Thoughts & pictures from this year's Outdoor Trade Show in Liverpool

 

Last week I was down south in Liverpool for the annual Outdoor Trade Show. I've been attending such shows for many decades in many places and after a while they all blend together, the venues interchangeable - cavernous, echoing, harshly lit, windowless  halls populated by a myriad stands promoting outdoor gear of every sort. The ambience is about as far away from the actual outdoors as you can get. I do enjoy them though!

Indoors

The Exhibition Centre in Liverpool is my favourite of all those venues. Not because it's different in itself. It isn't, but because you can walk outside and there's the river Mersey, the smell of the sea, the sound of gulls, a touch of nature. 

Outdoors

Whilst looking at new items is why I'm there it's meeting people that's the heart of the show. Many I only meet here though I'm in contact with them regularly. There are other writers, photographers, reviewers, as well as the PR people (and I do have friends amongst the latter). There are always new people to meet too and this year I had chats with YouTuber Fellmandave who has an interesting look at the show on his channel, and Sarah Williams of the Tough Girl Podcast, who has an amazing list of outdoor adventures to her name. 

I was also please to meet Steph Wetherell (@steph_wetherell) for the first time, as she's one of the TGO gear reviewing team who I've corresponded with and co-written articles with but had never actually met. Also there from TGO were editor David Lintern, who I'd travelled down with on the long train journey from the Cairngorms, and Neil Tillott, who I'd met at previous shows and who deals with marketing and advertising.

Familiar names

I also mustn't forget a guy I ended up sitting next to at the OTS social on the second evening who turned out to not only be a fellow Nordic skier but also to have attended the same much-missed Telemark Ski  weekends organised by Braemar Mountain Sports many years ago. We spent some time happily reminiscing. I can't however remember his name (it was after a long day,  the event was noisy, and I might have had a few beers but that's still no excuse) nor can I find his contact details. I'm sure we exchanged these!

Vango's big orange pyramid dominated the show. I used it to orientate myself!

Most of my time was spent looking at gear though. I'll be testing some of the new stuff for The Great Outdoors in future months (and writing an overview of the show that should appear in the next few weeks) and also for this blog and my YouTube channel. For now here's some pictures and words on a few of the products. Note that some of this gear won't be available until next year. 

New to the show were Nortent, whose original Vern 1 I tested last year (see this video). The current version is a quite different design however.

Also new to the show was Mont Adventure Equipment from Australia (not France, as I wrongly assumed) who showed some products that look ideal for UK conditions - tents with tough materials (25,000mm hydrostatic head!) and long high performance waterproof jackets.

Long jackets!

Vango showed a very familiar tent, a Force Ten Classic. Except this new version is made from ultralight materials and weighs just 2.5kg.

MSR are also lightening the weight of some of their tents with new materials. The Hubba Hubba NX is now the Hubba Hubba HD 1 is now a bit roomier as well as lighter.

Terra Nova has an interesting new solo tent that pitches with trekking poles. It's a similar configuration to the Laser tent except that it has two porches and the ridge between the upright poles creates better headroom. It weighs 1.14kg.

Rab has a new construction method for sleeping bags that means they are warmer and lighter weight.

Rab also has a new 40-litre pack, the Syclon XP 40, made with recycled fabrics, fully taped seams, and a new carry system.

Gregory has new and redesigned packs again with construction and material changes leading to lower weights.

There was much now clothing at the show, including many waterproofs with replacement fabrics for Paclite, which is no longer available. One product that caught my eye was the new Paramo Velez Shorts with multiple pockets.

Escape!