When you’re out exercising, the last thing you want to be thinking about is your clothing. There are any number of more important thoughts that should be occupying your mind, like: “Don’t trip on that rock;” “Look at that beautiful view;” “What’s my heart-rate?” and so on. Unfortunately, all too often, clothing malfunctions can get in the way of a perfectly good outing. Maybe your shorts are chafing, or maybe they keep riding down as you run. One possible solution? The Indura Stay Put Shorts. These shorts are designed to fit so well you won’t even notice them.
The author in her trail-running element, wearing Indura Athletic’s Stay Put Shorts.
Indura Athletic, a small-scale business producing hand-crafted clothing, focuses on creating products that fit women’s athletic bodies and allows them to focus on their workouts, and not their clothing. With unique innovative design features, the Stay Put Shorts do just that.
Unlike most fitted running shorts, the Stay Put Shorts feature a thin grip strip on the bottom hem that keeps them in place and prevents them from riding up. Additionally, they are designed to fit the curves of your body with the inseam being longer to limit chafing, paired with a shorter outer seam to provide a flattering look.
Indura Stay Put shorts come in a variety of color options.
Pockets on both legs allow you to store items such as keys, phones, or snacks while out running.
The short’s pockets work well for storing a phone, keys, or snacks while running.
The shorts are presented with two options, the mid-rise or high rise curve. The mid-rise curve dips below the belly button, and curve up around the hips toward a high back, whereas the high rise option sits above the belly button at an even hight around the waist.
The mid-rise option of the Indura Stay Put Shorts is pictured here.
Typically I have always stuck to a more loose fitting running short, but after having purchased the Indura Stay Put Shorts, I’ve begun to wear them more and more frequently. Not only are they practical and well-designed, but they are also stylish and make me feel speedy when I hit the trails.
The author tests Indura Athletic Stay Put Shorts while out for a run in the alpine.
Being a new and evolving business, Indura is always open to feedback and each product launch produces a new and slightly improved design. Currently, Indura is closed to orders but you can keep an eye out for the next product launch at induraathletic.com or on Instagram at @induraathletic.
Corinne Prevot models wearing a “Tour” neck warmer as a headband. Prevot began making hats and headbands for her teammates and friends at Burke Mountain Academy in 2008. This hobby transformed into Skida, which is making waves in the outdoor industry. (Photo: Screenshot Skida.com)
Over the last eleven years, Skida has taken off from its humble beginning as cross-country skier Corinne Prevot’s side hustle. Prevot began sewing hats and headbands for her teammates and friends in 2008 while attending Burke Mountain Academy. While at Middlebury, she continued to squeeze in production around her classes and ski training, with some help from her mom. After graduating in 2013, she officially started Skida in Burlington and her hats, headbands, neck warmers, and scarves can now be found in cross country ski shops across the country.
This success is for good reason: the products are awesome. They also come with the added bonus of being akin to wearing a badge declaring your love of skinny skiing. Seriously. Let your freak flag fly and say it loud and proud: I love cross-country skiing!
Sadly, with Skida’s rise in popularity, runners, hikers, backcountry skiers, mountain bikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts have begun diluting the nordie badge effect, but it’s still worth giving a fellow wearer a knowing nod of solidarity. Kanalizacijos įrengimas, šulinių kasimas, nuotekų valymo įrenginiai
Jokes aside, the hats and headbands are an excellent addition to any collection. The line of fleece-lined “Alpine” hats and headbands are great for skiing on cold days or for wearing around town, while the thinner moisture-wicking polyester-blend “Nordic” line keeps your head warm and dry when you’re working hard. Both lines of headgear are well-made (by hand in Vermont) and long enough to keep your ears covered.
The Nordic headband also fits well under a helmet during chilly rollerski sessions or bike ride, or when you’re having an affair with wider boards.
Proceeds from some patterns of Skida hats benefitted Liz Stephen during her ski career. (Photo: Screenshot Instagram @lizhillstephen)
The “Tour” neckwarmer is thicker than the traditional Buff, which may be too warm in some conditions, but it’s breathability will help keep your neck and chin dry even when sweating. It can also be rolled to wear as a headband.
