High-Tech Recreation

Insight on the News, Sept 24, 2001 by Ann Geracimos

The market for sporting and outdoor gear is driven by simple needs made complex by advances in materials science, ensuring an unlimited supply of novel fabrics and gimmicks.

Advances in modern technology have made recreation a highly complex pursuit. Today's consumer faces a bewildering array of sporting and outdoor goods that seem better suited for space-age fiction. Namely:

* a lightweight viscose rayon towel that feels like paper and, in theory anyway, can absorb up to 10 times its weight in water and dries in minutes;

* a fleece jacket made out of recycled plastic bottles; and

* a self-heating gourmet food bag.

"It's all technology," says an enthusiastic Joe Sakaduski, hard-goods buyer for Hudson Trail Outfitters, headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md. "We're only starting the journey into high-tech for the outdoors. As these new materials are invented and discovered and we learn how to work with them, it's simply a matter of application."

There are sleeping bags of varied weight and content for nearly every kind of weather; warm-weather rain gear and cold-weather rain gear; shoes and boots for every possible terrain. The field is a growth industry, with a seemingly unlimited supply of novel fabrics, safety devices and gimmicks catering to the demand for lighter, more flexible and more protective gear for both amateurs and professionals

Neither Hudson Trail nor the Seattle-based REI chain makes any distinction between novice and expert when it comes to marketing products, however. Anyone can buy a global-positioning system to replace a compass or a superlight travel alarm clock that sets itself. Portable devices can filter and purify water. Storage bottles made of a hard plastic called Lexan won't discolor or retain odor and are impact- and temperature-resistant. A miniaturized bulb headlamp, dubbed "the world's lightest," gives a bright white light powered by three triple-A batteries.

"Such technology is on its way to home use," Sakaduski says. "Most of our lights in the next 10 years will have it. It weighs 3 ounces and gives 80 hours of burn time" -- useful for bicyclists, for example.

Advances in metallurgy have resulted in intriguing camping and hiking aids, such as fold-up, pocket-size gas stoves and titanium cooking sets. Titanium, stronger than either aluminum or stainless steel, also is lightweight, thereby reducing the poundage of equipment carried in a backpack.

Space-age research also contributed to the invention of self-heating food bags. The hungry customer pulls a string on a sealed brown sack and 15 minutes later can be eating a meal of lemon-herb chicken breast or other gourmet-sounding dishes. The brown bag can be burned, leaving no litter.

Equally environmentally sound is Synchilla, known in the trade as a "post-consumer recycled polyester fleece," or PCP fleece. It's made by melting plastic bottles and converting them into thread that then is woven into a warm jacket or vest. "This jacket is trash," announces the tag on an attractive Patagonia jacket.

Gore-Tex, considered the granddaddy of breathable fabrics, was patented many decades ago by engineer Bill Gore, based on research into polymers at DuPont laboratories, where he was employed. Gore created a microscopic mesh of an exact size with 9 billion holes per inch, which lets water-vapor molecules through but keeps water molecules out. The material became the basis for a range of versatile products, such as the fisherman's pants, called waders, that replaced old heavy rubber models. The Navy adapted the fabric for flight suits to protect downed pilots adrift in water for long periods.

Such specialization is expensive and not always useful, in the opinion of many who work in the field. Professional adventure guide Skip Horner of Victor, Mont., the first person to take climbers up all seven of the highest peaks in the world, says the real need is for hybrid gear that serves several purposes at once. He has found that cashmere and soft wool blends do better for so-called "active-wear" than many synthetics such as Capilene, a quick-drying polyester fabric blend said to wick away moisture from the body.

"Capilene is a sponge," says his wife, Elizabeth, who accompanies him on trips. Their view is seconded by Ralph Kolva, a part-time REI employee at the outfitter's Baileys Crossroads store in Virginia. "Alpine-climbing people have gone away from high-tech back to old-fashioned leather shoes," he says. "Gore-Tex does breathe and keep you dry, but people have the erroneous impression you won't get messy in it. It's not as wonderful as it sounds."

The Vermont-based IBEX company has begun making active-wear of merino and specially treated wool. "I didn't like fleece or Gore-Tex," says company founder John Fernsell, who calls the latter "basically a rain jacket." Wool, by contrast, he says, "is antimicrobial," meaning that it doesn't retain odors.

"I don't view our stand as retro," he says. "If wool were invented today, it would be considered high-tech."