Oakley‘s Flow Scape goggle uses an industry-leading conical lens design and a new face foam enhancing vision and fit.
Flow Scape sets a new standard in performance, fit, and function. Its revolutionary lens architecture expands your field of view by 60% compared to the Oakley Line Miner. This is achieved through a conical lens design that brings the goggle closer to the face. This lens blank is used elsewhere in the business, for example in football but never before has been used in snow goggles. A single-layer lens reduces distortion, refraction and enhances peripheral vision. This has drastically helped Oakley achieve the larges field of vision gains never seen before in the industry. It’s a dramatic difference to what and how we experience snow sports from here on out.
In an effort to be more aware of Oakley’s environmental impact, Flow Scape is made with a bio-resin frame, recycled polyester strap and is housed in a recycled polyester microbag.
By using the conical lens design and new VR face foam package, Oakley was able to bring the goggle much closer to the face, and make you feel like you’re immersed in the goggle in a completely new way. You no longer see face foam in your field of vision. This is also where the name of the new VR »Vision Rapt« face foam comes in - the lens let you be fully emerged in your activities without interference by the goggle. Yet, the foam is made from a soft yet durable fleecy fabric that allows a snug and comfortable fit on different face shapes. It is a new face foam innovation that ensures a natural, pressure-free fit, delivering comfort and a immersive experience.
The goggle comes in a medium and a large size. Overall, this is a state-of-the-art goggle, which also convinced the ISPO Award jury by its striking design, comfortable and secure fit and the large and clear field of vision it provides but also the recycled materials used. It works well in combination with a helmet, too, and will be available in different colourways and comes with multiple Prizm lens options. There will also be a signature series from Oakley’s athletes available, including Mikaela Shiffrin, Sage Kotsenberg, Colby Stevenson, and Aleksander Kilde.
Every Flow Scape also comes with a 2-lens bundle for easy lens change so you can quickly adapt to changing light and weather conditions, keeping you on the mountain longer. For a quick lens change, Flow Scape features two outrigger mechanical locks that give you the confidence of lens security.
Tokio Sports is a women-focused athletic footwear brand that has launched an innovative football boot, crafted specifically for female athletes and developed in collaboration with sports medicine and retail experts.
Forget pink it and shrink it or watered-down versions of men’s footwear. Tokio Sports is the first women-focused company designing football boots for female athletes specifically, in line with unique biomechanical needs to reduce the risk of injury and optimize performance. Developed with medical expertise and cutting-edge technologies like 3D foot scanning, it is both performance-oriented and eco-friendly marking a significant leap forward in women’s sports footwear while using advanced materials, and a conscious construction.
During the development of the Tokio Sports football boot, special attention was given to the unique biomechanics of women’s feet. Through the use of 3D foot scanning technology and pressure platform analysis, detailed data was gathered on foot shape, arch height, and pressure points. This allowed us to create a female-specific last, ensuring a superior fit, comfort, and performance. Additional focus was placed on injury prevention by optimizing heel stability, arch support, and traction for women’s physiology.
The results of these detailed analyses show in the football boots. Designed to fit the narrower heel of women, they provide a narrower heel cup for a secure and snug fit, which reduces heel slippage and improves comfort. A wider toe box allows for better toe splay and accommodates the natural shape of a woman’s foot, enhancing stability and reducing pressure on the toes and in the area of the front foot. The arch support has also been specifically tailored to the female build. The Tokio Sports Boots align better with the typically higher arches in women’s feet, reducing fatigue and enhancing comfort. The studs have also been adapted for female players:
The conical-shaped studs offer superior maneuverability and ease of pivoting, helping reduce the risk of injury during quick movements. Specifically designed shorter studs also provide improved ground contact and control, catering to women’s lower average body weight for better traction. The elastane content in the sock-like entry offers both compression and stretch for a snug yet flexible fit.
Sustainability was also prioritized and eco-friendly materials were selected that maintain high performance while reducing environmental impact. Tokio Sports uses 50% recycled polyester to reduce plastic waste, TPU for durability and recyclability, and natural rubber for its biodegradability. These materials offer performance benefits like flexibility, traction, and lightweight comfort. The elastane and EVA components also ensure stretch and cushioning. A thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) upper provides excellent abrasion resistance, extending the lifecycle of the boot, while the lightweight, fully-knitted upper ensures breathability, keeping the foot cool and dry during intense matches. The boot’s outer materials are also water-repellent, ensuring performance and comfort in wet conditions without compromising breathability. A tiered pricing structure ensures accessibility for both professional and amateur players while maintaining high performance and quality across all models.
