While Olympic skiers have a defined course to travel, the rest of us skiers want to explore the whole mountain whether it’s Whistler in Vancouver or another slop. The X-Plore.XGX gloves have GPS built in. The thumb display tracks altitude, speed, distance, duration, and weather conditions on a planned route. You can also adjust the settings, just don’t do it while flying down the slope.
Via DVICE
Zanier X-Plore.XGX gloves
Certain sports require padding to protect athletes. That padding has sections, panels, seams, and doesn’t always conform to the body. The Tailored Injury Prevention & Performance Improvement for Protective Sports Garments project known as SCUTA is a joint effort with experts from Loughborough, Nottingham, Cambridge, and Cranfield University in the U.K. and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S. SCUTA works on the areas of manufactguring, sports technology, sports science, remote sensing, and impact and aims to develop garments tailored to the individual.
SCUTA concentrates on garments for three disciplines: Football, Taekwondo, and Cricket,
though it doesn’t specify if that’s American or European Football, one can assume both sports would benefit from the research. The group researches garments made from an additive manufacturing method known as Rapid Manufacturing, which allows for the production of virtually any geometry. It
can be custom made through a three-dimensional scanning process so each team member gets his own garment that fits the body perfectly. The garment
will be made in one piece, without seams or joins, and can be optimized to reduce the particular impact conditions of the sport and even position player. The defensive players may get a garment that’s protective in different areas than the offensive players. The project utilizes state of the art manufacturing, biomechanical, and impact facilities to continue its reasearch.
Chocolates are said to be good for your health, but why not give gifts that are good for the heart and get your sweetie moving. That’s a gift for the heart! KineticShift has a few recommendations to get you on the right track this Valentine’s Day.
Oregon Scientific: SmartHeart SE102 Heart Rate Monitor
This water resistant monitor tracks heart rate, calories burned, average heart rate, and vibrates to send alerts. The SmartHeart features a touch-sensitive lens so you can toggle through settings with a tap.
(Oregon Scientific HeartSmart heart rate monitor; $49.99)
Urbanears: Tanto Headphones
Listen to music with style during workouts or jaunts to the store with Urbanears Tanto headphones. The retro-style headphones has a fabric cord to add strength and has 36 mm handmade drivers. The remote/microphone lets the headphones double for a headset with a cell phone.
(Urbanears; $39.99)
Speck: PixelSkin Case
Protect your sweetie’s phone during workouts with Speck’s PixelSkin. The no-slip grip is due to its textured silicon construction. The phone-specific case provides access to all the phone’s ports and controls. For Valentine’s Day, Speck is offering 25 percent off red, pink, and purple phones.
(Speck PixelSkin; $34.95)
Nike: Lightweight Running Gloves
They say cold hands, warm heart. That doesn’t mean your love’s digits should freeze off by the end of winter. Lightweight Running Gloves from Nike uses a Dri-FIT material made from high-performance, microfiber polyester fabric to wick sweat from hands to relieve runners and those just smitten of sweaty palms.
(Nike Lightweight Running Gloves; $15.00)
Under Armour: Metal
Keep him warm on the slopes or any other outdoor activity in the extreme cold. Metal has diamond-faced ColdGear construction to remove moisture while holding in warmth. The top has ventilation zones for heat release and temperature regulation. It also features flatlock seams to increase mobility without causing irritation.
(Under Armour Metal; $79.99)
As an avid cyclist in New York City, this reporter knows that biking in the Big Apple is as much about fashion as actually training. But seeing one too many Team Astana jerseys (which I expect will be retired to never see the light of day again), not to mention a decade or more of “world champions” doing a slow lap in Central Park, it is refreshing to see Retro’s newest line. Based on the Horton Collection – the personal treasure trove of cycling related artifacts from Brett Horton, the foremost authority on bicycle racing history – these jerseys are truly “retro” cool. Instead of just mere “team” jerseys for the wannabe rider, these are inspired by hand-selected vintage posters from Brett’s massive collection of vintage cycling memorabilia.
And if old school cycling isn’t quite your thing, but you still want to evoke something unique, Retro also offers numerous eclectic jerseys such as “Bauhaus exhibit” for the lover of 1920’s German modernism, and a Peking Opera poster for the chick who desires to be a dragon lady on two wheels.
Polartec’s Women’s El Cap Temple 1/4 Zip top from The North Face is made from sustainable resources. Part of the fleece manufacturer’s eco-engineering line, it contains a minimum of 50 percent recycled content, and both companies continue to push to raise the bar on post-consumer materials. Why opt for a garment with such a high content of reused materials? Each shirt saves 6.6 lbs in C02 emissions, and 0.17 gallons of gas.
The earth conscious gear has its benefits. The pique knit is soft on the skin. It carries an ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of 30. The El Cap Temple wicks moisture in a number of ways. It draws sweat and moisture away from skin while setting up a dry zone next to the skin. Moisture wicked to the surface is spread across the outer layer of the garment, and continues to make the top breathable. Wicking is crucial in a long sleeve garment, especially since it’s likely to act as a base layer for outside workouts.
The North Face’s Women’s El Cap Temple 1/4 Zip shirt is appropriate for a base layer in outdoor workouts over the winter. It’s also a great transitional top in those days nice enough to go out for a run, but not quite nice enough for short sleeves. The dual-layer fabric provides a degree of wind blocking, an important factor in transitional weather.
Gloves are an essential for winter running. It’s important to cover all skin from exposure, but fingers are more susceptible to cold. The HVAC Glove from Brooks Sports packs some tech features into its grip. Its HVAC material is made with silver-embedded fibers to thermally balance body temperature, and transfer moisture. It also kills bacteria within an hour of contact so germs don’t build up from one run to the next. The finger tips have a polyurethane coating to aid dexterity and grip objects. The HVAC Glove also has a thumb pad that can operate an MP3 player with the gloves still on. That’s key to keeping warm on your next jaunt. Brooks also built in a magnet to keep gloves together when not in use. This way wherever you throw them, in a closet or a bag, you’ll pull them out together.
Brooks Women’s HVAC Glove
Brooks Men’s HVAC Glove
Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki made it through another round of women’s singles today at the Australian Open Tennis Championships. She stays cool outfitted in Adidas by Stella McCartney gear. On the court she’s wearing the Tennis Performance Dress, which is made with Adidas Climate technology. Climate Technology consists of layers of special materials and mesh panels on the sides of the garment for proper ventilation. The garment also features flatlock stitching that makes all seams flat and prevent the discomfort a seam with bulk might add.
At Kinetic Shift we’re just getting started. It’s a new year, and many of you are getting started, too. When I was handed a sample of Maidenform’s Flexees Fat-Free Dressing Tank, I was excited things were taking shape. This slim-fitting camisole has an extra layer of microfiber sewn into the midsection to flatten the less desirable curves. The fit is a little tighter to slip on than other tank tops, but feels snug yet not overly tight when on. Slipped under tops or even worn on its own, it’s incredibly flattering. Even if you don’t have a tummy or other bulges to hide, it makes a great tank and worth the splurge of about $30. The Flexees line has a range of undergarments that show the results of your working out a little better than actual results. Some, like the Fat-Free Dressing Tank Top, don’t have to be worn just as undergarments.