Get the most out of your workouts with these energy sources.
(Courtesy Bobo's)
Bobo’s Oat Bar ($4)
Thanks in part to its cakelike texture and rolled oats, this was without a doubt the best-tasting bar we tried. The chewy Banana Chocolate Chip flavor is reminiscent of mom’s banana bread but with enough carbs and sugar to keep us going mid-workout.
The next time you’re bonking on a run or ride, skip the Gatorade and grab a can of Runa instead. Derived from a concentrated brew of South American guayusa tree leaves, which are packed with antioxidants and caffeine, this energy-boosting drink will power you through any type of workout. Our favorite flavor, Blood Orange, has no sugar or artificial chemicals.
Alpine Aire Grape Escape Dried Fruit (Courtesy Alpine Aire)
Alpine Aire Grape Escape Dried Fruit ($6)
Grapes have always been too squishy and messy to be a practical backcountry snack. Until now. This seedless variety is freeze-dried for an easy, all-natural trail munchie. Sweet and crunchy, they’re great sprinkled on granola in the morning or straight from the bag at any point in the day.
Gels are great, but sometimes all we want is a traditional bar. Made from coconut, fruit, nuts, and chia seeds, Pro Bar’s latest concoction is delicious enough to eat for dessert. And at 200 calories, it packs a punch. Picky eaters will appreciate that it’s organic, gluten-free, and certified non-GMO.
The New Primal Classic Turkey Jerky (Courtesy New Primal)
The New Primal Classic Turkey Jerky ($55 for eight)
We tested dozens of jerkies, and New Primal’s Classic Turkey was our favorite. Carved from free-range turkey breast with no antibiotics, the bite-size strips are among the leanest on the market, especially compared with the more common beef options. Pineapple juice and a touch of honey make for a subtly sweet aftertaste.
Most gels need to be chased with water to prevent stomach revolt. Not this one. SiS’s already hydrated goop delivers a quick kick in the pants when you need it most. Each packet is loaded with 22 grams of carbs and can easily be zipped into a pack or belt. Flavors like orange, apple, and lemon are tasty enough to make refueling feel like a treat.
The comfy, do-everything Solo3 offers rich, thumpy sound and is great during commutes and on runs, where the rubberized headband helps it stay put. Its Bluetooth boasts a nearly unprecedented range of 400 feet. Battery life runs 40 hours, and a quick five-minute plug-in gives your Beats three hours of juice if you’re rushing out the door.
Lightweight and sweat-resistant, the Summit comes in at a remarkably low price for Bluetooth earphones and sounds surprisingly good. The earpieces wedge in snugly, and the cord snaps onto your shirt collar, which alleviates the constant tug you can get from other behind-the-neck models. Its plastic build and thin wires don’t inspire total confidence, though.
Don’t overlook wired earphones: they eliminate the need for charging—simply plug and play. Dynamic MicroDrivers produce stellar sound quality that doesn’t overdo the bass and is as crisp as that of any model we tested, while a secure fit is accomplished via moldable, Kevlar-reinforced over-ear cables.
With its solid build, sweat resistance, impressive sound that stays clear at high volumes, and reflective cable for nighttime safety, the Victory BT comes close to perfecting wireless workout buds. But best of all are the just-right rubber wings that leverage the shape of your ear to wedge them in place.
The Epic2 emerged as our favorite wireless sports headphones this year. While the buds are a bit chunky (though not heavy) and might not sit right in smaller ears, the powerful oomph of its rich, bass-heavy audio makes up for the size. Plus it’s water-resistant and can be rinsed off briefly after a particularly sweaty outing.
Sony has trodden into Bose territory with these frequent-flier-friendly cans. Throw together Bluetooth connectivity, customizable filtering for blocking out ambient sounds and voices, digital sound enhancement, supple over-ear cups with touch controls on the outside, and a 20-hour battery life and the result is the ideal—albeit expensive—pair of travel headphones.
