Pump It Up

So I'm driving to REI to look at collar heights on Backpacking boots - I know, who really does that on a Friday night besides footwear developers - and I see an Indian restaurant. One of the hardest things about living in places like Paonia, Crested Butte, and Salida is the absence of Indian food. So I'm stoked. I'm smiling really big and I turn to drive past it just to make sure I remember where it is. I circle around the block to get back onto N. 19th street, headed toward the highway exit and big box stores and I catch a flash out of the corner of my eye. It's a kid launching himself into the air on a dirt-jumper. Not only did I find Indian food, I found a cultural center of bike sub-culture. I walk up and start talking to the riders who are MSU students. I figured they'd either brush me off or wonder what the old guy is doing at the pump track without a bike; but, as people who ride bikes generally are, they were all super friendly. They asked me where I'm from and I said Crested Butte and had instant credibility and was granted temporary, peripheral bro-ness. These guys were destroying it with a really fluid style - tail whips, creative lines, and soft landings. They told me about some downhill trails outside of town. It's a scenario that is universal to mountain towns where the guy starts talking and all the other guys looks at him like he's crazy to give away the goods. He hesitates, sizes me up, and offers up the name of a trail - Leverage Canyon - and then stops short after saying something like "there's some other cool stuff around if you look for it". I'll have to spend some time here before they tell me where the real goods are. All the way to REI I envisioned a pump track session followed by some Tikka Masala, then spinning home on a Shonky in a ridiculously low gear with the saddle all the way down.





I get to REI and spend some time scoping out shoes. It's funny how all the brands "borrow" from each other. Not a lot of innovation out there. I did see some very interesting stuff though. Teva has some beautiful women's autumn boots - calf high, nice full grain leathers, beautiful patterns. Something about them felt very familiar when I realized they were almost identical to what we were doing at Ulu before they got bought out - with the cork/EVA midsole even. Hmmm. TNF has a shoe called the Snow Sneaker that is very cool. The upper is similar to a standard 5.10 or Patagonia causual/outdoor upper, but it has aggressive, spike like outsole lugs (without being clunky), a burly textured toe bumper, and 100g Primaloft insulation - all without being bulky. It looks like a normal shoe, but it's a winterized tenni. On top of it all the quarter has a beautifully executed way of incorporating a pattern split (pattern splits are used to reduce material usage but are often hidden under other pieces or are just exposed and look ugly). Man, I try to hate that brand, but with products like that it's difficult.