem with running shoes is that they encourage you to run with the wrong form. Your body is designed to run on the ball and forefront of your feet. Try going for a run barefoot and you’ll experience this yourself—your heels will barely touch the ground. In contrast, most running shoes will cause you to land on your heels in a way that won’t only slow you down but will inevitably lead to knee and back pain.
Shoes, of course, do serve a purpose. They keep your feet cleaner and drier than bare feet, not to mention being useful when there’s a sharp rock or nail under foot.
So what’s an athlete to do? Get a pair of running shoes with a design that mimics the advantages of your bare feet. Here are our two favorite:
Continue →
The old fashion beach umbrella. It’s ubiquitous at beach resorts—and in fruity drinks—world wide. But it is difficult to transport. And your typical beach umbrella becomes sub-optimal at the start and end of a beach-going day when the sun isn’t shining directly down.
Now from sporting good manufacturer SKLZ comes a better—and much more portable—version of the beach umbrella: the Sport-Brella.
Continue →
At best, a mosquito bite is an itchy annoyance. At worst, it can kill you (via malaria or any number of unpleasant inflections). In either case, being bit by a mosquito is sub-optimal.
When in a mosquito-infected area the single easiest preventive measure you can take—so easy that no spray, lotion or net is required—is this: wear Insect Shield clothing.
Continue →
Normally our travel deals and discount posts relay sale prices on airline tickets, all-inclusive resorts, cruises and the like. But today we are concentrating on the stuff you’ll need to travel on airlines, to stay at resorts and to enjoy cruises.
As ever, you can get the latest from Spot Cool Stuff by subscribing to our RSS feed and having our travel articles delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator.
Continue →
We write these words while wearing a pair of underwear that we’ve had on for the last week. That’s more information than I wanted you are likely saying to yourself. But these are the lengths Spot Cool Stuff goes through to test products for our readers.
The underwear we are wearing, they are part of the Give-N-Go line by cool travel gear manufacturer ExOfficio.
Continue →
Every month Spot Cool Stuff selects travel bargains for our readers. Here’s our collection for May 2010. As ever, you can see our latest bargains by . . .
• going directly to our travel hot deals page;
• or, getting a Kindle subscription to our travel blog;
• or, perhaps best of all, subscribing to our RSS feed and get all of our travel posts delivered directly to your email inbox or to your RSS aggregator;
or—why not?—act on all three of those options.
Please note that all of the offers below are for a limited time. And with that, here’s to happy, high-value travel!
Continue →
