Roaming around on my second day at the show, I found my way into the Stance booth. I’ve heard great things about their socks but have yet to try a pair. The first thing I noticed was the new Scotty Wittlake model done with Injinji. I love Injinji socks. Last summer I was training for a half marathon, and I was constantly having problems with my feet when I ran farther than 3 miles. As you run your feet swell… if you buy your shoes in an actual running shop, they will fit you with this in mind. In spite of how well your shoes fit though, blisters from toes rubbing together and foot fatigue from poor circulation can still happen. After reading reviews on the web I decided to switch to Injinji socks. The problems I was experiencing went away during training and my half marathon was a success. So I’m excited to see if some of those benefits will translate over to snowboarding.
Remember the name “Cocona”, as you’re going to hear it more and more over the next several years in snowboard outerwear. Ride Snowboards has a two-year exclusive partnership with them to do some sweet layering and outerwear lining pieces to help you manage your body heat/moisture as you ride.
To date, everything on the market layering-wise has relied on wicking (you sweat and the material is designed to pull that moisture away from your skin and evaporate it). Cocona is designed to use your body heat to evaporate the moisture as soon as forms. This means that there isn’t any build up so you stay dry all day and, as you know, if you’re dry, you’re warm. I have a base layer piece and the new Admiral Jacket with the 2.5 Cocona system to test, so expect a Cocona review in the very near future.
I also had a chance to stop by the INI Cooperative booth to check out their new line. They are the first to admit that last year’s offering wasn’t great and have come back with some very good looking stuff including a jacket for you Sons of Anarchy fans. The technology is there and the fit is nice. In the next few weeks I’ll be swinging by the Rockies rep’s place to do a few video overviews of their collection that you can look for sometime in March. From what I hear, if you like it you’ll be able to pick it up from evo.com in the fall.