A full-size foam roller that folds down to the size of a textbook—impossible? Nope. And at a scant 1.6 pounds, the Morph can still support 350 pounds when expanded into its circular shape.
This sleek 22-liter bag has a burly drop front that folds outward for easy, locker-like access. Mesh pockets inside are tailored for water bottles, and the wax-treated body sheds precipitation.
A classic tool updated for fitness buffs. This set comes with two cables—one is thinner, for agility workouts, and the other (shown) is beefier, for conditioning. Together they weigh two pounds.
Stash a couple of these superfood-loaded packets in your bag and you don’t have to worry about a post-workout smoothie. Honey harvested in India lends just enough sweetness.
Male runners, rejoice: Saxx’s patented Ballpark Pouch—which is exactly what it sounds like—is sewn into a breathable liner to prevent chafing and add support. These stretchy, low-key shorts are technically designed for running, but we wore them everywhere.
Quality gear to make you feel like a million bucks no matter how hard you’re pushing it.
CEP Dynamic+ Run Ultralight Low socks. (CEP)
CEP Dynamic+ Run Ultralight Low Socks ($20)
Some compression socks feel as tight as tourniquets. Not these. The Ultralight Lows are just snug enough to reduce swelling, increase circulation, and support muscles and joints.
Made from a surprisingly silky, 90 percent recycled polyester, this 9.8-ounce windbreaker was an impressively strong buffer against the elements on damp, 45-degree days, offering no excuse to stop training.
Designed by veteran Ironman Kebby Holden, this buttery-soft bra has a hidden cleavage pocket and wears perfectly on its own—all the better to show off the retro wraparound stripes and shapely racerback.
Look no further than Trigger Point when it comes to quality, compact rollers. The Grid STK’s ridged foam surface replicates a massage therapist’s hands—a godsend for relieving tweaked muscles after Pilates.
Patagonia Lightweight Black Hole 28L tote. (Patagonia)
Patagonia Lightweight Black Hole 28L Tote ($49)
Two words sum up this bag: tough and simple. Sand, grit, and late-season snow couldn’t penetrate its ripstop nylon, which is treated with a water-repellent finish. True to its name, it swallowed everything.
The 50-50 blend of polyamide and recycled polyester in these leggings works double time, providing a cushy layer next to skin and wicking sweat as you ramp up the intensity.
Not as beefy as its forebears, the versatile Hupana—with rockered mid- and outsoles—is a comfortable all-around trainer. The sleek knit upper fits in at the gym or in the urban jungle.
No unnecessary bells or whistles here. This compression-knit, quick-drying top boasts a stretch-mesh back panel and two drop-in pockets for bike tubes or gels.
The second iteration of Apple’s smartwatch earned our Gear of the Year nod for doing one thing insanely well: worming its way into every corner of our lives. It patches through texts and calls directly to our wrists. It tracks daily motion and automatically prompts us to keep active throughout the day. No wearable has simpler navigation, and it integrates that famous ease of use into each of its fitness functions as well. Want to go for a run? Just say “Hey, Siri, let’s run,” and once you’re on the trail you get verbal pace, distance, and elapsed-time updates. When you’re finished, the watch will keep track of your daily, weekly, and monthly mileage goals. Like its predecessor, the Series 2 is more welcoming than other watches when it comes to third-party fitness apps like Strava and MapMyRun. And those revamped good looks are indicative of a larger trend in wearables: shedding all that teched-out styling for something you’re not embarrassed to wear on a date. After all, nobody wants to broadcast “Look at me—I run!” even if that’s exactly what you’d rather be doing, every chance you get.
