GEAR:30

We talk to Blister reviewers Sascha Anastas & Paul Forward about their ski quivers; binding preferences; coffee in AK; your questions; and more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Sascha’s quiver selections (10:17)
• Sascha’s general take on bindings (23:45)
• Paul’s 18-month-old son’s ski quiver (30:51)
• Shocking coffee revelations about Girdwood, AK (33:24)
• Best pow ski, regardless of place? (39:43)
• Blister member questions (44:01)
• Paul’s 3-ski quiver (51:13)
• DPS Lotus 124 vs DPS Koala 119 (58:21)
• Bindings (another shocking revelation) (1:02:21)
• Paul’s 2-ski quiver (1:06:07)
• Paul’s 1-ski quiver (1:10:15)

RELATED LINKS:

• blister.getspot.com
• Blister Recommended Shop: Gear West
• Blister Alpine Bindings Guide
• Blister Lightweight Touring Bindings Shootout

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Luke Koppa and Jonathan Ellsworth discuss the opening day of the ski season; approaches to building ski quivers; our specific selections; Luke’s latest rant; What We’re Celebrating; & more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Buttered Noodles & Air Fresheners (3:31)
• Opening Day! (11:04)
• Frontside Skis We’re Now Testing (17:21)
• *Our* Quiver Selections (19:26)
• Approaches to Building a Quiver (23:11)
• Luke’s 3-ski quiver (33:36)
• Jonathan’s 3-ski quiver (36:04)
• Rossignol Black Ops Sender Ti (38:12)
• K2 Mindbender 108 Ti (40:16)
• Luke’s Rant (42:42)
• What We’re Celebrating (45:39)

RELATED LINKS:

• Our featured Shop: Powderhound
• GEAR:30 Ep. 41: Eric Helmbrecht, Powderhound
• Our 20/21 Winter Buyer’s Guide
• Become a Blister Member

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Today we’re talking with one of our Blister Recommended Shops to get their perspective on a mix of topics that range from broadly applicable to all of us, to topics that help us better understand what’s going on in the specific local community that each particular shop serves.

Earlier this week I sat down in Blister headquarters with Tyson Stellrecht, the founder of Boise Gear Collective, to talk about the selling of both used gear and brand new gear; how it’s going with backcountry.com one year later; why Tyson isn’t moving into e-commerce; gear snobs; predictions for the upcoming season; and more.

TOPICS & TIMES

• The outdoor scene around Boise (5:12)
• backcountry.com - one year later (8:09)
• Tyson’s backstory & starting a used gear shop (14:16)
• The value of offering used gear & new & service (21:45)
• Why Tyson isn’t moving into e-commerce (24:40)
• Starting to sell new gear alongside used (33:17)
• Gear snobs (42:00)
• Predictions for the upcoming winter (50:34)
• What We’re Celebrating (59:40)

RELATED LINKS:

• Blister Podcast ep. 109: Jason Blevins on backcountry.com
• Become a Blister Member

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If you are a true gear head, you are going to love this conversation. And if you aren’t a full-on gear nerd but you’d like to better understand what “waterproof” really means, and when you should and shouldn’t worry about a 10k or 20k rating on the jacket or pants you are thinking of buying, then you also ought to listen to this conversation.

Luke Koppa and I spoke this week with Michael Cattanach, who is the Product Design Director at Polartec. Polartec is a very interesting company with a hundred years of history behind it. But you might not be too familiar with them, since Polartec makes the textiles and fabrics that a lot of your favorite outerwear and apparel are made of, but they don’t make or sell the end products. In other words, Polartec makes the ingredients used to make your favorite apparel. And so today, we’re going to dive deep into the details about ingredients and textiles and fabrics, and Polartec’s history, and what Polartec is up to today.

Now as we said, we do get into the weeds quite a bit in this conversation, so we strongly encourage you to check out the show notes to this episode, where we have listed a number of very relevant terms and definitions.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• History of Polartec (2:48)
• Michael’s background (6:52)
• History of NeoShell (8:44)
• Hydrostatic Head Pressure (14:31)
• MVTR & RET Tests (and see our Show Notes!) (18:34)
• Handfeel (28:53)
• “Electrospun” membranes (31:45)
• Polartec Power Shield Pro vs Neoshell (36:48)
• Being an “ingredient” brand (47:010
• Product control & Polartec’s Apex Awards (51:29)
• Polartec Power Fill, Alpha, & Power Air (59:20)
• Fleece, Microplastics, & Sustainability (1:03:13)
• Polartec.com - see the brands working with Polartec (1:10:32)

RELATED LINKS:

• Show Notes —  Important Terms & Definitions 
• Our “Outerwear 101” article
• Our “Outerwear 201” article

