By Martin Vilaboy

Having traveled to Salt Lake City twice a year for a number of years, a possibility certainly exists for the familiarity to breed contempt, but home from yet another trip to Utah, we continue to hope that Outdoor Retailer decides to stick with SLC as the host city of its bi-annual event long after the soon-to-expire contract with the Salt Palace Convention Center expires. In terms of travel costs, convenience and local entertainment, we can think of no other city that matches Salt Lake when considering all three of those elements, at least not any city with the facilities required to host our large outdoor community, including even Las Vegas.

Back on the trade show floor of the Winter Market expo itself, things also were somewhat familiar. Foot traffic seemed light but healthy. The mood was relativity positive, but as to be expected, you couldn’t describe the atmosphere as enthusiastic. Rather, it lacked some of the youthful energy and exuberance of past OR events.

Most OR conventioneers seem to believe that we’ve passed the worst times in terms of macro-economic conditions, but it’s certainly a guarded optimism. Companies are beginning to behave as if consumer spending soon will start moving more toward normal levels. The question we all must ask is: What is the new “normal”?

The good news is, vendors are innovating, and it’s pretty apparent that ingenuity, mixed with a bit of juevos, will be key to rekindling consumer demand in the coming environment, whatever that demand may be. That excludes those contestants, of course, who are content to “move toward zero” playing the role of low-cost provider.

Consider legacy sock vendor Thorlo, for example. The brand was showing signs of growing stale, say company executives, with growth flattening along the way. So Thorlo tightened its belt and took some chances by adding a flash of color and updated fabrications to its offering via its Experia collection, in both Coolmax and merino/silk styles.

So far, the response from dealers and consumers has been robust, says Thorlo’s Jeff Lawson, including from REI, which has introduced Experia into a group of stores.

Zeal Optics hopes to generate similar interest for its new and super-cool Transcend snow goggles. Everyone gets a glimpse of the future when looking through a pair of Transcend, which bring “direct-to-eye-communication display” technology to the snow goggle market. Developed in partnership with Recon Instruments, the Transcend is outfitted with a small screen that sits unobtrusively in the bottom corner of the field of vision and displays information to the user on things such as speed, altitude, vertical ascent/descent, temperature and even GPS information. Display options are controlled by buttons on the side of the goggles, and information can be downloaded/uploaded to a PC.

The Transcend’s suggested retail price, not surprisingly, is a bit out of focus for most folks, at $350 ($450 for the photochromic model), and one will need fairly decent eyesight to easily read the small display, but the Transcend certainly will appeal to a segment of snowsports enthusiasts and are worth taking a look at, or through.

Sticking with the super slick, or at least the super stealth, tech and gadget lovers also will appreciate the new Presentation Master USB SwissFlash drive from Victorinox. These high capacity flash drives, incorporated into a Swiss Army Knife form factor, feature 007-style security and capabilities. A biometric scanner, for one, that reads human finger prints is designed to protect the drive’s contents, while Bluetooth capabilities allow the user to remotely control a presentation that’s been loaded onto the stick. Other slick features include an embedded laser pointer and the ability to hide cookies and search history information when surfing at an Internet café or through another public Internet access point.

Our interest also has been piqued by the arrival of performance cotton, which is said to offer all the performance and aesthetic benefits of synthetic fibers but in a natural fabrication. After all, while we all love the look and feel of synthetic base layer garments, let’s face it, after use and underarm abuse, synthetics such as polypropylene often develop a memory for odor.

Among the leaders in performance cotton is Polarmax, which introduced TransDry moisture-wicking cotton into a line of base layer garments. Developed in partnership with Cotton Incorporated, Polarmax’s line of technical cotton T’s and undergarments move moisture to the outside of the fabric where it can evaporate faster, drying twice as fast as regular cotton. The new PMX cotton apparel is designed to appeal to anyone who loves cotton but especially those who are active.

Sticking with the scent-free sentiment, several vendors introduced polyester- and polypropylene-based mid-layer and base layer garments treated with newly developed odor-fighting agents, such as silver-ion technologies, that they say eliminate the odor recall issues. I was graciously given a few samples of such garments, including t-shirts, socks and underwear, and plan to put them to the test, the results of which will be addressed in IO’s fall issue textile coverage. (My biologist wife, by the way, will attest that my body is an adequate laboratory for stink.)

Other new and interest technologies seen at show include self-heating outerwear, which took a step toward mainstream availability, and we’re finally seeing some market interest in the super-material aerogel, which resembles puffed glass and has properties of the likes seen only in science fiction (at similarly awe-inspiring prices). Covered extensively in IO back in 2003, aerogel’s potential as an insulation material has caught the attention of executives at Hanesbrand. Although no official word is out, commercially available garments are expected in 2011. And suppliers continue to push the boundaries when it comes to ultralight fabrications, as well. We’re seeing more extensive use of Dyneema-based fabrics, which offer impressive strength and durability at incredibly thin and light deniers. Check out a new line of colorful Uberlight drysacks from Granite Gear that are completely transparent. Dyneema’s impressive qualities also can be seen in a line of Rocket tents from Brooks-Range Mountaineering Equipment.

Indeed, innovation can be found everywhere, even on the straps of a flip flop. Designed for pre-dawn surfing runs, the Illum sport sandals from Teva feature a small LED light attached to the top toe strap. While we can think of a few other practical applications for feet-based illumination, many will view the Illum as gimmicky. While that may be true, the sandal itself is top-notch, made with a few new and unique materials from Teva.

We also couldn't help but notice a bit of an onslaught in the number of avalanche bag systems, which left us wondering if this market is large enough to support the handful of providers now offering ABS solutions, especially when considering that a good deal of the athletes, adventurers and guides who would need an avalanche safety system are exactly the types of customer that pay for their gear.

And we can’t end our show wrap-up without giving props to Mike Baker and his team at sandal provider Sole. A relatively small company, Sole has a few interesting projects cooking up, and not just in terms of its killer footwear. While dialing up new styles in it core business, Sole also is in beta with an in-house developed RFID platform for its dealers (we’ll have more on that in a coming issue). At the same time, the company not only has introduced recycled natural cork into its sandals, it also is leading an entire natural cork-recycling initiative, connecting from practically nothing a system to collect, process, supply and distribute this highly useful and renewable resource. Anyone interested in either recycling their cork or using recycled cork in a product should contact Sole through ReCork.org.

Natural cork tidbit: More than 13 billion natural cork wine enclosures are produced globally each year.

Man, I’m suddenly thirsty.