The Goat

All the chemicals slathered on your skin might cause cancer and burn brain cells faster than smoking lead paint, but they work wonderfully for keeping insects away. SmartShield seeks to offer close to the same protection you’d get from the leading biochem companies on Wall Street, and they’re trying to do it without slowly pickling your insides. Cute idea, guys. A box of 50 of their SPF 30 Sunscreen Towelettes will backup your toilet paper supply for about $50. I’d pack a little DEET for the trip and let the idealist test this stuff out first.

via Practical Travel Gear

A 61-year-old man from St. George, Utah was arrested for hiking in the nude. Several people complained about the guy, but police didn’t find him until two women called in saying a nude man had offered to take their picture. You see what happens when all you’re trying to do is help people out? I suppose it’ll be awhile until naked hiker extends another such courtesy.

via Deseret News

It’s getting harder and harder to be a cool vegan who pedals a bike. Velo Orange has these great Elk Hide Grips that are sewn on and then kept out of the rain. I can just imagine smelling my hands after each ride to get that “fresh leather” scent stuck in my nose. The Elk Hide Sewn-on Handlebar Covers come in five colors (including white, which might get a bit dirty) and sell for $28.

via Bike Hugger

For such a pure and holistic sport, surfing requires a lot of mining and chemicals. The Cleanest Line is running a great feature that explores the claims that limestone-based wetsuits are any better than those made from oil-derived chemicals. Basically, mining limestone and turning it into the polychloroprene used in neoprene products is a high-energy, environmentally invasive process, but the upside is that it reduces our dependence on oil-derived chemicals. Of course, if a limestone wetsuit only lasts half as long as a petroleum one (unless the limestone wetsuit needs half as much material to keep you warm), then you’d be better off with the oil-based wetsuit. It’s all very complicated, but I’m sure this surfer was able to figure it out. At the end of the day, Patagonia uses the limestone derived product and tries to keep people warm by making the suits thinner and lining them with wool.

via The Cleanest Line

All you need is a shotgun and a pair of glasses missing one lens and you’ll look like the Easy-E of the Beijing Olympics. The Nike PreCool that looks like a bulletproof vest is made with water-filled cavities so you can stick it in the cooler to keep your energy drinks cold before working out. Apparently some research has found that keeping your muscles cool an hour before a race is supposed to improve performance, though it does make warming up a bit tough. For now the Nike PreCool Vest is only available to Olympic athletes, so we’ll have to keep pouring bags of gas station ice into each others’ down jackets for now.

via Trendhunter

I’m no botanist, but it doesn’t look like the grass did very well where they sprayed Poop Freeze. It’d be nice to hit a pile of dog crap with this stuff and then scoop it up with one of those plastic things people use to throw tennis balls to their dogs. You could wing it way out into the street or into a T-top Camaro parked in the lot next to the dog run.  The special holster purse for carrying the poop freeze isn’t even the worst aspect of the product—if you can believe it, they pitch Poop Freeze as a green product. Sure, it’s CFC-free, but it’s also less necessary than a special lane for Segways and creates loads of extra trash and energy waste.

via Treehugger [thanks Bryant]

Do you remember the snowboard company “Blank”? Of course not, they didn’t have a logo and went out of business about a month after they started. Ironically, their leftovers were sold to people with a bunch of those Mountain-Dew-branded snowboards that were won during a promotion for 1-800-Collect. Probably not what Blank had in mind when they kicked off the anti-logo company.

Now Mission Bicycle out of San Francisco is doing the same thing, except they’re making a high quality product with highend components and custom paintjobs. The Mission Cycle fixies don’t have any visible branding, and are instead shipped as a “blank canvas for your design.”

via Bike Hugger

The Massachusetts-based company Penfield is rolling out a line of women’s jackets for next winter that look like they’re made for the only climate in the U.S. that manages to accomplish bitter cold and heavy rain on the same day. Some of the 2008 women’s Penfield jackets feature “Pendazzle,” a camouflage print based on the patterns used on (German) battleships in WWII. I wouldn’t think they’d want to broadcast that their jackets make women look like battle-ready ships, but I don’t know the first thing about selling to women (I once referred to a tent as a “3-man” tent and was nearly stabbed by a sporty young couple).

via Snowboard Mag

Carry condoms through a rainstorm and don’t worry about crushing them while riding your bike to the sleazy meet market bar. The Jimi Wallet borrows a little waterproof technology for people who don’t mind walking around in sopping wet jeans as long as their cash stays dry. The $15 translucent wallet is big enough for a couple card and some cash, and bright enough that you won’t look like a local when you take it to the waterpark.

via Gear Junkie

These things look like something you’d see at a KOA Campground, but you can’t argue with effectiveness. The BikeLid shells are lauded for their recycled and recyclable composition, low cost, and effectiveness in preventing bike theft. They remind me of wind turbines because they’re obviously very effective and smart but super ugly so no one wants them in their community. The cheap plastic shells are bolted to the concrete and have a spring-loaded mechanism that makes them easy to open and close, and they lock with a regular U-lock.

via Treehugger [Thanks Bryant]