Professionals, bouncing on slacklines, virtually climbing the Matterhorn or test paddling with kayaks: manufacturers presented their new products for four days at Outdoor 2015. PowderGuide looked for trends and innovations for you. Every year, a jury awards prizes for interesting new products. This year, too, the winners of the Industry Awards lined up one after the other. But what is really innovative?
Important inventions or a PR stunt?
Only a few products actually surprise at Outdoor. However, Recco AB is hotly debated: the company wants to find missing persons more quickly with a red detector on the helicopter. A small red "airplane" hangs on a rope under the helicopter. The detector can now locate anyone wearing a reflector more easily. According to the manufacturer, the system searches with a search strip width of 200 meters. Within a few minutes, rescue teams can search large areas of forest, for example. Recco calls this development a "revolution" and "world premiere". The company plans to equip the Alps and Scandinavia with Recco AB this summer. Only three detectors are needed for Austria, for example, to cover most of the country. To ensure that missing mountaineers, ski tourers or hikers can actually be located, the Swedish manufacturer aims to integrate its reflector into every back protector, boot or ski helmet. Up to now, Recco has been considered by many mountain sports enthusiasts to be a "dead man's search system". Of course, as the company emphasizes, the Reck does not replace avalanche transceivers. The little red plane under the helicopter can show from this summer whether it really is a world innovation.
A few years ago, outdoor clothing manufacturers outdid themselves with bright colors. Now the end of orange-purple-green jackets and backpacks seems to be sealed. Outdoor 2015 confirms the trend already revealed at this year's ISPO: instead of neon colors, many companies prefer ochre-yellow backpacks and pale green jackets. Other manufacturers also seem to have had enough of the color frenzy of recent years. Outdoor clothing remains colorful, but is losing its traffic light effect.
Featherweight on the head
Outfitters remain ambitious when it comes to climbing helmets. With the "Vayu", Salewa is launching an ultra-light helmet weighing just 180 grams. Mammut is also presenting its elastic climbing helmets, which weigh just 200 to 220 grams.
As much equipment as possible on the mountain
For material fetishists, manufacturers such as Mammut are also offering more and more jackets and pants that can be packed into the size of a pencil case. Patagonia produces travel bags with a backpack carrying system that save a lot of space when packed small.
Sheep's wool has been experiencing a real boom for years: Ortvox is now selling the "PEAK", an alpine touring backpack with wool from Switzerland in the back system. Fun fact at Outdoor 2015: Muted colors are boring - that's what many women must have thought, so Mammut decided on a new color scheme via a Facebook survey: according to the manufacturer, the majority of the 5,000 participants voted for pink sleeping bags in the women's version. So the colors haven't completely disappeared after all.
