Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009: Food and Shoes
January 25, 2009 by Bryon Powell · 6 Comments
This past weekend, iRunFar had dozens of appointments with trail running companies and scoured the entire 2009 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market show floor. In between consuming our fair share of coffee and beer, we learned as much as about trail running gear in those three days as we normally would in three months. While over the next few month we’ll be providing in depth reviews of many of the products we saw and reporting about many developments we learned about at ORWM ’09, we wanted to give you a sneak preview of some our favorite products and biggest trends from the show. Below we cover food and shoe highlights, we cover our favorite lights, apparel, and other gear from the show in another post.
Fab Food
OR saw two significant introductions from companies familiar to trail runners: Gu and Clif Bar.
This was the first OR where Clif featured its Shot Roks and we ate a couple of these malt ball-like, protein-filled treats every time we walked by the Clif booth. The cookie dough flavor is top notch, the chocolate flavor is solid, and the peanut butter flavor remains MIA… this time out of deference to the peanut butter scare. (Clif products were likely not contaminated despite being recalled.) iRunFar hopes to be getting some Shot Roks to share with readers in the not too distant future. (See iRF’s Shot Roks preview)
Gu showed up at OR with its entry into the energy chew category – Gu Chomps. The Chomps are not overly sweet and slightly bitter (in a good way). The taste reminded us more of Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane (See iRF’s Roctane review) than any other Gu energy gel flavor. The Chomps are the softest energy chew we’ve tried and as each Chomp is slightly smaller than a Clif Shot Blok, the Chomps should be easy to eat on the trail. While there are already many energy chews on the market, these will be worth trying. [Editor's Note: I now feel somewhat foolish in comparing the Chomp flavor I tried to Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane. "Why?" you ask. Well, we stumbled across this hidden page on Gu's website only to learn... we tried the Blueberry Pomegranate flavor Chomp! Chomps will also be available in Cranberry Apple, Strawberry, and Orange.]
Gu Chomps will be available in four flavors at $2.20 per packetOur favorite new food of OR was unquestionably the White Chocolate Macadamia Clif Bar. Oh. My. Goodness! These brought us back to late-night cookie runs to Hope’s Cookies in Bryn Mawr, PA for their White Russian cookies, which a college friend/current roommate of iRunFar’s Bryon Powell independently confirmed in a highly unscientific taste test. Clif, please send a case of WCM Clif Bars to iRF world headquarters stat. ;-) Actually, hold off until after the Marathon des Sables… otherwise we’ll eat ourselves out of shape. We just can help ourselves when these tasty treats are around! For those seeking a lighter option, Clif also introduced a White Chocolate Macadamia Luna Bar that’s quite yummy.
Get Your Kicks
Traditionally, there are significantly fewer new trail shoe releases at winter OR than summer OR and this year was no different. However, there were some interesting shoes like Saucony’s Razor with eVent’s breathable membrane and built-in gaiter and GoLite Footwear’s major revision of their innovative suspension technology from a “pod” design to a “paw-like” design. Showing that slight revisions can make the difference from unwearable to highly-test worthy, oBoz tweaked the bootie construction for the Ignition II so that it’s now much easier to put on and something we look forward to testing.
oBoz Ignition IIMuch to our surprise, the two trail shoe highlights at OR came from companies with their roots in road running. Inexcusably, we’ve never tested any member of Brooks’ highly acclaimed Cascadia series. Let it be known that the Brooks Cascadia IV now glows with halogen brightness on our radar screen. It’s worth noting that Brooks brought product consultant Scott Jurek to the show, in part because New Balance is also obviously listening to its stud ultrarunners, Tony Krupicka and Kyle Skaggs. Anyone who has followed Tony’s progress over the past few years likely knows the lengths he’ll go to for lighter shoes. With New Balance’s new featherweight trail racer, the NB 100 (Fall ’09 $75), Tony won’t have to do much more than dial up his primary sponsor to find shoes he likes for the upcoming race season.
Inov-8 gets a nod in the super-light category for its X-Talon 212. For now, you can checkout X-Talon 212 reviews from Inov-8 team members Kevin Sullivan and Scott Dunlap.
More
Remember to check back in later this week for more info on lighting systems, apparel, and other highlights of ORWM ’09.
Related articles:
- Best Trail Running Shoes of Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2012 A look at the best trail running shoes of the 2012 winter Outdoor Retailer show....
- Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2009: Lighting, Apparel and More Now that you’ve had a chance to read up on our favorite shoes and food from the 2009 Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, we’ll share our favorite lighting systems updates and...
- iRunFar at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Later today, I head out to Salt Lake City to cover the 2008 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market (OR Show) for iRunFar.com. Pretty much every company that makes trail running gear...
Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Hi there,
I hate to bring some bad news but some clif bar products were recalled with the Peanut issues.
Mojo bars by Clif are on the list and I believe there might be more items added. Many of these additional products have been produced in the factory with the tainted peanuts (thus risk may not be high but better to be safe then sorry). The CDC (and FDA) have been trying to identify all the products affected.
You can check out the following link to determine if your favorite brand of snack product is affected:
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html
Be safe,
Tammy
Thanks, Tammy. I revised my post to make it more clear that Clif did recall products, but that there is not likely to be a safety issue. The scope of the recall both within companies and industry-wide are more of a “trust” issue than anything else… at least that’s how I see it.
Hi there,
As I ate about 30 of clif Mojo bars prior to the recall, I would suggest it is more likely companies being conservative (although I do think there is a bit of concern for immunocompromised individuals).
In fact I would think ultra runners are exposed to alot worse microbes at many aid stations (I’ve volunteered at a few and it is really illuminating…I think the 5 second rule becomes the 5 minute rule and cups can, and do, get re-used. I doubt CDC would be thrilled at the hygeine during events:-) In fact I think I am one of very few people carrying wet wipe packets and that is only because I hate sticky hands! I laugh in the face of microbes.
Take care,
Tammy
I think I should go to Hope’s and eat some cookies for you :) :) I drove by there the other day and almost drooled. :)
I am not sure if Clif’s recalls were voluntary good will or that their supply was questionably tainted. Lara bars were also on the recall list.
Meredith,
I think you should go to Hope and BUY some cookies for me! While you’re at it, I’ll take a pie from Peace-a-Pizza! Oh how I love Main Line food!
There is a Peace of Pizza near my office, but no cookies, so i have not been there yet, cause if there ain’t cookies, what’s the point?