This week’s Made in America post appears on a day when the Colorado Front Range is finally getting pounded with its first winter storm of 2012. If the weather forecasters are correct, we may see up to 18-inches of snow by the time the storm is done. What better day to feature a company that has its roots in Colorado and may actually help me get out and around. Redfeather Snowshoes was founded back in 1988 by another Colorado resident who too was snow-bound, but that individual was a triathlete who lived up in Leadville, Colorado at 10,000-feet. His original design utilized an aluminum frame with a ‘V’ shaped tail that reduced the chance of a tail from one shoe from hitting the other shoe, especially while running and overall improved maneuverability while snowshoeing. This simple change to the shape has lead to the modern sport of snowshoeing that we know today as noted by Jim Tucker on the United States Snowshoe Association (USSSA) website. Continue reading Made in America: Redfeather Snowshoes
Ski helmets came into prominence on the slope only within the past several years. Yet adoption is growing. Ski-Injury.com reports that in the 2009 – 2010 season, 57 percent of the total population on the slopes wore helmets.
Those individuals who choose to start a business during these difficult economic times have my admiration, especially those who chose to start one in a market that some view as being very saturated. Adam Browning is one such individual who took his 20 years of passion for the sport of snowboarding and has started the Evergreen, Colorado based company, OZ Snowboards. During this the SIA Demo Days at Winter Park, OZ Snowboards took the opportunity to show off their new line of boards for the 2012/13 season. 
When it comes time to look for a backpack, messenger bag or a simple sleeve for you iPad (or other tablet), the choices that are out on the market can be mind boggling. The options seem endless, but there is hope around the corner. While walking the show floor at SIA, we noticed a booth of bags with a look that was different from any others that we had seen before – simple, elegant and functional. Just about every pocket, closure and strap had a purpose. Once we learned that the bags were Italian designed and manufactured, it made even more sense. The company, O-range, has a product line worth looking at when the time comes to purchase that next bag or sleeve. 
Skis, snowboards, poles and boots – these are just a few of the winter sport items that use carbon fiber in their construction. Carbon fiber has been the material of choice for higher end equipment due to its high strength to low weight ratio. Not only is it light weight and strong, but it is the type of material that can make an overall product stronger by adding additional layers in higher stress areas. Wanting to tap into the advantages of this material, Crescent Moon of Boulder, Colorado is in the process of testing their newest and lightest snowshoe, the Kilo.
Sometimes it takes a cup of coffee to get moving in the morning and sometimes a cup of coffee can be used to warm up. But what about using the coffee beans, not for drinking but for clothing? We’ve seen recycled bottles turned into clothes and we’ve seen bamboo used for bicycle jerseys, but now California sports clothing company Virus is on to something different with its StayWarm line that uses “Coffee Char,” or coffee charcoal to produce fabric.
A typical day of resort skiing along the Front Range in Colorado usually starts off with an early morning start, two hour drive, parking anywhere from a few feet from the base of the mountain to over a mile away and sometimes dressing in the car. The rush of getting to the slope sometimes means that your gear is strewed all over the car, which inevitably means that something will be left behind. At the 2012 SIA show in Denver, the Massachusetts company, Kulkea, is debuting a new backpack to help transport your all of your Alpine gear from the car to the slope in one backpack. The new Ski Trekker is designed to not only hold your boots, helmet and gloves, but also your skis.
We missed Zeal Optics at the Outdoor Retailers Show but fortunately they caught our eye anyway with the iON Goggles, which the company is showing at this week’s SIA Snow Show. The Boulder-based companies is offering a look at the iON, which features an embed high-definition camera to capture video and photos.
It is not always necessary to have a slope to pull off a few tricks on your board, all it takes is a tow rope and a vehicle. Now, not only is the hill unnecessary, but so is the vehicle. In what may appear to be an ACME rubber band used by Wile E. Coyote, Banshee Bungee is producing a bungee cord that can be anchored to a fixed object, pulled backwards and released to tow a rider on a snowboard up to 35-miles per hour.