The Backcountry Boiler is a camp stove that burns stuff like sticks, pinecones and leaves instead of fossil fuel. It’s super light and the design of the little combustion chamber gulps in air for a quick heat up. Overall it’s a great idea unless it rains.
If you’re a real wine expert you’ll be able to guess the winery this oak barrel stave chair comes from just by the tint of the burgundy highlights in the finish. Or you could cheat by looking under the seat where the winery’s name is branded. The chairs fold up flat and work great for indoor or outdoor use, where their natural oil finish will stand up to the elements. They also make a bench model for you cuddlers.
New Hampshire is known as the Granite State and the motto is Live Free Or Die. And up there they put state liquor stores on the sides of the freeway. True story. This stone drink dispenser, handmade in the Granite State combines everything N.H. is famous for: Yankee ingenuity, drinking and granite rocks, known to hikers there as “babyheads.” This babyhead holds a bottle of booze and dispenses it through a stainless steel tap with a stone handle. And like the state’s locals, each and every one is unique.
If you’re feeling a creeping guilt about the mountain of plastic trash your K-Cup coffee maker is producing, maybe this new drip coffee maker from Bodum is the solution. It’s simple, a high-quality drip machine that features nearly boiling hot water and a stainless steel filter. Full flavor, less plastic trash; genius! Source
Bringing the grill on trips is usually a pain. And a mess. But the American-made SlatGrill is designed for travel. It burns just about any fuel, breaks down easily and packs flat for camping & tailgating. Since it’s made from stainless steel and aluminum, with no moving parts, it’ll never rust plus it’s a snap to clean. Source
You might not believe this but we found a battery charger/power supply for your phone, computer, & electronics that runs on water. Yup. It’s a hydrogen fuel cell that converts water into electricity. Don’t expect us to explain this weird science but we can tell you this: the futuristic little PowerTrekk unit is eco-friendly and provides power totally off the grid. Available May 2012.
Unlike running shoes, tennis shoes need to be seriously sturdy. The demands of high-speed stop and start lateral motion deem it absolutely necessary. Leave it to Nike to be the ones who figure out how to engineer the comfort and lightness of a Zoom runner with the beefy support of a performance tennie. They did it. It’s called the Zoom Vapor 9 Tour and Swiss ace Roger Federer helped design them.
If your training routine goes beyond mere OCD and involves stat charts and performance mapping, Magellan has a couple nice, new GPS-enabled training watches for you. Running, swimming, endurance and self-punishment of all sorts can be counted, tracked, measured, and reported all from the convenience of your wrist, mid-workout. Available Spring 2012.
A wide-angle lens on your camera is cool, it lets you fit a lot into the frame. But what if you could fit in the whole scene, like everything? Well, the Tamaggo 360-imager lets you do that. It’s the first device to make fully-integrated panomorph images instantly. Consider this, even the widest fisheye lens only catches about 180-degrees, the Tamaggo lets you catch all 360 and you can post it instantly to the web, all from one small device. Coming soon.
The worst thing about a big ol’ boombox is how fast they chew through batteries. Plus – where those batteries eventually end up. The Rukus Solar is a Bluetooth sound system with a built-in solar panel. Could there be any boombox better for the beach? Or the landfill? Available April 2012.