Tokio Sports also provides a repair service for minor damages, such as sole replacement. At the end of use, they encourage recycling through their take-back program or donating the boots to community programs.
The Skimulator is a sales tool that simulates the gradient of a ski slope and thus enables precise determination of the ideal size and shape of ski boots.
How can I determine the optimum and truly suitable size for ski boots? This is a question that Helmut Bachschmid, managing partner of a large Sport2000 specialist store for 35 years, asks himself again and again.With this in mind, he invented the Skimulator, a fitting device for perfectly fitting ski boots in sports retail. “The Skimulator can mimic the incline (alpine) or ascent (touring) of a ski slope, which is a prerequisite for determining whether the ski boot really fits,” explains Bachschmid's co-founder Christoph Hercher, describing how the Skimulator works.
“In order to keep distances short, we found a very competent manufacturing company near Kelheim that produces the Skimulator to the highest quality standards and ‘Made in Germany’,” explains Hercher. Their own company is based in Ihrlerstein.
Up to 70% of ski boots are sold too big according to DSLV. The Skimulator prevents this from happening. To try on ski boots, customers put on the integrated ski bindings and are brought into a typical downhill position. A three-color display shows the inclination according to international slope standards. So it's easy to adjust the angle of a blue, red or black slope via remote control, depending on the ability or preference of the person trying the boots on. The stance width can also be individually adjusted in three stages by altering the binding rails, allowing precise adjustment of the foot and leg spacing according to height and build. This allows the customer to try out how a boot fits while skiing simulating a real downhill position in store.
The mounted ski bindings are adjustable from size 32 to 48, so they are not only suitable for adults, but also for children's ski boots. The Skimulator can be used with both Grip-Walk and conventional soles and not only for alpine ski boots, but also for touring ski boots. This means that not only downhill slopes but also uphill ascents can be simulated to check the fit. A safety bar ensures a secure footing during the fitting process, even when bending the knees.
What other advantages does the Skimulator offer retailers? “The use of the Skimulator is not only a great sales aid and support, but also gives customers the assurance of having bought the right or suitable ski boot – and that's a great thing,” explains Wieland Göpfert (sen.) from Sporthaus Göpfert in Dresden. “Customers want to use the Skimulator when buying ski boots and insist on it. It is very positively evaluated by men and women without exception.”
Siegfried Stauß, SBS Sport und Mode GmbH in Lahr, also confirms this affinity of customers. In addition, he also emphasizes the show effect of the device and the associated competence. “But no time is lost by using the Skimulator. What's the point of customers walking a few steps up and down in the store?” he adds.
Skimulator also gives retailers a major advantage over the competition and pure online retailers by offering a unique fitting experience that also results in fewer returns and better sales. The device is space-saving and, at 0.67 m2, does not require much floor space. Thanks to transport wheels, the simulator can be easily moved. It offers potential for additional sales and has already paid for itself very quickly after purchase.
Four adjustable feet make the Skimulator adaptable to the floor space. Likewise, the tread area can be customized with a logo. The entire Skimulator is screwed together, not welded, and formed out of strong steel plate. This guarantees a very long service life and, if necessary, a cost-effective repair service.
The Raide LF 30L is a lightweight ski touring and ski mountaineering pack that allows you to access avalanche tools without removing your pack to decrease rescue times and encourage more frequent snow assessment.
The LF - short for “Light and Fast”- 30L combines key touring features with a unique avalanche safety design — all at just 1060g. It can even slim down to 980g with the removal of the pack’s frame. This 30L pack can grow its carry capacity to 38L with the help of the rolltop. »The design ethos of the LF 30L pack is not to develop the lightest pack on the market, but a lightweight, fully featured pack that makes you faster through better access, organization, and comfort,« says Raide founder Kyle Siegel. Raide launched in October 2023 and makes softgoods for efficient powered movement in the mountains. »We are unique in that all of our products first start with a problem or set of problems human powered athletes face and then we solve them with the product, figuring out cost and category last«, Siegel explains the drive behind his brand.
With the LF 30L, Raide set out to answer the question, Can we design a pack that enhances a skier’s flow in the mountains instead of interrupting it? Traditionally, ultralight packs skimp on features for the sake of shaving a few grams from total weight; meanwhile, mainstream ski touring packs often lack the simple but important elements like stash pockets for skins, or integrated helmet carries. With the LF 30L, Raide went back to the drawing board, reimagining what a light, fast, and fully featured ski touring and ski mountaineering pack could be.