The Test: The svelte 5S is one of Garmin’s smallest, most sophisticated models yet. It delivers up to nine days of battery life (or 14 hours of continuous GPS tracking), and its fitness diagnostics are superb. After a run, we synced our workout to the Garmin Connect app and manipulated overlay charts that showed, for instance, average steps per minute against pace to see if our form fell apart as we increased speed. There are also interval modes and custom alerts for pace and distance. On-wrist heart-rate capture was among the best in our test, matching the Suunto Spartan Sport. The only bummer: Garmin doesn’t allow onboard music storage.
The Verdict: A long-lifed wearable with fitness chops.
The Test: Too many timepieces that combine altimeter, barometer, and compass (ABC) functions feel like they’re stuck in 1999. Samsung’s Gear S3 Frontier, on the other hand, is wholly 2017, with analog ABC sensors that work together with Wi-Fi and a built-in SIM card to triangulate your precise location. Thanks to that SIM, the watch also lets you send an SOS beacon to friends and family. Three days of battery life make it a great weekend-escape watch, too. Did we mention it may have the most versatile pay-from-your-wrist system on earth? So you can leave not only your phone at home but also your wallet. The interface—a slick rotating bezel—is clever and easy to use. We especially love that Samsung’s proprietary S Health app automatically logs various workout activities. Plus, you can run other fitness apps, including Under Armour Record and MapMyRun.
The Verdict: ABC watches, welcome to the 21st century.
The Test: Android wearables came out of the gate a bit clunky—physically big, with illogical, cumbersome interfaces. However, the new LG Watch Sport is one of the first timepieces to get Android Wear 2.0, streamlining things considerably. The watch has its own SIM, so you can listen to Spotify and make calls sans phone. Like the Samsung, navigation is smooth: rotate the watch crown to scroll through menus rather than tapping and swiping the screen, which can be a real problem with sweaty fingers in the middle of a jog. Android lets you download fitness apps (Runtastic, Strava, Seven, and more) directly to the watch. All told, though, we wish it had a slightly slimmer design.
The Verdict: The best Android Wear watch on the market.
The Test: Strava fanatics, this is your watch. Sure, it runs Android Wear 2.0, but Strava comes preloaded and fully integrated; simply tap the upper-right button to fire it up. Plus, Strava boasts a few features just for the RunIQ that you won’t see on other Android or iOS watches, like footfall cadence, accurate speed metrics, and easy-to-use lap mode. The RunIQ’s five-hour battery life (with GPS running) doesn’t even match the half-as-costly Polar, but it’s fully waterproof down to 50 meters—good news for triathletes. And New Balance—with R&D by Intel—includes highly accurate heart-rate monitoring that held up impressively well during high-intensity intervals. Also, this puppy stores up to 50 hours of music.
The Verdict: A dedicated running watch with stealth wearable capability.
The Test: The name may be a mouthful, but the watch is impressive—12 hours of battery in GPS mode, water-resistant to 100 meters, and 80 different preloaded sport modes, including trail running, open-water swimming, and adventure racing. It has an easy-to-read touchscreen, but the physical buttons on the side were clutch when our hands got sweaty. On-wrist heart-rate accuracy was matched only by the Garmin, and GPS was top-notch. Workouts get logged in Suunto’s MovesCount app and desktop program, and you can use the latter to download nearby routes and preplanned training calendars.
The Test: The M200 is lightweight and comfortable, and despite its price, it tracks a ridiculous number of sports, including badminton, disc golf, and literally a hundred more. Using it couldn’t be easier, with just two buttons and an intuitive operating system. Like most wearables, the M200 has GPS and accurate on-wrist heart rate, and your workout data syncs to your phone via the Polar Flow app. The M200 also works with Android’s Google Fit and can populate Apple’s Health Kit. However, its six hours of GPS battery life left us hanging on all-day epics.
The Verdict: Looking to track your handball stats? There’s a watch for that.
Watches that mix modern technology with old-school appeal.
(Courtesy Tsovet)
Tsovet SVT-RM40 ($325)
It was the Tsovet’s minimalist design that won us over. The solid stainless-steel case is water-resistant to 100 meters and houses a simple face meant to mimic the readout on an old fighter jet. Even more subtle: the date shows through a slot resembling a ship’s porthole. Only the metallic-blue hands convey a bit of flash.
