GEAR:30

Those waterproof & breathability ratings on the tags of that rain jacket or those ski pants you’re about to buy: where did they come from? What’s the history? And how relevant are those standards? We discuss all of this and more with Dr. Lauren Cooper, who heads up our Blister Labs work on technical apparel.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Dr. Cooper’s background (3:37)
• History of standards & ratings (7:23)
• Current Standards (11:11)
• What does the ISO standard tell us? (17:08)
• What doesn’t the ISO standard tell us? (18:05)
• Next Steps (22:36)

RELATED LINKS:

• Become a Blister Member / Get Our Buyer’s Guide
• More on Blister Labs
• VIDEO: Blister Labs Panel Session
• Subscribe to our Gear Giveaways & Newsletter

OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• CRAFTED 
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off The Couch
• BLISTER Podcast 

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In the second installment of our “Very Deep Dive on Bootfitting” series, Blister reviewer (and bootfitter) Kara Williard is joined again by Master Bootiftter, Sam Tischendorf. But this time it is all about you, the audience, as we make our way through a bunch of your questions. Sam and Kara explain some of the technical mysteries — and at times, controversies — within bootfitting, such as forward lean and ramp angle; provide a deeper explanation of why custom insoles are so imperative as the foundation to a boot’s fit; the differences between rigid and flexible feet; they make a case for women-specific ski boots; and they end on some horror stories and Sam’s true feelings about DIY bootfitting.

TOPICS AND TIMES

• Custom insoles (4:40)
• Socks & Shell Fit (13:12)
• Forward Lean / Ramp Angle (18:51)
• Fore / Aft Balance (30:20)
• Binding Delta? (32:26)
• “The old skinny heel” (34:11)
• Aftermarket Liners (41:23)
• Time to Upgrade? (44:32)
• Flat Feet and Foot Flexibility (51:47)
• Rigid Feet Need Love (56:33)
• Women-Specific Boots (57:38)
• Horror Stories & DIY Bootfitting and Cool Stuff and Gross Stuff (1:07:28)

RELATED LINKS:

• Part 1: A Very Deep Dive on Bootfitting
• A Very Deep Dive on Ski Boots
• Become a Blister Member / Get our Buyer’s Guide
• Subscribe to our Gear Giveaways & Newsletter

OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• CRAFTED 
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off The Couch
• BLISTER Podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can engineering actually help us discover real-world characteristics about products that will be meaningful to end users? Or, when we incorporate quantitative data, do we mostly run the risk of having that data leading people astray? To lay out the concerns, stakes, and potential rewards, Jonathan Ellsworth talks with Thomas Laakso, the vice president of product and operations at DPS Skis, and Dr. Sean Humbert of Blister Labs.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Will Data Set Us Free? (6:12)
• Variability & Defining Uncertainty (14:05)
• Data & Real-World Applicability (16:58)
• DPS Pagoda Tour Update (29:03)
• Quantifying the User Experience? (34:34)
• Interrogating Engineering (37:42)

RELATED LINKS:

• Become a Blister Member / Get Our Buyer’s Guide
• GEAR:30: Thomas Laakso on DPS Skis
• GEAR:30: Ski Testing & Dynamic Modeling w Sean Humbert
• VIDEO: Blister Labs Panel Session
• Subscribe to our Gear Giveaways & Newsletter

OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• CRAFTED 
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off The Couch
• BLISTER Podcast 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few things in the world of ski gear are as complex, important, or misunderstood as bootfitting. So in this 1st episode of our new series on bootfitting, we dive into the basics with Sam Tischendorf, Masterfit University instructor, former clinical podiatrist, and lead bootfitter.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Sam Tischendorf’s background in Clinical Podiatry (4:56)
• How She Got into Skiing (8:41)
• Her Current Work as a Bootfitter (16:40)
• Masterfit University (21:41)
• Tecnica’s Women 2 Women & P165 (30:05)
• Bootfitting is Feelings (37:47)
• Communication with your Bootfitter (58:10)
• The Customization Process (1:04:29)
• Boot Longevity (1:10:58)
• What We’re Celebrating (1:22:23)

RELATED LINKS:

• A Very Deep Dive on Ski Boots
• Become a Blister Member / Get our Buyer’s Guide
• Subscribe to our Gear Giveaways & Newsletter

OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• CRAFTED 
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off The Couch
• BLISTER Podcast 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greg Vanderbeek is back with a Blister Labs update on our mountain-bike-wheels testing. We discuss why the dynamic modeling we’ve been doing in the field is a critical component for ongoing testing back at Western Colorado University; what our test results are revealing about carbon vs. aluminum wheels; and we talk about the joy of new tires, the magic of espresso, and more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• The Joys of New Tires (4:21)
• Wheelest Testing Update (7:49)
• Age-Old Question: Carbon vs. Aluminum Wheels (13:34)
• What We're Celebrating (21:14)

RELATED LINKS:

• GEAR:30 ep. 204: Blister Labs / Greg Vanderbeek
• All Blister Labs Current Projects

