Category: Articles

Note: this product was provided for review.

I really like what Vero is doing, they aren’t another brand slightly tweaking iconic watches, or anything of that nature. They approach watch design with a clear path of doing something different. The Open Water 38 line hits a really sweet spot in the market: a popular dive style watch, in a much more wearable case size.

The Swell edition I was sent adds to this, coming in with a color you don’t see in a watch that often.

It’s fun, easy to wear, and quite good.

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I picked this up on sale at REI in a brighter blue color. I bought it replace a nearly 10 year old Outdoor Research jacket that is nearly the same design, but uses Alpha Direct instead of Octa. Thus, my intention with this was to use it while rucking in the winter months. Which I’ve done, but it’s so good, that I’ve moved it to my hiking kit instead.

This is one of the best mid-layers I’ve ever owned. It’s fantastic.

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A while back, I made a decision: I am going to carry a purse. I want to carry far more stuff than I can reliably (and easily) carry in my pockets. Even if I wore a jacket everyday, the annoyance of moving things from pocket to pocket wears on me. So I set about finding the purse I wanted to carry, and I picked up a previous generation of Porter’s Tanker Sling Bag — a small and compact pouch in the iconic fabric and design.

It’s supremely good, and the current generation only looks better.

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I’m a big fan of Cotopaxi’s coloring on their gear, and during an in-store event I snagged one if the most basic bags they sell, the Elqui 24. This is a daypack which has been designed to be minimal and lightweight. It’s quite a nice bag, offered at a staggeringly low price point.

I could see a lot of people liking this bag.

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I’ve had been intrigued by this bag — a lot of people sing it’s praises, and it looks cool. It went on sale and I watched a couple of videos to discover that there’s more than meets the eye, so I picked it up.

It’s a very odd bag, which I would describe as “bizarrely good” within the niche of onebag travel. In fact, I would guess this is among the best onebag travel backpacks out there — certainly the best I’ve ever used.

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I snagged this backpack in person in Salida, CO where Oveja Negra is headquartered. There were quite a few in the store, though the website does not list this model (the staff also mentioned that they do not make many of these). This is a simple and minimal roll top backpack, and it’s killer looking.

My quick thoughts on this one…

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GORUCK has not produced Shadow Rucks for a while, and it’s the one classic bag from the brand I’ve never tried. So when they recently re-released them, I grabbed a 25L Shadow Ruck to try out. I’ve been using it off and on since then, and it is a really quirky bag.

It has its place, but that place is different than how GORUCk positions the bag.

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