Szanto nailed the fieldwatch look with a round-edged case, subtle wave pattern on the face, and deco-like minute and second hands. Bonus points for the one-piece stainless-steel construction and SuperLuminova application, which makes the hands glow bright after dark.
Where other brands merely copy military badassery, the SEAL lives it. Carbon woven into the polycarbonate case offers the toughness of titanium at one-third the weight for a barely-there watch that won’t fail you when things get gnarly. Tritium-tube hands and numbers stay lit for 25 years. Other features include an antireflective sapphire crystal and precise Swiss quartz movement.
Appearances suggest that this is a basic analog wristwatch. But press the crown and it pairs with a free app (Android and iOS) to auto-set the time and log daily distance, calorie, and sleep data on your smartphone. A small subdial on the watch tallies your steps. Kudos for the one-year battery life.
The Field Navigator is a stripped-down yet hardy watch made by Huckberry in the spirit of the mission timers used by Vietnam-era Special Forces. With a reliable Ronda quartz movement, this timepiece is a great value if you’re looking to keep a low profile.
Dive watches often break the bank. Not this one. For a little more than a Benjamin, you get 200 meters of water resistance and some nice details, like the offset crown to avoid wetsuit snags and bright luminescent hands and markers for underwater clarity.
The best hikers protect your feet without feeling like cement blocks. The 600 Low fulfills both needs: it’s relatively light (two pounds per pair) yet burly, with a thick, water-proof suede outer and tough Vibram soles.
Low-light shooting calls for a steady hand—and a bit of third-party support. That’s when you break out this quick-draw folding monopod. Perk: it doubles as a hiking pole.
This is the most intelligently designed camera pack we’ve tried. Credit customizable dividers that let you organize to your heart’s content and easy-access side zips.
Think of this pullover as a poor-weather insurance policy. The stretchy layer packs down to the size of an apple but is still plenty tough to cut wind, add warmth, and hold off rain long enough for you to find shelter.
Apple nailed the size-to-power ratio with its new 15-inch laptop. Weighing in at four pounds and merely 15.5 millimeters thick, it packs enough processing power to chew through big RAW files and lengthy segments of 4K video.
Sony Vario-Tessar T* E 16—70mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens ($1,000)
The only lens you’ll ever need. It has a massive range when paired with the a6500—from 24mm to 105mm—for capturing both wide landscapes and detailed portraits.
If a DSLR and a point-and-shoot had a kid, this would be it. A crisp Zeiss lens, 11-frames-per-second machine-gun capture rate, and 24.2-megapixel sensor are packed in a body that weighs merely a pound.
Any company can make shades with good polarized lenses, but few can keep them in place when the sweat starts to roll. That’s why we love the Hunt’s half-rubber arms, which help the robust plastic frames stick.
Nature’s nice, but sometimes you want to rock out while training. The tiny Boom Bit, which pairs to your phone via Bluetooth, lets you do so without blocking out the sounds around you—like traffic or an oncoming mountain biker.
The Duro 6 made multi-hour runs (relatively) painless, with vest-style suspension that reduced jostle even with a maxed-out main compartment and full hydration bladder.
Mesh side panels and a moisture-wicking polyester crown kept us comfortable on blistering days. When the sun went down, reflective hits made us visible.
This Southern California company is all about versatility. The Trail’s mid-thigh-length inseam was as appropriate for running as it was for refueling at the local brunch spot.
Caffeine is one of the best performance enhancers a runner can use (legally, anyway). A single serving of Run Gum packs the same amount of punch as eight ounces of coffee.
Runners burn through shirts like gel packets, but the Van Cortlandt is one worth preserving. Tracksmith slimmed the usual boxy fit for a runner’s lithe build, and the Swiss-sourced mesh is soft and breathable.
