Once again I joined the YogaSlackers for the OR show this year. They started a day earlier than I had originally expected (new schedule), but I left the day after the concrete pour at my place. This meant I missed the set up, but that wasn't a problem. The OR (Outdoor Retailer) show is a huge show of all sorts of outdoor gear and clothing manufacturers. For most people it is a chance to either buy or sell their new products to retailers.
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With the YogaSlackers I help to set up and run the Prana Yoga Rejuvenation room and also help out with their Gearjunkie persona to do a few overbooked meetings and scour the show for new and exciting products. It is also a good opportunity to meet up with some friends that are there and pick up random schwag - freebies or deeply discounted items for sale. It was also good to reconnect and thank the people that helped us out with gear and food for Patagonia.
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The low point of the show was probably a meeting with a "womens lifestyle" shoe company - this really isn't my thing. The show can be a weird mix of hectic and waiting for something to happen. It can take a few days just to see every booth, and things can go a lot slower when you stop to talk to people or to get to the other side of the show for free waffles, ice cream, or coffee. It is always nice to actually see the gear you have heard about or seen online and there are usually at least a few things that are really cool (like a corrugated plastic folding kayak). Unfortunately this year seemed to have even more beer and wine and less food than usual. Still I have mad skills and was able to stay fed.
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One new thing we did this year was do some acro yoga play on SUP - stand up paddleboards. They had a thigh deep pool to demo stuff in, and we got to play on the boards. Some things weren't too hard, but others were. Needless to say we all got at least a little wet. The others sure were a lot better than I am, but I got to play too - I could even say (not entirely fictitiously) that I am a professional SUPer
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The last day is a bit of a mad scramble to collect the gear and food that people told us to come back and get the last day, meetings with people that you hadn't been able to get together with yet, and then the madness that is the break down. This year I helped Prana with the break down a bunch. I managed to get some stuff from the next booth over that was tossing a bunch of their demo stuff - score.
Here are the links to the Gear junkie "best in show" awards pages with links to some cool new gear.
Gear Junkie Summer OR 2013 best in show awards I  |
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