Perhaps the most recognizable quality of Skida gear is it’s visual appeal. The patterns are striking, colorful, and ever-changing. Some of the proceeds from certain patterns go to charities, like the High Fives Foundation, which provides resources to athletes who have suffered life-altering injuries and promotes injury prevention education. Another collection supported former U.S. Ski Team member Liz Stephen, who was a friend of Prevot’s from Burke.
The company furthers it’s outreach through the “Skida [+1]” program, where customers can opt into donating a hat to a cancer patient at a hospital of their choosing. Simply choose a hospital from the list of options and enter the corresponding abbreviation as a discount code at check out, and someone undergoing chemotherapy receives a hat to stay warm.
Bundled up for a fall chariot ride while mom rollerskis.
Skida even offers headgear for your little ones, with sizes that fit from birth to age 8. My 13 month old, who has a 90th percentile head, outgrew her baby hat but does not quite fit in her new kids Alpine hat (in “Watering Hole” print). She still wears it for rides in the chariot or stroller, but it tends to slide down over her eyes when she’s mobile. We love that the fleece lining keeps her ears warm, and she loves pointing at all the animals.
In short, a Skida hat, neckwarmer, or headband is the perfect stocking stuffer for yourself, or anyone on your list that loves being outside in the winter.
Skida is offering 20% off during their one-day Tubular Tuesday Sale today 12/4/19. For each order, a hate will be donated to a cancer patient through the Skida [+1] program.
Editor’s note: This year, we opted for a spin on the holiday gift guide. Rest assured, we tasked the right guy — our gear-review guru — with the job of compiling a 12-day list of gift ideas (in various price ranges) for all the nordies in your life.
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Day 8: More Gear
The classic rule in endurance athletics is, “If some is good, more is better,” and never is that more true than in the world of gear. If you’re comfortable, fast and sexy with some gear, well, you do the math, you’ll be even more comfortable, more fast, and more sexy with MORE gear. And what’s wrong with being sexy?
In his play Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare wrote, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” I suppose I am very fortunate, as I have managed to check all three boxes: I was born a great person, I achieved greatness in a number of business and athletic pursuits, and what has been thrust upon me? Well, after my ground-breaking and lengthy expose on dirty underwear and single men’s mission to avoid laundry (and thusly avoid any sort of sexual contact whatsoever), I have found myself thrust into the role of “BO Analyst and Advisor,” a moniker I wear proudly.
PT Barnum is believed to have authored the phrase, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” and this is a simple rule that I have now embraced. In the days following the publication of our laundry detergent review, I have literally been stopped every day on the tracks and been asked some variation of, “Did you really wear your underwear for 10 days without washing them?” Or, “Did that stuff really work?” or my favorite, “What the hell is wrong with you?” The answers to those questions are, ‘Yes,’ ‘Yes,’ and “A lot.’ Like my boy PT says though, “No such thing as bad publicity,” so I’m just rolling with this.
Given this, when the boys up in the Toko R&D lab hit me up with their version of a baselayer restoration treatment, who was I to say no? Is it weird to have dudes stopping me to talk about washing (or not washing) their undies? A lesser man may buckle under the weight of these expectations and occasionally sexually-awkward inferences, but not me, I have never been one to back down from a challenge. Apparently the world needs an ambassador to fresh drawers and I’m the guy without a chair when the music stopped, so let’s do this.
Toko’s take is a little different than DeFUNKit, as the Toko product is NOT a detergent, rather a treatment that is applied during the fabric softener cycle. It is also designed to reduce odor that has accumulated in baselayers through repeated usage, but it’s prime objective is to restore your gear’s original wicking and softness. The timing for testing this was perfect too, for thanks to the West Yellowstone Ski Festival training camp, business travel and another trip back to West for a biathlon race, a certain someone had not done laundry in quite some time.
I was reluctant to use the Toko treatment on DeFUNKit treated clothes, as any good scientist learns very early in their career to “Never cross the streams.” The concern here is that I didn’t want the success or failure of one product to influence that of another and since all of you weirdos out there are apparently starved for regular updates on my underwear, a long-term DeFUNKit test is now also underway, so we’re going to keep these two test completely separate.