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Luke Koppa and Jonathan Ellsworth discuss some of the highlights and big takeaways from our new Winter Buyer’s Guide. We’ll talk about some of our Best Of award winners; whether or not the 20/21 crop of ski gear represents a step forward; and more. Then we answer a lot of the questions you submitted.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Luke’s soap (2:49)
• Our 20/21 BLISTER Buyer’s Guide (5:47)
• “Rounded” Flex pattern (8:50)
• Volkl Mantra 102 & Katana 108 (15:24)
• Majesty Superwolf (21:35)
• Salomon QST 99 (22:35)
• Dynastar Menace 98 (27:00)
• Your questions (33:49)
• Where did the name Blister come from? (44:59)
• What do I need to do to work for Blister? (50:28)
• Coffee makers! (1:00:45)
• What We’re Celebrating (1:20:33)

RELATED LINKS:

• Watch on our YouTube channel
• Our featured Shop: Backcountry Essentials
• Our 20/21 Winter Buyer’s Guide
• Become a Blister Member

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Today we’ve got another edition of Blister Shop Talk, where we check in with one of our Blister Recommended Shops to get their perspective on topics that range from universally applicable, to topics that help us better understand what’s going on the particular, local communities that they serve.

Bentgate is an outstanding shop located in Golden, Colorado, and our guest today is John Weir. John and I talk about fitting AT boots; the rise of splitboarding; John’s (really good) predictions for this upcoming season; some of the precautions and protocols that Bentgate is taking and putting in place this winter; a lasting (positive) effect that COVID may have on the bootfitting process; and more.

TOPICS & TIMES

• Background on Bentgate (4:58)
• Backcountry boots: “Comfort Performance” fit?? (6:59)
• Prediction #1: upcoming season (10:38)
• The rise of splitboarding (14:59)
• Prediction #2: avy courses (19:39)
• Prediction #3: snow dynamics (29:33)
• What’s Bentgate doing different this season? (37:35)
• What We’re Celebrating (44:51)

RELATED LINKS:

• Become a Blister Member

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We sat down in Blister HQ with Cody Townsend to talk about coffee makers, bindings, beacons, terrain management, mortality, movies, and more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Coffee Makers (9:29)
• SHIFT binding (14:40)
• Bindings in general (27:02)
• Movies (38:17)
• Tech bindings (46:33)
• Beacons (56:12)
• Terrain management & avalanche education (1:06:55)
• Topics for future conversations (1:20:18)
• What We’re Celebrating This Week (1:23:53)

RELATED LINKS:

• Blister Podcast: Cody Townsend, Blister Speaker Series
• Off The Couch Podcast: Cody Townsend

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What do you know about Alpaca wool? And how well do you know the ins and outs of manufacturing in Peru? We talk about these things and more with the founders of Arms of Andes, which is a company that makes outdoor clothing from Royal Alpaca wool that is single-sourced and produced in Peru. We discuss the characteristics and benefits of Royal Alpaca wool; the traditional method used to collect the wool; their commitment to (and the unique challenges of) manufacturing in Peru; what they’re doing to try to be one of the most sustainable clothing brands in the world; and more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• What is Arms of Andes? (3:38)
• More specifics of Alpaca Wool (13:28)
• Manufacturing in Peru (21:00)
• Types of Alpaca Wool (31:32)
• Arms of Andes product line (36:25)
• Where to Purchase (40:59)
• What We’re Celebrating (42:41)

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We’ve got Folsom Skis CEO, Mike McCabe, back on the show to catch us up on what’s been going on at Folsom; the PPE equipment they’ve been making; their lineup for the 20/21 season; and more. Mike also flips the script and asks me how things have been at Blister, and we wrap with what we’re celebrating this week. I also provide a quick update on the status of our 20/21 Winter Buyer’s Guide.

TOPICS & TIMES

• Update on our Buyer’s Guide (1:52)
• Update on Folsom (5:53)
• PPE (6:57)
• Folsom’s Pop-Up Shop in Aspen (17:31)
• Who is the Folsom customer now? (22:33)
• Spar 88 (27:45)
• Spar 78 (37:15)
• Spar Turbo (43:21)
• “Favorable” Rocker (47:54)
• Primary 104 (51:40)
• Touring Constructions (55:36)
• Mike’s question for Jonathan (58:37)
• What Mike’s celebrating this week (1:00:56)
• What Jonathan’s celebrating this week (1:03:42)

RELATED LINKS:

• icelab.co - Come live & work in the Gunnison Valley!
• GEAR:30 ep. 66: Folsom Skis & the new Blister Pro 104
• GEAR:30 ep. 19: Dialing in "The Hammer" + other new Folsom Skis
• Blister Podcast ep. 33: Roundtable on Custom Skis

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Black Sheep Sports is a freeride shop in Munich, Germany, and we talk to its founder, Sebastian Steinbach, about this past ski season; his predictions for the upcoming ski season in Europe — and whether we’ll see a backcountry boom in Europe? We then talk about the critical art of customer service; why friends shouldn’t tell friends to just “Go buy this boot”; and more. 

Order our 20/21 Winter Buyer’s Guide

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Black Sheep Sports: Background (7:25)
• Last Season Recap / Pandemic (11:28)
• Predictions for the upcoming European season? (17:35)
• The crucial art of customer service (31:57)
• “Local shops” vs “Great local shops” (47:29)
• What We’re Celebrating (1:10:34)

• Check out our other GEAR:30 conversation with Sebastian

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