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.
The company showed off its new line of garments at last week’s SIA Snow Show in Denver, and in addition to providing UV shielding and anti-odor properties, the clothing should help wearers stay warm. Unlike bamboo, which provides a breathable fabric, Coffee Char can be used to trap heat close to skin, making for an excellent base layer when the weather outside is frightful.
Virus Official Website
[Via Gizmag: Keeping warm with recycled coffee beans]
The bustling city of Delhi in India is now experiencing an Ice Age – but it isn’t affecting the weather outside, nor is it the Pixar movie. Instead this is a new year round ice skating center in the Moments Mall. This might not sound that big a deal, as even cities such as Houston have had year round skating in shopping malls for decades.
In Finnish a Kuppi is ac cup, and for centuries Finns would warm their hands by using a “little cup” or “Kuppilka,” which held a warm beverage. It was typically low tech such as wooden cup. But now Kupilka is a new high tech twist on the low tech that is designed for hikers and campers, or just anyone who wants a cup with the look that is straight out of the wilderness.
We’d hate to be in the plastic water bottle business right now, as it doesn’t seem like anyone has much positive to say about the products. While the water is good, the problem is that the bottles tend to end up in landfills or worse floating in the Pacific Ocean in that big mass of plastics!
We’ve all heard the old saying “reduce, reuse, recycle.” Not everything can be as easy and throwing a can in the blue bin or reusing a paper bag. Frankly, not everything can even be reused or recycled practical manner. Take an old bicycle inner tube for instance: while it can be used as a tie down strap or to hang tools in the garage, it isn’t really practical, so most of us just chuck them in the trash. Green Guru of Boulder, Colorado is changing the way we think of trash and they are reusing old bicycle inner tubes and neoprene wet suits in their product line. 
Corn sometimes gets a bad rap. It is partially blamed for the downfall of the some Native American civilizations, which relied too much upon it, and more recently anything with corn syrup causes some people to run away. But corn does hold some promise, and we recently heard about the CornBoard.
When thinking of bamboo the first thought that comes to mind might very likely be a tropical jungle? It probably wouldn’t be snow sports, but that isn’t stopping a few companies from utilizing bamboo as a material for making snowboards.
The name NewWood probably sounds like it should be made from virgin lumber, but actually it is anything but. NewWood Manufacturing, located in Elma, Washington, has been in business for a year producing utility board created from post consumer wood waste, mixed with discard plastic bags. And while it has a number of uses, it will soon be the surface for skateboarders.
There is a downside to the use of composite materials in athletic equipment – while it offers lightweight options and greater performance enhancements, it is hard to recycle it at the end of its useful life. This is true of bicycles as we’ve noted, but it is a problem with skis too, as North Colorado Business Report noted last week.
The use of wood in the construction of bike components is as old as the ‘safety bicycle’ or what we know of as the modern frame layout. Throughout the years, wood has been pushed aside by chromoly, aluminum, titanium, carbon fiber and even bamboo as a preferred component material, but it is not completely gone. Wood is actually starting to reappear in the bicycle industry, though mostly by small component manufacturers looking for a unique niche in the sea of carbon fiber and modern materials. Paul Sykes of Portland, Oregon is one such individual who is bringing wood back to bicycles with his component company, Sykes Wood Fenders.