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• Blister Podcast
• CRAFTED
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off the Couch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You do your research when it comes to your ski & bike & trail gear. But what about your eyewear? Julbo CEO, Dave Crothers, makes the case that there’s a whole lot more to lens technology that everyone ought to be considering, and that lenses are not all pretty much the same. Hear him out.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Julbo & Dave’s background (4:08)
• The Eyewear Industry Today (17:55)
• Differences in Lenses (20:10)
• Photochromic or Photochromatic? (30:51)
• Evolution of photochromic lenses - (33:06)
• “Categories” (36:23)
• Polarized lenses (38:43)
• Forte of photochromic lenses?
• “High Contrast” vs “Light Amplifier”
• Closing Remarks: DYR (50:27)
• What We’re Celebrating (53:03)

RELATED LINKS:

• Subscribe to our Newsletter & Gear Giveaways
• Become a Blister Member / Get our Buyer’s Guide

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• CRAFTED
• Blister Podcast
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off the Couch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the latest edition of our Reviewing the Reviewer series, our resident ski reviewer, bike tester, boot fitter, and sustainable farmer, Kara Williard, is in the hot seat. We cover everything from ski and bike gear preferences to scorpion-eating chickens; Kara’s stint as a Tall-Tee-clad park rat; whether goalie gloves smell worse than sweaty ski boots; and much more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Kara’s background (4:39)

Worst thing she did during high school? (12:18)

College days (14:02)

Kara’s family of goalkeepers (16:17)

Gross goalie gloves (18:25)

Kara’s skiing & bootfitting background (20:31)

First time she met Jonathan (31:26)

Mountain biking & gear preferences (36:26)

Her favorite reviewers (46:06)

Her favorite skier & bikers (47:21)

Jungle farming with scabies & scorpion-eating chickens (50:06)

What she’s better at than Sam Shaheen (54:28)

Favorite books, movies, & musicians (57:21)

Random review: her own red chile (1:03:05)

Best question we haven’t asked you? (1:07:38)

What We're Celebrating (1:12:04)

RELATED LINKS:

• Kara discusses food systems & farming (Blister Pod Ep.221)
• Subscribe to our Newsletter & Gear Giveaways
• Become a Blister Member / Get our Buyer’s Guide

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• CRAFTED
• Blister Podcast
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off the Couch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luke Koppa, Kara Williard, and Jonathan Ellsworth talk about our upcoming test, where we’ll be mounting up more than 20 pairs of the same ski with more than 20 different alpine bindings in the attempt to find out what really separates the most popular alpine (and 50/50) bindings from one another.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Teasers (0:30)
• Our Reference Ski: K2 Mindbender 99Ti  (5:30)
• The Binding Lineup (10:01)
• More info for Blister Members (25:29)
• Tangent: Animal Encounters (27:34)
• What We’re Celebrating (31:19)

RELATED LINKS:

• Our Blister Summit Panel on Ski Binding Design
• Blister Labs
• Subscribe to our Newsletter & Gear Giveaways
• Become a Blister Member / Get our Buyer’s Guide

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• Blister Podcast
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off the Couch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A few years ago, Kitsbow undertook an incredibly ambitious plan to move to Old Fort, North Carolina, and bring all of their apparel production to the United States, after years of working with overseas factories. In doing so, they not only found a way to adapt to today’s challenging supply chain logistics, but they also trained an entirely new workforce and spearheaded the revitalization of their new hometown, which had been losing manufacturing jobs for decades. So we talked with their CEO, David Billstrom, about how they did that while weathering a global pandemic; how doing so has been a boon to the brand, their customers, and their local community; and how they hope to be a blueprint for other companies to do the same.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Covid shields and facemasks (4:57)
• Moving to North Fort, NC (10:34)
• The Toyota Way (25:15)
• Domestic manufacturing & efficiency (31:53)
• Revitalizing a community (38:05)
• Employee purchase as a Public Benefit Corporation (52:54)
• David’s Big Idea (1:00:28)
• What We’re Celebrating (1:02:20)

RELATED LINKS:

• Ep. 20: How the Outdoor Industry is Helping Fight Covid
• Blister Labs
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• Blister Podcast
• Bikes & Big Ideas
• Off the Couch

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk to Naked Sports Innovations’ president and co-founder, Lindsay Dakota, about how the concept of “simplexity” drives Naked’s design process; growing a small brand sustainably; the future of footwear; and how ski racing influenced the design of their new trail shoe.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• The Naked Sports’ Running Band (8:01)
• Simplexity (11:13)
• Fit (17:26)
• Sustainability (19:42)
• Expanding Naked’s product line (23:40)
• What is a “cooling face fabric?” (25:04)
• Working with Vibram (27:48)
• The Naked T/r Trail Racing Shoe (29:19)
• How ski racing influenced this shoe (31:57)
• Small brands & the state of trail running (48:41)
• What We’re Celebrating (52:01)

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

• Off The Couch podcast
• Blister Podcast
• Bikes & Big Ideas podcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.