Not “crossing the streams” wasn’t a problem either. Since I’ve been traveling for about a month and observant readers will recall that we had control groups in the smell testing protocol, I had no shortage of smelly, non-DeFUNKit treated clothing which was put to the Toko test.
As much as I would love to spend eight more pages going into excruciating details of this entire process, a plethora of colorful smell references, and thinly veiled swipes at Dan Weiland’s social skills (no pun intended), my editors have threatened to kill me if I repeat that performance, so this review is going to be much more brief. (Get it, BRIEFS … damn, I’m hilarious.)
Does it work? Yes. Since my evil overlords at FasterSkier will have nervous breakdowns if I launch into another FBD sex-and-smell rant, I’m going to keep it simple here. Overall, even well-worn baselayers did emerge from the laundry feeling softer. The clock was really ticking on this one, so in the interest of full disclosure it is important to note that I was only able to get in one ski in the newly treated clothing, but the wicking properties most assuredly did indeed feel better. By design, I picked a very old, beaten up Craft top and undie combo, so the potential for improvement was substantial. We don’t yet have any data on the effects of this wash treatment on newer clothing, but in my mind this is somewhat analogous to washing an already clean car. If your base layers are still wicking like new, is there any point to applying a treatment that will restore their performance to “like new?” Ya follow?
So once again, here I am rolling around in the dirt in order to help all of you help smell better. That’s OK though, as there are many worse things to have thrust upon you (insert your own ‘thrust joke’ here). Available at TokoUS.com.
No self-respecting skier starts their day without a cup of coffee. In my travels around the globe with some of the world’s best skiers, I’ve also noticed a correlation between ski speed and amount of energy expended preparing said coffee. If I’m staying at someone’s house and I see them embarking on a 45-minute process to grow, roast, grind, press, steam, aerate, and serve coffee, I am immediately on high alert that the day’s ski will likely be fast. If they spend 15 more minutes explaining why they’re preparing it JUST this way and why this way is so much better, I know I am most likely in for a tough day.
While good coffee is better than bad coffee, bad coffee is still better than spilled coffee, so I am going to recommend the single best vessel to transport your liquid gold. I’m going on four years of use and testing with this particular model and have had so much success that frequent copycat and worshiper of FBD style, Josh Smullin, FINALLY went out and got one of these of his own after years of attempt to steal mine. Available at Amazon.
I don’t know if there is any bigger drag than flying to a race or a training camp only to discover that your gear was damaged en route. Thanks to the gorilla-like baggage handlers on a few of my “favorite” domestic airlines, I’ve suffered damage to skis, boots, poles, you name it. High-end carbon racing poles are particularly susceptible to breakage, as while they can withstand significant vertical loading, (even though I can, and do, ski “through them”), they are extremely fragile laterally and are easily damaged with this type of force vector. The solution? Never, ever travel without a pole tube. One of the other staffers picked this as well and it got thrown in on Day 3, but my description is much funnier and it important that my loyal fans know that my official stamp of approval is hereby placed upon this recommendation. Buy it where we told you on Day 3.
Look around any World Cup venue and you’ll see more of these bags than any other on both coaches and athletes alike? Why? Because this baby holds more crap and organizes your ski gear better than anything else out there. Available at TokoUS.com.
This pick is a little kooky (but you’re a nordic skier, so you are as well) and yeah, most of you aren’t ever going to actually use this, but for those that do, greatness shall be bestowed upon you. Available at Boulder Nordic Sport.
World-class skiers using the mountable Ercolina Poling Machine, including French biathlete Martin Fourcade (l), Austrian long-distance skier Katerina Smutna (top right), and Norwegian long-distance skier Petter Eliassen. (Photos: Boulder Nordic Sport)
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If you’re wondering how the hell we got here, or you just love my beautifully crafted preamble so much that you revisit every day before heading off to face the challenges of the working world, the introduction and backstory can be found here. If unlike most of America, you actually spend you time at work, working, you may have missed some of the previous days and they can be found here: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7
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