In addition to advanced metrics, post-race analysis, and the infamous Suffer Score, Strava Premium now offers an emergency service called Beacon, which lets three designated safety contacts follow your location on a map in real time.
Balega makes our favorite socks for blister-free running. The polyester-nylon yarn used in this pair is treated with antimicrobial silver to help ward off foot funk.
One of the most intuitive wearables we’ve tried, the Forerunner features Garmin’s über-accurate location tracking, an easy-to-read color screen, up to nine days of battery life, and a heart-rate monitor. Also included is 24/7 activity tracking for steps, sleep quality, and more.
For trail runners who tackle epics, this 4.4-ounce straw ensures you never run out of water. It filters out bacteria and protozoa but not viruses (so best not to use it abroad). The stainless-steel body is rugged enough to survive a mountainside tumble.
The genius of this 1.5-ounce running light? There’s no battery to replace. Clip it to your belt and sliding magnets harness your kinetic energy to generate 30 lumens.
Think of the Radar Pace as sporty shades, unobtrusive earbuds, and a personal trainer all in one. Its voice-activated system provides real-time coaching, tracks your pace, and lets you know when it’s time to push for a PR. The lenses offer great coverage and boost clarity—these are Oakleys, after all.
We have yet to find anything that melts tight-muscle pain as well as Hyperice’s massage ball. There are three soothing vibration settings: strong, stupid strong, and completely insane. Two hours of battery life keep the post-workout magic coming.
Add four accelerometers to a pair of top-rated trainers, sync them with a phone, and you’ve got your own on-the-go coach. The IQ gives you granular feedback data, including cadence, foot strike, impact, and balance.
Runners wearing trucker hats? Yeah, it’s a thing. You may have noticed Ryan Hall or Jenn Shelton rocking one. Truckers are a hell of an improvement over the alternatives. Previously, our headgear was limited to a stained cotton baseball hat or a low-profile, running-specific cap. The former quickly smelled bad, and the latter just looked dumb. So runners’ adoption of this particular lid—once reserved for crusty blue-collar dudes or Brooklyn hipsters—is a good thing, not least because it injects a bit of swagger into some otherwise dorky kit. Here are our favorites.
Blowfish Designs Signature Series. (Courtesy of Blowfish Designs)
Each year, we test dozens of bikes in Sedona, Arizona, putting them through their paces in a variety of terrain. This year, we found one stand-out bike that can do just about anything. Watch to see why our testers loved the 2017 Santa Cruz Tallboy (and its sister, the Juliana Joplin) and why the rigs won Gear of the Year in our Summer Buyer’s Guide.
Each year, we ride dozens of bikes in Sedona, Arizona, putting them through their paces at our annual bike test. This year, we found one road bike that stood above the rest. Watch to see why our testers loved the 2017 Giant TCR Advanced Pro 1 Disc and why the bike won Gear of the Year in our Summer Buyer’s Guide.
The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and the mountains are calling for weekend warrioring. To celebrate the start of summer, we’ll be updating this page over the next three months with a monthly giveaway featuring a product we love from our 2019 Summer Buyer’s Guide. Just fill out the entry form below to be considered for that month’s prize—we’ll contact the winners directly, then update this page with their names.
Be sure to come back in July and August for a chance to win the next big thing. Good luck!
July: ORCA Liddup Cooler
We picked the ORCA Liddup as an essential piece of road-trip gear in our 2019 Summer Buyer's Guide. There's no need to bring a headlamp when grabbing a cold one out of this cooler—it's wired with a strip of white LEDs that turn on as soon as you crack it open.
June: Away Bigger Carry-On
We feature Away’s Bigger Carry-On suitcase in the Travel Tech section of the Summer Buyer’s Guide. It won our hearts with its compact, sleek construction (it’s designed to fit in most overhead compartments), and features like an ejectable battery and TSA-approved lock.