The pack’s patent-pending avy tool access exemplifies this approach to design. At the heart of avalanche education courses, backcountry travelers learn to keep tools ready for rescue and snow study. Through the LF 30L design, Raide decreased barriers for snow safety tool use to encourage proper avalanche safety habits while also prioritizing ease of use for general gear access. The patent pending LF 30L avalanche tool pocket is the most innovative part of this pack, allowing users to access their shovel and probe without removing their pack. This is critical for safety, both when proactively studying the snowpack on an ascent and also in rescue scenarios when a rapid response is critical.
“The snow safety tool organization is very unique and puts the 3 components of a snow safety kit - shovel blade, shovel handle, and probe- against the 3 different panels of the backpack. This makes it so that the tools take up less space while being closer to the user's center of mass for better downhill performance“, Raide founder Kyle Siegel says.
A shovel and probe are never used at the same time in a rescue situation, and the LF 30L allows the rescuer to have fast but separate access to each tool when needed. During the initial portion of a search when a probe is needed, a searcher can keep a shovel stashed but readily available. For a switch from probing to shoveling, a searcher can slip one arm out of a shoulder strap, swing the pack to the front and grab the shovel quickly without ever having to take the pack off. Because a searcher doesn’t have to remove both a shovel and probe at the same time, the likelihood of putting a shovel down in an inconvenient spot during a rescue is greatly reduced. The shovel pocket itself is unique: shovel handle and shovel blade are separated to improve the space efficiency of the pack, but accessible via the same zipper opening.
Ski touring and ski mountaineering are the most demanding sports on any snowsport pack. Raide chose the highest strength-to-weight ratio materials — UHMWPE — while also prioritizing the specific features crucial to the ski mountaineering experience. “The pack is made of woven UHMWPE which is 15x the strength of steel by weight“, Siegel explains. The UHMWPE is also PFAS-free and the highest strength-to-weight thread available: the laminated fabric has a 130k hydrostatic head rating, ensuring those crucial extra layers on a tour stay dry.
Back panel access in a backcountry bag is critical: if skis or a board are strapped to the exterior of a pack, back panel access is the only way to fully reach gear on the inside. However, packs with back panel access often suffer from flex in the panel and can be uncomfortable while touring. The LF 30L boasts a back panel made from an ultralight molded composite that resists bending outward and is molded to the shape of the frame. The modular ski carry for the LF 30L provides three orientation options for carrying skis; this enables the skier to change the position based on the needs of an objective. The ski carry is mounted to the rigid frame of the pack so skis won’t swing around on the outside of the pack during a bootpack.
While prioritizing a “light and fast” weight, the LF 30L doesn’t skimp on features designed to enhance a user’s experience, including a glove stash strap on the pack’s shoulder strap, independent ice tool carry that keeps picks enclosed and easy to access without removing the pack, ice clipper loop, a zippered hip pad pocket large enough for a standard iPhone.
The Ortovox Downwool 270 Jacket features an innovative insulation mix of down and wool, for improved heat retention and more warmth in wet conditions.
When winter’s chill sets in and snow blankets the mountains, the Ortovox DownWool 270 Jacket is a great companion for backcountry adventures, even on the coldest days. This jacket combines natural cutting-edge insulation with practical design features to ensure comfort and performance, allowing you to focus on what matters: fresh powder.
The Ortovox DownWool 270 Jacket features innovative DownWool® by Grüezi Bag® insulation (about 270g) made from 70% RDS-certified down and 30% alpine wool, the Downwool 270 Jacket keeps you warm even when wet and without weighing you down – for a comfortable microclimate. By combining these two natural materials, the comfort range and range of use during physical activity is expanded: the wool prevents the down from losing its insulating power due to moisture and also ensures that the insulating properties are regulated.
This combination provides superior heat retention, even in wet conditions, without adding unnecessary weight. The result? Reliable comfort and optimal climate control, even in high-humidity environments.
The jacket’s outer shell is crafted from Pertex Quantum Pro material, delivering excellent protection against wind and weather. This material is windproof and waterproof, but also breathable and durable. It combines a tightly woven face fabric with a microporous coating to deliver a very high level of water resistance, whilst remaining lightweight, soft and breathable. It is also highly abrasion resistant, with at least 50,000 abrasion cycles in the Martindale test.
Whether you’re freeriding or tackling icy trails, the jacket’s two-way adjustable and helmet-compatible hood can be adapted with a simple handle. Pre-regulated cuffs and an adjustable hem keep you shielded from the elements, no matter the weather.
Recycled wool padding inserts on the sides and underarms allow for optimal freedom of movement when freeriding. The jacket also boasts two spacious front pockets with soft interiors and a chest pocket, perfect for stashing your phone and valuables. Overall, the DownWool 270 Jacket comes with a lot of great features, and reliable materials creating maximum warmth for full power on the mountain.